Broilers welfare, health and production in organic and conventional systems.

Summary

Animal welfare, product quality and organic or niche production system rise to more and more interest. Organic farming has grown rapidly in European and Italian agriculture during the last decade. The aim of the trial was to compare five organic and five conventional broiler farms from the productive, health and behavioural point of view. The productive performance showed that conventional broilers (CB) consumed significantly less feed then organic broilers (OB) and the first got a better FCR.. These different figures could be due to the different environment and life style. OB are more exposed to natural climate, they can move much more and then they increase feed consumption and FCR become worsen.
The different age at slaughter determined the significant difference observed for the final body weight of 2.943±0.2 CB vs 4.486±0.2 of OB (P=0.0003). The same trend was observed for carcass and chest weight. The first weighed 3.530±0.2 g for CB vs 4.410±0.2 for OB (P=0.01) and the second 2.450±0.15 for CB and 3.150±0.15 for OB (P= 0.01).
The mortality was similar and the main cause was SDS related to genetic factors.
From the behavioural point of view the result might indicate that less intensive farming and the presence of an enriched environment, as in organic farming, seems to promote a better adaptation of animals, both to the environment and to man presence, ensuring better welfare conditions.