Effects of environmental enrichment, fluorescent and intermittent lightingon injurious pecking amongst male turkey poults

1. Under commercial and experimental conditions domestic turkeys often caus e injuries to pen-mates by repeated pecking, sometimes fatally. Environment al enrichment or lighting manipulations might be used to mitigate such inju rious pecking. 2. This study examined responses to 4 treatments (2 rooms/treatnent) of 8 g roups of 100, non-beak trimmed, non-desnooded, male domestic turkeys from 1 to 35 d of age. 3. Birds of 1 treatment were reared under conditions approximating to comme rcial rearing (12L:12D incandescent, Control) whereas the experimental trea tments were 12L:12D incandescent plus supplemental ultraviolet radiation, s traw supplementation of litter, pecking substrates and visual barriers (Enr iched), 12L: 12D fluorescent lighting (Fluorescent), and 2(2L:3D):2L: 12D i ncandescent (Intermittent), 4. Compared to control birds, the incidence of injuries caused by wing or t ail pecking were both lower in the Enriched but not significantly different in the Fluorescent or Intermittent. 5. Injuries caused by head pecking did not occur in the Enriched rooms but were observed in at least 1 of the rooms with Control, Fluorescent and Inte rmittent treatments. 6. Despite considerable environmental differences between treatments, there was remarkable consistency within each type of injurious pecking in age at which injuries were 1st recorded (wing pecking, 9.38+/-1.31 d; tail peckin g, 20.43+/-2.42 d; head pecking, 27.8+/-2.13 d). The roles of feather emerg ence, hierarchy formation in wild turkey poults and appearance of feathers are discussed as possible explanations of these consistencies.