Use of enrichment in broiler

Providing broiler farms with effective environmental enrichments, meaning those capable of stimulating interest and being genuinely used by the animals, can promote the expression of species-specific behaviours, increase locomotor activity, and improve opportunities for exploration and occupation, thereby contributing to animal welfare. The assessment of the effectiveness of environmental enrichments is included, either directly or indirectly, in several welfare assessment protocols. However, these tools are generally designed to evaluate the overall welfare of the farm through animal-based, resource-based, and management-based indicators, and do not always allow for a specific assessment of environmental enrichments. EURCAW-Poultry-SFA has developed a specific protocol for assessing environmental enrichments in broilers. However, further investigation is still needed to define assessment methods that are more efficient, reliable, and applicable to different housing systems.