Improving hen welfare on cage-free egg farms in Asia: Egg producers’ perspectives
There is a trend towards the adoption of cage-free housing systems in the egg industry across Asia. While cage-free housing systems can hold significant animal welfare advantages over cages, there can also be challenges in managing these systems. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the persp...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Animal Welfare |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0962728623000854/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1797677045507948544 |
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| author | Kate Hartcher Jayasimha Nuggehalli Qing Yang Maria Catalina T. de Luna Ali Agus Shuichi Ito Zulkifli Idrus Iman H.S. Rahayu Jutamart Jattuchai Kris Descovich Elissa Lane Michelle Sinclair |
| author_facet | Kate Hartcher Jayasimha Nuggehalli Qing Yang Maria Catalina T. de Luna Ali Agus Shuichi Ito Zulkifli Idrus Iman H.S. Rahayu Jutamart Jattuchai Kris Descovich Elissa Lane Michelle Sinclair |
| author_sort | Kate Hartcher |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There is a trend towards the adoption of cage-free housing systems in the egg industry across Asia. While cage-free housing systems can hold significant animal welfare advantages over cages, there can also be challenges in managing these systems. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the perspectives of egg producers on the main challenges and proposed solutions associated with cage-free systems in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Cage-free producers found disease prevention and maintaining a healthy profit margin more difficult than producers from cage farms, while it was less difficult to provide environmental enrichment in cage-free systems compared to cage farms. The top challenges for cage-free producers were the cost of production, system management, disease, sales, and egg production, and the top proposed solution was to improve on-farm practices and efficiencies. Eighty-one percent of egg producers believed that more support is needed to maintain their farms than is currently available, and support was most needed in helping to improve sales, improve farm operations, lower farm costs, and provide information for producers in the form of education and training. Most responses identified the government as the stakeholder that should offer support. These results may help direct further studies in this field as well as supplying information to develop relevant initiatives with an emphasis on education and training, thereby improving animal welfare on cage-free farms and increasing the uptake of high welfare cage-free farms across the region. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T22:39:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e18d6249058b4e8f8be128a3d06873c1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0962-7286 2054-1538 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T22:39:16Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animal Welfare |
| spelling | doaj.art-e18d6249058b4e8f8be128a3d06873c12023-09-22T09:38:37ZengCambridge University PressAnimal Welfare0962-72862054-15382023-01-013210.1017/awf.2023.85Improving hen welfare on cage-free egg farms in Asia: Egg producers’ perspectivesKate Hartcher0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6279-7922Jayasimha Nuggehalli1Qing Yang2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8394-0644Maria Catalina T. de Luna3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8530-4593Ali Agus4Shuichi Ito5Zulkifli Idrus6Iman H.S. Rahayu7Jutamart Jattuchai8Kris Descovich9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5149-001XElissa LaneMichelle Sinclair10School of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Global Food Partners, SingaporeGlobal Food Partners, SingaporeGlobal Food Partners, Singapore Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, UKUniversity of the Philippines Los Baños, PhilippinesGadjah Mada University, IndonesiaTokai University, JapanInstitute of Tropical Agriculture and Food Security, Universiti Putra Malaysia, MalaysiaBogor Agricultural University, IndonesiaBogor Agricultural University, Indonesia Chulalongkorn University, ThailandSchool of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, AustraliaSchool of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Animal Law & Policy Program, Harvard Law School, USA Humane and Sustainable Food Lab, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United StatesThere is a trend towards the adoption of cage-free housing systems in the egg industry across Asia. While cage-free housing systems can hold significant animal welfare advantages over cages, there can also be challenges in managing these systems. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the perspectives of egg producers on the main challenges and proposed solutions associated with cage-free systems in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Cage-free producers found disease prevention and maintaining a healthy profit margin more difficult than producers from cage farms, while it was less difficult to provide environmental enrichment in cage-free systems compared to cage farms. The top challenges for cage-free producers were the cost of production, system management, disease, sales, and egg production, and the top proposed solution was to improve on-farm practices and efficiencies. Eighty-one percent of egg producers believed that more support is needed to maintain their farms than is currently available, and support was most needed in helping to improve sales, improve farm operations, lower farm costs, and provide information for producers in the form of education and training. Most responses identified the government as the stakeholder that should offer support. These results may help direct further studies in this field as well as supplying information to develop relevant initiatives with an emphasis on education and training, thereby improving animal welfare on cage-free farms and increasing the uptake of high welfare cage-free farms across the region.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0962728623000854/type/journal_articleanimal welfarecage-freeegg producersegg productionlayer henspoultry |
| spellingShingle | Kate Hartcher Jayasimha Nuggehalli Qing Yang Maria Catalina T. de Luna Ali Agus Shuichi Ito Zulkifli Idrus Iman H.S. Rahayu Jutamart Jattuchai Kris Descovich Elissa Lane Michelle Sinclair Improving hen welfare on cage-free egg farms in Asia: Egg producers’ perspectives Animal Welfare animal welfare cage-free egg producers egg production layer hens poultry |
| title | Improving hen welfare on cage-free egg farms in Asia: Egg producers’ perspectives |
| title_full | Improving hen welfare on cage-free egg farms in Asia: Egg producers’ perspectives |
| title_fullStr | Improving hen welfare on cage-free egg farms in Asia: Egg producers’ perspectives |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improving hen welfare on cage-free egg farms in Asia: Egg producers’ perspectives |
| title_short | Improving hen welfare on cage-free egg farms in Asia: Egg producers’ perspectives |
| title_sort | improving hen welfare on cage free egg farms in asia egg producers perspectives |
| topic | animal welfare cage-free egg producers egg production layer hens poultry |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0962728623000854/type/journal_article |
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