The living lab activity foreseen in the INTAQT project is characterised by a participatory approach. Indeed, the goal of this action is to propose on-farm changes able to improve the intrinsic quality traits of the products. The Italian chicken living lab activity’s experimental part was discussed with the University of Perugia, University of Bologna, and Amadori group who was available to conduct it on their farms. The aim of the living lab was to evaluate the enrichment effect of diet and outdoor area on the behaviour and meat quality traits in slow growing chicken genotype reared in a free-range system.

Due to the importance of the use of the outdoor area in the alternative rearing system, the first part of this living lab activity was to assess the impact of the presence of a natural outdoor enrichment constituted by trees on the chicken welfare.

A total of four Amadori farms characterised by 20,000 chickens each were involved in the trial. All the farms were identical to each other; the only difference was in the outdoor area. In fact, the outdoor space of two farms was covered by a spontaneous pasture whereas, the outdoor area of the other two farms was equipped by trees together with a natural pasture. In order to objectively evaluate the animal welfare, a video recording system was adopted by positioning four cameras in each outdoor area. The obtained videos were analyzed by an expert observer in poultry behavior by using a predefined ethogram.

The preliminary results of the behavioural assessment showed that the chickens were more stimulated to explore the outdoor area when it was covered by trees by showing a high frequency of grass pecking and comfort behaviours as compared to those reared in outdoor areas characterised only by natural pasture.

The chicken meat analyses to assess the improvement on the intrinsic quality of the products are ongoing in the labs of the University of Perugia and the University of Bologna thus, we are waiting for the results!