ArticlePoultry science2020
Keel fracture changed the behavior and reduced the welfare, production performance, and egg quality in laying hens housed individually in furnished cages.
Article in Poultry science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond the Chicken: Alternative Avian Models for Developmental Physiological Research.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Pooled it
- Variation in cranial and caudal keel bone composition and its association with keel damage severity in laying hens.Poultry science · 2026Article
- Genetics of digital phenotypes of keel bone in layer chickens and correlations with keel bone fractures and deviations.Genetics, selection, evolution : GSE · 2025Article
- Keel Bone Damage in Commercial Laying Hen Hybrids.Veterinary medicine and science · 2025Review
- Understanding the Causes of Keel Bone Damage and Its Effects on the Welfare of Laying Hens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Review
- Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses reveal potential regulatory pathways regulating bone metabolism pre- and postsexual maturity in hens.Poultry science · 2024Article
- Comparisons of longitudinal radiographic measures of keel bones, tibiotarsal bones, and pelvic bones versus post-mortem measures of keel bone damage in Bovans Brown laying hens housed in an aviary system.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
- Effects of Different Auditory Environments on Behavior, Learning Ability, and Fearfulness in 4-Week-Old Laying Hen Chicks.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Differences among domestic chicken breeds in tonic immobility responses as a measure of fearfulness.PeerJ · 2023Article
- Combination of Cinnamaldehyde with Carvacrol or Thymol Improves the Mechanical Properties of Tibia in Post-Peak Laying Hens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Keel bone damage affects behavioral and physiological responses related to stress and fear in two strains of laying hens.Journal of animal science · 2022Article
- Genetic Parameter Estimation and Whole Sequencing Analysis of the Genetic Architecture of Chicken Keel Bending.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Article
- Abnormal Bone Metabolism May Be a Primary Causative Factor of Keel Bone Fractures in Laying Hens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Dietary Soybean Oil Supplementation Affects Keel Bone Characters and Daily Feed Intake but Not Egg Production and Quality in Laying Hens Housed in Furnished Cages.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2021Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Keel fracture has adverse effects on welfare, behavior, health, production performance, and egg quality of laying hens. To investigate this, 90 healthy Lohmann white laying hens with normal keel bones at 17 wk of age (WOA) were used in this study and housed individually in furnished cages. All hens were marked with fractured keel (FK) or normal keel (NK) based on the keel bone status through palpation at 5 time-points (22, 27, 32, 37, and 42 WOA). After the palpation, the behavior was observed for 2 consecutive days at each time-point, and the total number of eggs produced, dirty eggs, broken eggs, and feed intake of FK and NK laying hens were recorded at 27-32, 32-37, and 37-42 WOA, respectively. After each behavioral observation, 10 fresh FK hens and 10 NK hens were randomly selected to determinate the welfare and egg quality. The results showed that the incidences of keel fracture increased with the age of laying hens. Compared with NK hens, the sitting and standing behaviors significantly increased (P < 0.05) while feeding, walking, perching, and jumping behaviors significantly decreased (P < 0.05) in FK hens. There were no significant changes in drinking, preening, comforting, cage pecking, and nesting behaviors between NK and FK hens (P > 0.05). During the experiment period, the egg production rate, body weight, daily feed intake, and eggshell strength, thickness, and weight decreased (P < 0.05) and duration of tonic immobility increased (P < 0.05) in FK hens compared with those in NK hens. At 27-32 WOA, FK hens had significantly elevated broken egg rate (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in the dirty egg rate, egg shape index, protein height, Haugh unit, feather cover score, and toe and foot pad health score (P > 0.05). Therefore, keel fracture in laying hens caused changes in behavior and reduced the welfare, production performance, feed intake, and eggshell quality.
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