Effekten av olika stressorer på open-field beteende hos kycklingar av White Leghorn

Stress affects a number of animals and is a survival mechanism. During stress, changes in the animal’s physiological mechanisms and changes in behavioural reactions will happen. This study evaluates four different stressors that can occur in a chicken’s life. The four stressors are fixation, social isolation, predation and transport. 40 White Leghorn chicken from age sex to seven weeks were used in the study. An open-field test was used to evaluate the stressors. The open-field test registered time for ambulation, time for first change of zones, number of zones used and number of registrations in central zones. The chicken was expected to ambulate in the open-field arena since chickens are curious but the activity was expected to be different depending on which stressor the chicken was exposed to. Previous studies have shown that more stressed birds are less active in an open-field test than birds that are not stressed. A control group was included in the study and this group was not exposed to a stressor. The results did not show any significant dereferences between time for the first change of zones, number of zones used and number of registrations in central zones. However, there was a tendency for a significant difference in time to first ambulation. The results suggested that the control group and the group that was exposed to social isolation displayed most stress-related behaviour. Least stressed was the predation group and the transport group