Cannibalism in poultry and methods to prevent it

The paper analyzes the main causes of cannibalism and methods to prevent it in poultry. Cannibalism leads to considerable economic losses of poultry enterprises, since its manifestations do not depend on poultry number, species and conditions of housing. Excessive stocking density, changes in hierarchal group structure, adding new individuals, deviation from normative indexes of micro-climate and light intensity are initial causes of cannibalism. At first poultry feel discomfort, evolving into concern, aggression and hysteria and later – into pecking and feather-plucking. Producers pay much attention to unconventional feed supplements of natural origin. The research results show that changes in stocking density and adding 5 g/head of shells to mixed fodder of the poultry of the research groups made it possible to increase productivity and have a positive impact on egg quality. The productivity of the second group was 1428 pieces that was by 138 pieces higher than that of the first research group and by 309 pieces – than that of the test group. Clinical observation at the end of the research showed that the appearance of some chickens of the second research group improved, the lost feather was renewed and shining down appeared. The research establishes that availability of shells in feeds meets poultry demand for a pecking reflex and has an effect of additional “business”. Such a preventing measure contributes to balancing general poultry conditions, reducing aggression, hysteria, cannibalism and maintaining poultry stocks.