@article{alig_malheiros_anderson_2023, title={Evaluation of Physical Egg Quality Parameters of Commercial Brown Laying Hens Housed in Five Production Systems}, volume={13}, ISSN={["2076-2615"]}, url={https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/4/716}, DOI={10.3390/ani13040716}, abstractNote={Simple Summary Avian welfare has become a highly debated issue for many activist groups and legislators over the past several years. Recently, the EU and several US states have banned the use of traditional cage environments. Therefore, it is important for producers and researchers to understand how this shift toward extensive environments will affect the quality of eggs being produced. The objective of this study was to identify how the five most used environments (cages, barren colony cages, enriched colony cages, cage-free, and free-range) affects the egg quality of brown egg layers (shell color, Haugh unit, yolk color, vitelline membrane, and shell strength). This study found that free-range eggs had superior egg quality parameters while, in most cases, eggs from both colony cages had inferior quality parameters. It was also found that both barren and enriched colony cages were not different in production parameters, indicating that simply adding enrichments to a cage environment will not change egg quality. This information shows that, as the egg industry moves toward greater adoption of extensive environments, egg quality will improve for brown egg layers, possibly allowing some of the costs to be offset. Abstract This study evaluates the effect of housing environment on the egg quality characteristics of brown egg layers as many different environments are currently used in the industry. Battery cages, barren colony cages, enriched colony cages, cage-free, and free-range environments were evaluated. Overall, all egg quality measurements were affected by housing environment (p < 0.01) except for vitelline membrane strength, elasticity, and egg solids. Eggshells and yolks were lightest in barren colony cages and darkest from free-range hens (p < 0.0001). Free-range eggs were heavier than eggs from all other environments (p < 0.0001). Cage-free eggs had lower albumen height and Haugh units than other environments (p < 0.0001). Lastly, cage-free and free-range eggs had stronger eggshells than the other environments (p < 0.0001), and free-range eggs had more elastic eggshells than eggs from conventional battery cages and barren colony cages (p < 0.01). Access to the range seemed to give free-range hens different nutritional advantages, which allowed for the darker yolks and shells. Furthermore, eggs from barren colony cages seemed to exhibit more negative characteristics. Simply adding enrichments to colony cages did not improve or detract from egg quality. From this research, it appears that, as the industry moves toward extensive environments, the egg quality of brown egg layers will improve.}, number={4}, journal={ANIMALS}, author={Alig, Benjamin N. and Malheiros, Ramon D. and Anderson, Kenneth E.}, year={2023}, month={Feb} }
 @article{alig_ferket_malheiros_anderson_2023, title={The Effect of Housing Environment on Commercial Brown Egg Layer Production, USDA Grade and USDA Size Distribution}, volume={13}, ISSN={["2076-2615"]}, DOI={10.3390/ani13040694}, abstractNote={Simple Summary Over the past several years, consumer preference has shown a trend towards better perceived welfare environments for the animals away from price. The egg industry is adjusting to this shift. The aim of our study was to determine differences in production from brown egg layers in various housing environments to better understand how these hens respond. We found that commercial brown egg layers had optimum performance parameters in extensive environments such as free-range, whereas brown egg layers in intensive environments, such as barren colony cages, did not perform well. This information shows us that it is ill-advised to house brown egg layers in conventional cages or barren colony cages, as these hens performed better in environments with enrichments such as enriched colony cages or the free-range environment. Abstract Consumer demand for retail cage-free eggs is driving the layer industry towards greater use of extensive housing environments. However, there is limited research on how these environments affect egg production characteristics of brown egg layers, as was the focus of this study. Five housing environments were evaluated under typical industry conditions, including conventional cages, enrichable colony cages, enriched colony cages, cage-free and free-range. Three different brown egg laying strains were housed in the different housing environments and managed according to standard husbandry practices and stocking densities. Data collection for the strains began at 17 weeks of age, with a base period of 28 days for feed weigh backs and egg quality assessments. Housing environment had a highly significant (p < 0.0001) effect on all egg production characteristics measured, including egg production rates (% hen-day and % hen-housed), feed consumption (g/bird/day), feed conversion (egg g/feed g), and mortality rate (%) as well as percent grade A, B, and loss. Previous research revealed better egg production metrics for white egg layers in caged environments than extensive environments. In contrast, we observed brown egg layers had optimum production results for the free-range housing environments, and the poorest performance in enrichable colony cages.}, number={4}, journal={ANIMALS}, author={Alig, Benjamin N. and Ferket, Peter R. and Malheiros, Ramon D. and Anderson, Kenneth E.}, year={2023}, month={Feb} }