One of the activities of the INTAQT project was to assess the welfare status in different chicken rearing systems in Europe. In order to find a common methodology among the partners of the project, the EBENE app, developed by ITAVI in France, was used in order to collect several environmental and animal–based parameters by providing scores following the four behavioural principles: “Good Feeding”, “Good Housing”, “Good Health”, and “Appropriate Behaviour”.

The preliminary results concerned the welfare assessment in the Italian chicken rearing systems were shown as an oral presentation by Alice Cartoni Mancinelli from University of Perugia (Italy) at the “XVI European Poultry Conference” held in Valencia, Spain from the 24^th to 28^th of June 2024.

In Italy, 25 chicken farms belonging to 5 different rearing systems chose following an intensification gradient were evaluated. In particular the involved rearing systems were: conventional system with the use of males of fast growing genotype, conventional system characterized by vegetable diet, GMO- and antibiotic- free with the use of both males and females of fast growing genotype, free-range system with the use of medium growing genotype and organic system with the use of females of fast growing genotype.

These preliminary results highlight that all the investigated rearing systems can ensure adequate conditions of animal welfare. However, some factors are responsible for influencing the four behavioral principles scores. In particular, the rearing system was responsible  for affecting both the good housing and appropriate behavior principles evidencing that the related best scores were obtained by the free-range system. Also, the chicken genotype and the farmer management played important roles in the appropriate behavior principle and also in this case the free-range system showed the best scores.

The evaluation with the use of the EBENE app allowed us to compare the welfare status in the main widespread Italian rearing systems for chicken meat production representing a very useful and feasible tool.

We are excited to see the final results about the EBENE evaluation in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Poland!