BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES TO OPEN FIELD TESTS IN NIGERIAN LOCAL AND NICHOLAS WHITE TURKEYS
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Date
2017
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Society of Animal Production, Department of livestock and Avian Science, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka.
Abstract
Individual differences in fearfulness play an important role in economically important traits in farm animal. Fearfulness in livestock is usually measured objectively and efficiently through behavioural testing. The present study was conducted to assess the behavioural response to open field tests of fear in two (light and heavy) genotypes of turkeys in Nigeria. 100 poults (50 per genotype) were randomly selected to evaluate response to six open field tests of fear in Nigerian local and Nicholas White poults at 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks. The six open field tests of fear employed were latency to ambulate; latency to vocalize; number of vocalisations; number of squares entered; number of times defecated; and escapes attempts. The results showed that there was variation in the response of the two genotypes to the six open field tests of tests of fear. The percentage of non-responder to the six open field tests was higher in Nicholas White than the Nigerian Local poults at 4, 8 and 12 weeks. The results on latency to ambulate, vocalize and make escape attempt suggests higher fearfulness in Nigerian Local poults. Higher proportion of older birds (>8 weeks) of both genotypes respond faster to open field tests than younger birds (> 8 weeks). There is the need for further study to understand the mechanisms underlying age related bahavioural response pattern to fear in turkey.
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Keywords
Nicholas White, Nigerian local, Novel objects, Open field, Voluntary approach