Bioacoustics Laboratory University of Connecticut

POULTRY BIOACOUSTICS RESEARCH:
STRESS AND ITS EFFECT ON VOCALIZATION

Stress has been shown to have a negative impact on the wellness and productivity of chickens. Unfortunately, stress is determined mostly after its impact.

CAN THERE BE A FASTER WAY TO DETERMINE STRESS
BEFORE IT IMPACTS NEGATIVELY ON THE CHICKEN?

OUR RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

Do chickens respond to stress by vocalizing?

If so, do they respond with different vocalizations for different stress types?

What are the different acoustical features of chicken vocalizations at the various stages of their lives?

Can vocalizations be used as one of the measures of stress?

What is the hearing threshold of the chicken and can they hear their distress calls?

DATA COLLECTION

Our Study Site is the UConn Poultry unit where audio and video recordings are made of stressful and non-stressful chicken vocalization and behavior respectively.

STRESS TYPES:

HEAT
CROWDING
HUMAN PRESENCE

Chicken Vocalization Samples:

Aerial Call.
Food Call.
Ground Alarm Call.
Rooster Crow.
Sound files courtesy of Ebenezer Otu-Nyarko, UConn Phd. candidate.

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MEASURABLE VOCALIZATION PARAMETERS

Frequency (Hz)
Intensity (dB)
Spectrum
Amplitude (V)
Time(s)

Pullet non- stressful vocalization waveform (amplitude vs. time)

waveform graph of non-stressed chicken vocalizations

Pullet stressful vocalization waveform (amplitude vs. time)

waveform graph of stressed chicken vocalizations

IMPACT OF RESEARCH ON THE POULTRY INDUSTRY:

Development of a module/unit that will pick up vocalizations of chickens in their house and transmit the meaning of those signals to the farmer for immediate action to be taken.

UConn chicks.

Photo courtesy of Ebenezer Otu-Nyarko, UConn Phd. candidate.

UConn research chickens.

Photo courtesy of Ebenezer Otu-Nyarko, UConn Phd. candidate.