Poultry experts within the Scottish Government feel it is unlikely that the ban on beak trimming will go ahead next year.
The Government is this year due to review whether or not to ban the practice of beak tipping in the United Kingdom. It will be guided by members of the Beak Trimming Action Group (BTAG), which is made up of egg industry representatives, Government officials and welfare groups and which will consider the results of trials that have been taking place in both England and Scotland. But the Scottish Government, which is represented on BTAG, says it thinks the possibility of a ban going ahead at the moment are “unrealistic.”
A spokeswoman, said, “We are aware that the poultry industry is working hard to arrive at alternatives to beak trimming; the Beak Trimming Action Group, of which the Scottish Government is a member, is currently overseeing two research projects (one funded by the Scottish Government) into keeping non-beak-trimmed birds in enriched cages and alternative systems and into methods to reduce pecking injuries. The research still needs to be completed and fully analysed; however, we understand that the current feeling within the group is that a ban on beak trimming in 2016 is almost certainly unrealistic.”
The Scottish Government’s views have been backed by Charlie Stephenson, a member of the British Free Range Egg Producers’ Association (BFREPA), who also sits on BTAG. “I completely support what the Scottish Government is saying,” said Charlie, who has previously told the Ranger that he thinks it is too early for a complete ban. Government rules currently insist that only the infrared method of beak trimming should be used by producers.
Charlie told the Ranger in February, “We don’t beak trim as a matter of choice. We do it for the welfare of the birds. Producers are perfectly happy to work towards a point where they will be able to avoid beak trimming without any detrimental effect on the birds. But a ban on beak trimming should not simply be imposed for political reasons,” he said.
BTAG has already started discussing the results emanating from the beak trimming trials in England and Scotland, although Charlie said that the final results were still being awaited from the last of the trial units. He said it would now be after the election before Government would make a decision on whether to go ahead with a ban or defer it once again.
A ban was originally due to come into force in 2011 but was deferred on the advice of the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC), which was concerned about the implications for cannibalism and injurious pecking if the ban went ahead at that time. When it deferred the ban, the Government said that the issue would be reviewed in 2015 with a view to a ban being imposed in 2016. Trials were commissioned to see how commercial layers could be managed without the use of beak trimming.
Outbreaks of pecking on some of the trial units have reinforced the view in the egg industry that a ban should not go ahead at the moment. A 16,000-bird free range trial flock in East Anglia had to undergo emergency beak tipping after injurious pecking resulted in a mortality rate of 20 per cent. On another free range trial unit in Yorkshire the mortality rate hit 15 per cent amongst birds whose beaks were left intact.
The Scottish Government spokeswoman told the Ranger, “Feather pecking and cannibalism present a significant and severe welfare impact on chickens in many husbandry systems, including free range laying hens; beak trimming has been the traditional method of controlling this behaviour but brings its own welfare issues. While beak trimming may currently be considered the lesser of two evils, the Scottish Government view is that the long term aim must be to arrive at a better way of preventing feather pecking and cannibalism than damaging what is a highly sensitive organ in birds,” she said.
However, the spokeswoman said it was felt that a ban on beak trimming at the moment was unrealistic.
She said, “The Scottish Government have previously stated that we would only consider a ban on beak trimming in Scotland if we were satisfied that it would not harm the overall welfare of laying hens. We will continue to monitor the research that is being done in this area to develop alternative ways of preventing feather pecking and cannibalism.”
The Scottish Government pointed out that beak trimming was already banned under two EU directives, but that these directives allowed member states to authorise beak trimming of birds in order to prevent feather pecking and cannibalism. This was achieved in Scotland through Schedule 3 of the Prohibited Procedures on Protected Animals (Exemptions)(Scotland) Regulations 2010, which allowed beak trimming of birds less than 10 days old by qualified staff using the infrared procedure, on the advice of a veterinarian and where other measures to prevent feather pecking and cannibalism were exhausted.
It said that a large body of scientific research had shown that the cause of feather pecking was multi-factorial, with genetics, lighting, nutrition and substrate all having an effect. A long term and consistent solution was, therefore, difficult to come by. The traditional approach had been to trim the tip of the beak to minimise the damage caused by any feather pecking. However, there were also significant welfare concerns associated with the practice of beak trimming, particularly as chicken beaks were “well innervated.” These had been mitigated in recent years by banning the hot blade procedure. However, the long-term aim remained to find an alternative management technique.
At the Egg & Poultry Industry Conference (EPIC) in November, Westminster Farming Minister George Eustice gave a strong indication that the ban may not go ahead in 2016. He said, “My view on this is that if we were to rush to a ban on infrared beak trimming only to find that we then had an immediate problem with injurious pecking in many of our flocks and there was a requirement, therefore, under veterinary advice, to have hot blading on adult birds that would be considerably worse for the welfare of the bird. I get that, I understand that and I actually think that a lot of the animal welfare charities get it as well,” he said.
A senior scientific officer with the RSPCA, Mia Fernyhough, last year conceded during a BBC radio interview that a complete ban on beak trimming may not go ahead once the results of the beak trimming trials were analysed.
