Under Section 11(8) of the Animal Welfare Act, poultry farmers are required to regularly record and analyse animal-related characteristics within their flocks. But which indicators in the house provide information on animal health and behaviour?

To assist with this, the KTBL published a guide in 2016 on indicator collection for farmers of pullets, laying hens, broiler chickens and broiler turkeys. Questions such as ‘Is the system applicable in practice?’ and ‘When should results be classified as good or bad?’ remained unanswered at first, however.

The EiKoTiGer (Self-monitoring of Animal Welfare) project has now addressed these issues. In this interview, Dr Daniel Gieseke (Department of Farm Animal Behaviour and Animal Husbandry, University of Kassel) discusses his work on the project. He reports on the system’s practical applicability, evaluation methods, and its advantages and disadvantages, whilst also providing insights into his collaboration with poultry farmers.