Welcome to Laywel
What is LayWel?
LayWel is a research project funded by the FP6 European Research
Programme and national fundings from different EU countries.
The LayWel- project studies the welfare implications of changes in
production systems for laying hens.
The general objective of the LayWel project
is to produce a series of reports on the welfare of laying hens in
various systems, with special focus on enriched cages, and to make
the information well known, particularly over all member states of
the EU and associated countries.
The LayWel project is divided into 7 WorkPackages :
1. Welfare definitions
2. Housing systems
3. Health
4. Behaviour
5. Physiology and stress indicators
6. Productivity and egg quality
7. Integrated welfare assessment
The last WorkPackage is basically an assembly of the previous
work.
A few highlights of exploitable knowledge from these
workpackes
Photographic scoring system
A scoring system to quantify feather quality, skin lesions and
other health characteristics is important to be able to measure the
effect of housing, management and/or treatment on health and
welfare of hens.
WP 7: Integrated welfare assessment
Manual for self assessment of welfare of laying hens
on farm (English version)
The manual provides a tool for farmers to monitor the welfare
status of their birds in an objective way.
Database
The database comprises results of many studies on housing of laying
hens in various European countries. The data were collected both on
commercial farms and in experimental units.