Acoustic Description of Bird Broiler Vocalisations in a Real-Life Intensive Farm and Its Impact on Animal Welfare: A Comparative Analysis of Recordings

Abstract

The poultry meat industry is one of the most efficient biological systems to transform cereal protein into high quality protein for human consumption at a low cost. However, to supply the increasing demand of white meat, intensive production is required whiche generates stress for the animals, which can be a major source of welfare problems. In this study, a comparative acoustic analysis of two entire production cycles of an intensive broiler Ross 308 poultry farm in the Mediterranean area has been performed. The following step to consolidate the analysis is to stablise a clear comparison among the performance of the indicators (Leq, Leq variation, Peak Frequency (PF) and PF variation) in the conditions of two different recording campaigns corresponding to summer and winter entire production cycles. The acoustic maps of PF, Leq and the related variations should be validated in an inter-campaign comparison, which may also arise the possibility of changes due to the season of the year.