UK postpones beak trimming ban for hens again

A ban on beak trimming of hens, which was originally foreseen in 2011 and subsequently put back to 2016, has been postponed again following expert advice that a ban would pose too high a risk to hen welfare.
Since 2010, the use of a hot blade to routinely beak trim laying hens has been banned in the UK, farming minister, George Eustice, told the House of Commons in London in reply to a written question recently. In order to prevent injurious feather pecking, use of infra-red technology only is permitted on day-old chicks.
The government established the Beak Trimming Action Group (BTAG) - comprising representatives from industry, welfare groups, retailers, the agriculture ministry (Defra), scientific and veterinary professions - to look at ways birds might be managed so that even infra-red beak trimming would no longer be necessary. Having reviewed all the available evidence, BTAG recently submitted its recommendations.
The minister reported that he has accepted all of the group’s recommendations. BTAG advised that the risks of introducing a ban on infra-red beak trimming are too great. It could result in outbreaks of severe feather pecking and having to employ emergency beak trimming using the hot blade method, which is a far worse outcome from an animal welfare perspective.
BTAG identified improved management techniques that could reduce feather pecking and the Government expects to see these techniques introduced across the laying hen sector, the minister added.
“The NFU has always said that January 2016 would have been too early to introduce a ban on beak trimming,” said National Farmers Union chief poultry adviser, Gary Ford. “We believe that a continuation is in the best welfare interests of laying hens so we are pleased that the Minister has listened to ours and the industry’s concerns.
“The NFU supports and is actively involved in ongoing industry work to better understand what the trigger points are that cause injurious feather pecking. The industry will continue its work with welfare groups, such as RSPCA and CIWF, and Defra in exploring ways in which we can work towards an industry that does not need to rely on beak trimming, but where bird welfare is not compromised,” Ford added.
Animal welfare campaigning organizations, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) have not commented publically on the Minister’s decision.

Selective breeding for social chickens may reduce mortality rates

According to the results of a project headed by Piter Bijma with the Breeding and Genetics Group from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, selective breeding of chickens with an eye towards social conduct may reduce flock mortality by as much as two-thirds, resulting in rates comparable to those when using the beak-trimming method.
Together with researcher Esther Ellen, Bijma studied 1,000 beak-trimmed layers in cages. Total mortality among the chickens was 30% due to aggressive picking, but the per-cage mortality numbers differed. The two researchers took the chickens from the cages with the lowest mortality rates and bred them. After the third selection round, each time taking the most "social" chickens and breeding them, mortality rates had dropped to roughly 12%. "These figures come close to the figures of beak-trimmed layers, where the normal mortality rate is around 10%," said Bijma.
The next research step, according to Bijma and Ellen, is to breed another two generations of layers to see if the mortality rate will continue to fall and possibly reach the 10% number.

UK publishes beak trimming regulations

The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has published a document on poultry beak trimming subsequent to the adoption of welfare regulations, effective Jan. 1. 
For general purposes, chicks can be trimmed before ten days of age using infrared equipment providing that not more than one-third of the beak is removed. Under exceptional conditions, such as when outbreaks of pecking and cannibalism occur, flocks can be beak-trimmed “as a last resort.”
The details of the regulatinos can be accessed here.

Conflict over beak trimming in the UK

The British Egg Information Council has urged legislators to delay imposing the ban on beak trimming beyond the proposed initiation date of January 1, 2011. Compassion in World Farming is actively lobbying the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of the UK government (analogous to the USDA) to not to extend the deadline claiming research studies which show both infra-red and hot blade trimming can cause pain.
In turn, DEFRA, supported by the Farm Animal Welfare Council, claims that welfare benefits from the action would be offset by an increase in pecking and cannibalism, especially as confinement of hens in small-group cages will be phased out in 2012.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, quoting the UK Farmers Weekly, the chief executive of the EIC Mark Williams commented, “In our view, it will not bring welfare benefits to laying hens – indeed, it could have quite the contrary effect.”