Behaviour of domestic ducks exposed to mobile predator stimuli. 1. Flock responses

Welfare of ducks, geese and quail on farm

This Scientific Opinion concerns the welfare of Domestic ducks (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus), Muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata domesticus) and their hybrids (Mule ducks), Domestic geese (Anser anser f. domesticus) and Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) in relation to the rearing of breeders, birds for meat, Muscovy and Mule ducks and Domestic geese for foie gras and layer Japanese quail for egg production. The most common husbandry systems (HSs) in the European Union are described for each animal species and category. The following welfare consequences are described and assessed for each species: restriction of movement, injuries (bone lesions including fractures and dislocations, soft tissue lesions and integument damage and locomotory disorders including lameness), group stress, inability to perform comfort behaviour, inability to perform exploratory or foraging behaviour and inability to express maternal behaviour (related to prelaying and nesting behaviours). Animal-based measures relevant for the assessment of these welfare consequences were identified and described. The relevant hazards leading to the welfare consequences in the different HSs were identified. Specific factors such as space allowance (including minimum enclosure area and height) per bird, group size, floor quality, characteristics of nesting facilities and enrichment provided (including access to water to fulfil biological needs) were assessed in relation to the welfare consequences and, recommendations on how to prevent the welfare consequences were provided in a quantitative or qualitative way.

Prototype Development of Small Mobile Robots for Mallard Navigation in Paddy Fields: Toward Realizing Remote Farming

This study was conducted to develop robot prototypes of three models that navigate mallards to achieve high-efficiency rice-duck farming. We examined two robotics navigation approaches based on imprinting and feeding. As the first approach, we used imprinting applied to baby mallards. They exhibited follow behavior to our first prototype after imprinting. Experimentally obtained observation results revealed the importance of providing imprinting immediately up to one week after hatching. As another approach, we used feed placed on the top of our second prototype. Experimentally obtained results showed that adult mallards exhibited wariness not only against the robot, but also against the feeder. After relieving wariness with provision of more than one week time to become accustomed, adult mallards ate feed in the box on the robot. However, they ran away immediately at a slight movement. Based on this confirmation, we developed the third prototype as an autonomous mobile robot aimed for mallard navigation in a paddy field. The body width is less than the length between rice stalks. After checking the waterproof capability of a body waterproof box, we conducted an indoor driving test for manual operation. Moreover, we conducted outdoor evaluation tests to assess running on an actual paddy field. We developed indoor and outdoor image datasets using an onboard monocular camera. For the outdoor image datasets, our segmentation method based on SegNet achieved semantic segmentation for three semantic categories. For the indoor image datasets, our prediction method based on CNN and LSTM achieved visual prediction for three motion categories.

A review on animal-robot interaction: from bio-hybrid organisms to mixed societies

Living organisms are far superior to state-of-the-art robots as they have evolved a wide number of capabilities that far encompass our most advanced technologies. The merging of biological and artificial world, both physically and cognitively, represents a new trend in robotics that provides promising prospects to revolutionize the paradigms of conventional bio-inspired design as well as biological research. In this review, a comprehensive definition of animal-robot interactive technologies is given. They can be at animal level, by augmenting physical or mental capabilities through an integrated technology, or at group level, in which real animals interact with robotic conspecifics. Furthermore, an overview of the current state of the art and the recent trends in this novel context is provided. Bio-hybrid organisms represent a promising research area allowing us to understand how a biological apparatus (e.g. muscular and/or neural) works, thanks to the interaction with the integrated technologies. Furthermore, by using artificial agents, it is possible to shed light on social behaviours characterizing mixed societies. The robots can be used to manipulate groups of living organisms to understand self-organization and the evolution of cooperative behaviour and communication.

Transport-induced mortality in Pekin ducks transported for slaughter in the Czech Republic

Data on the numbers of Pekin ducks transported to slaughterhouses between 2009 and 2014 and the numbers of ducks that died during these transports were recorded in cooperation with the State Veterinary Administration of the Czech Republic. In the monitored period, a total of 12,327,017 ducks were transported, of which 9,545 (0.077%) died. The levels of transport-related mortality over these years varied significantly (P < 0.001); the lowest mortality was observed in 2011 (0.059%) and the highest in 2013 (0.089%). The impact of distance on transport-related mortality in ducks was demonstrated. The lowest transport-related mortality (0.052%) was found for distances shorter than 50 km. It was significantly (P < 0.001) lower than the mortality rates connected with longer journeys. The greatest mortality rates were found for transport distances of 101–200 km (0.105%). In addition, the season of the year significantly affected transport-related mortality in Pekin ducks. The highest death losses were found in the summer (0.090%). Death losses of ducks connected with summer transports were significantly higher (P < 0.001) in comparison with transport-related mortality rates in any other season of the year. The lowest death losses were found in duck transports carried out in the autumn and winter (0.069% and 0.072%, respectively) with no significant difference between those two seasons. Shortening transport distances and maintaining a suitable micro-climate inside transport vehicles especially in the summer are thus two important factors that can contribute to reducing transport-related mortality in Pekin ducks in commercial practice.

Consumer demand under commercial husbandry conditions: practical advice on measuring behavioural priorities in captive animals

In recent years, consumer demand studies have been used to objectively quantify the value that captive animals place on environmental resources. Considerable progress has been made in the development of effective methodologies to assess what resources are valued under controlled experimental conditions, but few of the findings from these studies have been implemented in commercial husbandry systems. A major obstacle has been the need to maintain internal validity in experimental studies at the possible expense of external validity. Experimental subjects may be poor representatives of commercially kept animals, especially where there is no replication of the animal's experience of commercial physical and social environments. This paper will discuss means of increasing the external validity of consumer demand studies. Firstly, experimental animals should be of representative genotypes, reared under commercial conditions and housed in test apparatus with free access to all of the resources that are normally available under commercial husbandry conditions. As well as providing a long-term closed economy, this allows manipulation of potentially important environmental factors such as prior experience. Secondly, naturalistic tasks should, where possible, be used in preference to abstract operant tasks since they appear to be easier to train animals to associate with rewarding resources, therefore many individuals can be investigated efficiently. Furthermore, naturalistic tasks appear to be less prone to operant bias than artificial tasks and can provide robust measures of value in terms of the maximum price paid for access to resources. Finally, for group-housed species, social costs such as enduring higher stocking densities and/or competition for resources may be an effective means of investigating cost-benefit trade-offs under commercial conditions. For example, if animals work to evenly distribute themselves over available space, this social spacing priority can be used to investigate whether they will endure higher stocking densities in order to exploit particular resources.

Behaviour of domestic ducks exposed to mobile predator stimuli. 2. The association of individual duckling attributes with relative position in a flock

1. We investigated whether an individual duckling's (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) attributes were associated with its response to an approaching human when it was a member of one of three flocks of 12. 2. Each individual was scored according to its response to (i) an approaching human when alone and feeding, (ii) a taxidermist's model fox when alone and feeding, and (iii) an approaching human when alone in a 9 m annulus, and its nearest neighbour distance in the home pen, competitiveness for food in a series of paired encounters, running ability and physical characteristics. 3. Each flock was herded around a 7 m diameter annulus in separate trials by a human walking at 0.5ms(-1). The distance maintained by each duckling from the human, and hence its relative flock position, was calculated. 4. Individual flight distance maintained from an approaching human when alone in an annulus was the attribute that predicted distance maintained from an approaching human when part of a flock. 5. Some ducklings had reduced average distances from an approaching human when they were in a flock compared to when they were tested alone, and inter-individual variation in distance from the human was greatly reduced when birds were part of a flock.