Effects of Simulated Low-Altitude Aircraft Overflights on White-Leghorn Broilers and Laying Hens

摘要

Low-level overflights and sonic booms have been suspected of having serious effects on domestic fowl. Some of these effects have not been produced experimentally, despite repeated attempts. Panic effects such as piling and crowding have been the focus of several recent studies, but they did not determine the threshold for this response, The present program included experiments on two cohorts of naive broilers, young (3 weeks) and older (8 weeks), and Cobb white-leghorn laying hens. Poult weight gain and carcass quality were also examined in birds exposed during this study. The program collected heart rate measurements of young broilers during and after exposure to a series of simulated overflights in an effort to obtain a physiological estimator of broiler response to overflight stimuli. The broilers were exposed to simulated overflights that varied in sound exposure level, onset time, duration and interval between exposures. Such measurements had not been made in poultry prior to these experiments. Hens and broilers did not experience excess mortality or changes in weight as a result of exposure. Egg production was not affected by simulated overflights, nor was egg quality.