Comfort behaviour in harco strain of cockerels with different drinkers and at different periods ofthe day (short communication)

There was no significant effect of type of drinkers on comfort behaviour (acts/bird/hour). There was, however, a significant effect of time of day on comfort behaviour. The most comfort behaviour was performed in the afternoon being 35.5, 39.5 and 34.0 for BD, CD and FD groups respectively. There was no difference in comfort behaviour (acts/bird/hour) in the rnoming and evenings being 26.6 vs28.32 in the morning and evening, and 28.96 vs. 25.36 in the morning and evening for CD and FD groups respectively. However the mean acts/bird/hour was significantly different in the morning and evening in BD group, being 23.5 vs. 27.96 for morning and evening respectively (p<0.05).


Introduction
Information regarding the application of poultry behaviour to effective poultry management in Nigeria is very scarce, yet such information is needed to fully understand how birds fare in a variety of management practices currently in use.Much advancement in recent years has been witnessed in automation of poultry houses and birds are more or less forced to fit into designs rather than the design to meet the birds needs.Comfort behaviours have been identified as behaviours that bird exhibit to enhance their comfort ability (MAULDIN, 1992).Observations have shown that the levels to which birds exhibit this behaviour are affected by the type of housing and the time of the day (TARNAKA and HURNIK, 1992).It has also been observed that water is supplied to poultry in rural areas in a variety of Containers, and since the poultry in the rural areas in Nigeria constitute about 80% of the national total (Adegbola, 1990) the welfare ofthe poultry in these areas will have a significant impact on the national flock.In such an uncontrolled environment to which birds are exposed in the tropics, the levels to which birds perform comfort behaviours at various times ofthe day need to be studied.Accordingly, this study was designed to study the effect of different types of drinkers and at different times ofthe day on the comfort behaviour of poultry.

Material and methods
A total of two hundred and fifty-two four-weeks old cockerels of Harco strain were used for this study.They were brooded at the brooding house at Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University premises.At day-old, birds were randomly assigned to three groups based on the type of drinkers used, namely the bamboo drinker (BD) group in which water was supplied in Containers made from bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris).Group II was the clay pot (CD) group in which water was supplied in clay pots purchased from local pottery.Group III was the fountain drinker (FD) group in which water was supplied in conventional plastic fountain drinkers.The birds were kept in a deep litter house in which environmental condition was subjected to diurnal pattern, the average temperature during the period of the experiment was 28.5C in the afternoon.Behaviour observations were made on a daily basis in the morning at 0800 hours, afternoon at 1300 hours and evening at 1800 hours (all at GMT, GMT = Greenwich Mean Time)).At each Observation period, when the observer entered the pens, the door were shut and the birds were given five minutes to adjust to the presence of the observer.Each replicate was then observed for 5 minutes anon records were kept for each oecurrence of dust-bathing, preening, head shaking and head scratching as defined by MAULDIN (1992).The data collected on behaviour was subjected to a two-way analysis of variance as outlined by SNEDECOR and COCHRAN (1966).Significance was tested at p<0.05.New Duncan's multiple ränge test was used to separate the means that were significantly different (DUNCAN, 1955).

Results
Table I shows the total number of comfort behaviour observed during a 5-week period.Overall, the largest number of total comfort behaviour was observed in the CD group followed by FD and BD groups being 3089, 2326 and 2216 for CD, FD and BD group respectively.Preening was the most frequently observed comfort behaviours in all the groups.Dust bathing was the least frequently observed behaviour, the average being It "J J? 8 TJ! S -The 0CCurTence ^the comfort behaviours at different periods ofthe day did not follow a definite pattern.It appears, though, that the least oecurrence ot dust bathing occurred during the morning while the most occurred in the afternoon except in the BD group where the greatest oecurrences was in the evening.In all the groups, the most oecurrence of head scratching was in the afternoon.There was, however, a statistically significant effect of time of day on comfort acts/bird/hour (p<0.05) the greatest being performed in the afternoon, except in the CD and FD groups where comfort acts performed in the morning were not different from that observed in the evenings.Table III shows the trend exhibited by birds in total comfort acts/bird/20 mins as the birds grew from 4 to 8 weeks ofthe life.There was an apparent tendency of comfort acts/bird/20 mins to increase with age, r being 0.23, 0.85 and 0.22 in BD CD and FD groups respectively.The regression coefficient (b) was 0.09, 0.33 and 0 09 in BD CD and FD groups respectively.The regression values were not statistically significant (p>0.05).° The prediction equations for comfort acts with age yield the following: Y=1.77 + 0.09X Y=1.22 + 0.329X Y = 2.22 + 0.09X For BD, CD and FD groups respectively.

Discussion
The significant effect of the time of the day on comfort behaviour is consistent with observations in literature.Birds engaged in more comfort behaviour in the afternoon than morning and evening.TARNAKA and HURNIK (1992) drew the same conclusion.This might be associated with diurnal changes in temperature.During the afternoon, the temperature in the pens was on the average 30.5Cwhich was 2C higher than in the morning.Evidently, birds at such higher temperature would be expected to engage more in comfort behaviour as this is a way of facilitating their comfort ability (MAULDIN, 1992).This Observation has implication in birds housed either in cage or deep litter as used in this study.Observations have shown that bird performed more comfort behaviours in aviaries than in cages (ELSON, 1980;TARNAKA and HURNIK, 1992).This might be attributed to the fact that cages are unnatural to birds as compared to aviary.Thus, in hot tropical environment where environmental conditions of pens are largely uncontrolled, when birds are unable to engage in behaviour that facilitate their comfort during the unfavourable afternoon hours, this might have serious consequences on their growth Performance and production.There was a tendency for comfort acts to increase with age and then start to decline.Overall, as birds grew older, there was no significant effect of age on comfort behaviour (p>0.05).Study of LEE and CRAIG (1981) did not include the age of birds per se, but they observed that social ranking had no significant effect on comfort behaviour like preening and grooming.This Observation is of interest since birds fix themselves into social ranks as they grow older (SIEGEL, 1984;CRAIG, 1992) However, since social ranking which is a function of age of the birds had no significant effect on preening, this can lead to the conclusion that age of birds should have no significant effect on preening.Interestingly, preening constituted about 75% ofthe total comfort behaviours observed in this study.
From this study, the fact emerges that a study of behaviours in general, and comfort behaviour in particular is essential in effective management practice, a conclusion that was drawn by NICOL (1989) and ELSON (1990).This is especially so in the tropics where environmental temperature can rise to a level that is not comfortable for birds.Inability of birds in such situations to engage in comfort behaviours can have serious imphcations on their welfare.

Table
II shows the actual comfort acts/bird/hour in all the groups.There was no Statistical significant effect of type of drinker on comfort acts/bird/hour (p>0 05))