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Sara Shields
Graduate Student (Ph. D. Program)
Major Professor: Dr Joy A. Mench
Phone: (530) 752-3643
FAX: (530)752-0175
E-mail: sshields@ucdavis.edu
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Education
- B.S., Zoology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
1997.
- Ph. D., University of California, Davis, CA (In Progress).
Project: Dustbathing in domestic chickens: Applications and
concerns for animal welfare
- My research project is a study of dustbathing behavior and its
relationship to the welfare of intensively produced broiler
chickens. Because broilers have been selected for rapid growth,
skeletal deformities with potentially painful consequences have
become common. Another problem in broiler chicken production is the
lack of environmental enrichment in intensive systems. One possible
way to improve bone strength and simultaneously provide
environmental enrichment may be to add dustbaths to the poultry
house. The frequency of dustbathing behavior is unusually low in
broiler chickens housed commercially. Stimulating this behavior by
adding dustbaths may improve leg strength, because it involves
motion of the limbs. This study has 3 aims: 1) To investigate the
cause of low dustbathing levels in broiler chickens, 2) to determine
the preferred light and substrate conditions for dustbathing, and 3)
to evaluate methods for presenting dustbathing enrichments in
commercial poultry houses and to determine their economic
implications.
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