Abstract:
When broilers are raised under deep litter system, the type of litter material has
direct impact on production, health, welfare and behaviour of the birds. Paddy husk
(PH) is the most popular litter material used in Sri Lanka. Refused tea (RT) has also
shown to be a promising alternative for PH. The objective of this study was to
determine the effects of above two litter materials on the behavior of broiler
chicken. Twenty one days old broiler chicks were allocated into 10 floor pens
having either PH or RT as litter material. Each pen housed four birds. Birds were
acclimatized for pens and the respective litter material from day 21-34. Behaviour
of the birds was observed three hours per day (2-5 pm), in five consecutive days
from day 35-39. An observer was assigned to each pen and was asked to record the
frequency of and the time spend on eight pre-determined behaviours (eating,
drinking, walking, standing, laying, foraging, feather pecking and inter bird
interactions. Laying was the most obvious behaviour, both on PH (72% of the time
budget) and RT (75% of the time budget). Also, laying was the most frequently
engaged activity on both PH (8 times/hr) and RT (8.4 times /hour). Time spent on
foraging was significantly higher on PH (3.4%) than on RT (1.8%). Meanwhile,
the time budget and the frequency of inter-bird interactions were significantly
higher for the birds raised on RT, compared to those kept on PH. It was concluded
that, RT when used as a litter material for broilers, reduced the time spent on litter
eating while increasing the time spent on and frequency of inter bird interactions.
