Development of innovative scorecard for assessment of welfare and production performance of commercial layer birds reared at different stocking densities in cages

A methodology to assess the welfare of laying birds maintained in cages was developed using innovative scorecard method without compromising the production and economics in Indian scenario. To develop scorecard, specific key parameters such as production, economics, egg quality, welfare and behaviour were considered. The scores for these key parameters were assigned on the basis of the performance of the commercial laying hens maintained in different stocking densities in cages (387, 484, 548 and 645 cm(2)/b) for an experimental period of 20 weeks. The range for each parameter was decided and based on it four groups were formed and the treatment with the best performance received the highest weightage, that is how scoring of each treatment was done according to the range they fitted in. The scoring, weightage and guidelines were devised by Delphi technique, by a panel of national experts from the academics and experts working in the poultry industry. At the end of the experimental period, laying birds maintained at stocking density of 548 cm(2)/b scored the highest weightage with 84 out of total 100; 48 weightage for production and economics, 12 weightage for egg quality and 40 weightage for welfare and behaviour. From all above results, it could be summarized that this innovative scorecard can be used to determine the best performance of laying birds taking welfare into consideration.