PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Behavior and Welfare
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1593737
Frontiers in broiler chicken welfare: Adopting early detection of intestinal integrity loss in broiler welfare assessment protocols
Provisionally accepted
- 1Wageningen Livestock Research, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
- 2LMU Munich, Department for Veterinary Sciences, Planegg, Germany
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Current broiler welfare assessment protocols include indicators of impaired intestinal health, but these are non-specific. Loss of intestinal integrity is considered to be a major welfare consequence for broilers but the absence of specific, early indicators in welfare assessment protocols hampers early detection and treatment. Coccidiosis is one of the major threats to intestinal integrity in broiler chickens and taken as an example. We propose the development of specific biomarkers for detecting early onset of intestinal health deterioration. The genotype and external phenotype of organisms are linked by so-called internal phenotypes which are influenced by environmental conditions. We review the impact of coccidiosis on external and internal phenotypes in chickens. The change from the 'homeostatic immune response' towards an inflammatory response to control infections is reflected in the change in feeling of comfort to the feeling of discomfort in broilers, in which the gutbrain axis likely plays a crucial role. With this change, a negative emotional state develops. Two routes of developing biomarkers are proposed that are interconnected. The first route is by enabling ~omics techniques for predominantly invasive biomarkers related to the internal phenotype of the broiler chickens during infection. The second approach involves using sensors and automated systems to monitor behavior, vocalizations, and fecal appearance for early disease detection at flock level. By linking these external indicators to invasive biomarkers, we can develop disease-specific biomarkers that enhance early diagnosis with precision and could add significant value to welfare assessment protocols. Research in this area should be encouraged.
Keywords: broiler, sickness behavior, Coccidiosis, emotional state, gut-brain axis, Intestinal integrity, welfare
Received: 14 Mar 2025; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 De Jong, Kar and Kaspers. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ingrid C. De Jong, Wageningen Livestock Research, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
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