Hatchery day
The effect of different stages of the commercial hatchery regime on Corticosterone (CORT) response of commercial hatchery chickens compared to a control group hatched at LiU hatchery. The control group were only moved from the incubator to a home pen. The box plot represents the median CORT values with the upper and lower quartiles and whiskers depicting variation outside of the quartile. Outlying data points are represented by black dots.
A comparison was made between the CORT levels from the blood samples taken in the commercial hatchery with those taken from the control group. The CORT levels were significantly higher in hatchery chickens after both incubation (W=16.5, p=0.01) and processing (W=0, p<0.001) than for the control chickens. The CORT levels also appeared higher after the transportation stage for the samples from the hatchery chickens; however this was not statistically significant (W=38, p=0.4).
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Director of undergraduate studies Biology
Last updated:
05/22/18