MobiWohl

Laying hens in mobile barns: Opportunity or risk for animal welfare, market and public acceptance? (Project "MobiWohl") - Animal welfare sub-project

The joint project "MobiWohl", funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and carried out by the Universities of Kassel and Göttingen and the Landesbetrieb Landwirtschaft Hessen (LLH), dealt with the question of whether keeping laying hens in mobile houses represents an opportunity or a risk for animal welfare, market acceptance and public acceptance. To answer this question, animal welfare indicators were recorded over a period of two years on 42 laying hen farms (22 x conventional and 20 x organic) in various mobile laying hen houses of different sizes (160 to 2,000 hens) with different designs using the MTool© at six-monthly intervals. In addition, resource and management data were collected in order to identify possible risks for animal welfare problems or prevention strategies. On average, the investigations identified some, but not all, animal welfare problems to a lesser extent than reported from stationary husbandry. This mainly concerns the widespread problem of the behavioral disorders feather pecking and cannibalism and is probably largely due to attractive green runs and smaller group sizes. Sternum damage and head injuries occurred to a greater extent in some of the flocks and were not below the prevalence in stationary housing systems. Herds with more or less good animal welfare status were found in all types of mobile housing. The potential of mobile barns for improved animal welfare can only be realized with the appropriate expertise and appropriate farm-specific management that can also successfully deal with the specific challenges of mobile barn housing. The freely available practical guide developed in this project (https://goto.uni-kassel.de/go/Leitfaden-Mobiwohl) is intended to help farms gain an overview of the animal welfare status in their herds and adapt their management in order to sustainably improve animal welfare by providing recommendations and examples of best practice. In addition, the guide provides valuable information and assistance on which aspects need to be considered in the course of successful marketing. These include tips on pricing, market segmentation and positioning strategies as well as possible approaches to sales problems, for example.

Publications

Andraczek, A. (2021): What does a happy chicken need? Kassel scientists want to improve mobile poultry houses. Article in the Witzenhäuser Allgemeine Zeitung, 09.12.2021.

German Press Agency (2022): Impetus for the agricultural turnaround. Article in the Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine and the Gießener Allgemeine, 27.01.2022.

Dorkewitz, K.; Niemeyer, L.L.; Gieseke, D.; Knierim, U. (2022): Reliability and practicability of established methods to assess the human-animal relationship and general reactivity of laying hens in mobile housing. KTBL publication - Current work on species-appropriate animal husbandry 11530, KTBL, Darmstadt, 122-132.

Dorkewitz, K.; Lang, N. (2023): Animal welfare management in mobile laying hen husbandry. Project MobiWohl: Laying hens in mobile houses - opportunity or risk for animal welfare, market and public acceptance? Article in the conference reader for the 27th Bioland Poultry Conference. February 28 to March 02, 2023 in Tambach-Dietharz, 13-15.

Knierim, U.; Dorkewitz, K.; Gieseke, D. (2024): Animal health in mobile housing systems for laying hens - MobiWohl. Proceedings of the 12th Leipzig Veterinary Congress, January 18-20, 2024, 303-305.

Dorkewitz, K.; Gieseke, D.; Knierim, U.; Lang, N.; Keppler, C. (2024): Animal welfare in mobile laying hen husbandry - Results from the project Laying hens in mobile houses: Opportunity or risk for animal welfare, market and public acceptance? (MobiWohl). Article in the conference reader for the 28th Bioland Poultry Conference. February 27-29, 2024 in Bonn, 19-20.

Dorkewitz, K.; Gieseke, D.; Keppler, C.; Knierim, U. (2024): Laying hens in mobile barns - opportunity or risk for animal welfare? Proceedings, 17th Scientific Conference on Organic Farming. March 5 to 8, 2024 in Giessen, 333-334.

Dorkewitz, K.; Gieseke, D.; Knierim, U.; Bühner, C.; Kühl, S.; Spiller, A.; Lang, N.; Keppler, C. (2024): Added value mobile barn. Is keeping laying hens in a mobile barn really the best thing from an animal welfare perspective? And will the expensive eggs even be bought in the end? DGS magazine for the poultry industry 04/2024, 36-38.

Dorkewitz, K.; Horbach, S.; Gieseke, D.; Knierim, U. (2024): Mobile barn - a chance for more animal welfare? Badische Bauern Zeitung, No. 31, August 3, 2024, 26-27.

Dorkewitz, K.; Horbach, S.; Gieseke, D.; Knierim, U.; Bühner, C.; Garrelfs, I. (2024): Mobile laying hen husbandry - opportunity or risk? Badische Zeitung, September 2024.

Dorkewitz, K.; Gieseke, D.; Knierim, U. (2024): Mobile laying hen husbandry out of conviction? - Connections between attitudes towards animals, the human-animal relationship and animal-related indicators (contribution to ethology conference in Freiburg).