The status of animal welfare practices among poultry farmer’s in Uganda

Abstract

Uganda’s population has increased drastically over the last 10 years, from 17.9 to 41.6 million people increasing the demand for animal products. Consequently, farmers intensified production changing from free range, to cages and deep litter management systems which is likely to compromise the welfare of poultry. This study aimed to assesses the status of animal welfare among layer poultry farms in Kampala and Wakiso districts. Data from 32 deep litter poultry farms, with birds above 3 months of age was collected using a questionnaire to assess farmer’s attitudes and practices, and a checklist to score the infrastructure and behavior of the flocks in reference to the five freedoms of animal welfare. Results indicated that 6 from locally available material whereas 7.3 % of farmers provide perches, de 49 signed % of the farms reported vices such as 3.9 cannibalism, vent pecking and egg eating. Assessment of the litter quality showed that 4 % of the farms had solid and caked litter. Biosecurity was a major concern because 46 .9 % had no functional house unit foot baths while 71.4 % prepared no protective attire including overall and gumboots for farm workers. For disease control, only access to a 95.9 % had veterinarian. Remarkably, all farms had flocks which were vaccinate d. Water and feed were provided although the source of the feeds and water was variable according to the farms. 40.8 % of the farms had no feed relied on the expertise of the managers ( 32.7 program %), veterinarians (2 6 . 5 and those that had, ) and feed ingredient suppliers ( 22.4 %) to formulate. In 83.6% of the farms, nest boxes were provided although no provision was made to block direct light from the environment. Practices such as de-beaking were performed by a veterinarian on 6 re 5 . 3 % of the farms while the st of the farms had their own staff to do it. In summary, the farms visited so far attempted to provide feed, care, disease control and access of poultry to exercise which are good indicators of proper animal welfare. Measures to ensure freedom from hunger and thirst were the most practiced. Nevertheless, glaring loop holes were identified in biosecurity underscoring the need for sensitization training on the importance of animal welfare in optimizing production