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The influence of social behaviour on experimental design in animal husbandry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1959

Glenorchy McBride
Glenorchy McBride
Affiliation:
Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh
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Extract

Evidence of an effect of the peck order in poultry on the variation in productive characters under floor conditions is used as the basis of a discussion on the design of animal experiments.

Since these competitive effects increase the variation between animals penned together, the usual tests for the presence of pen effects between replicate pens are unsuitable. Replicates should be used in all experiments when treatments are allocated to pens of animals to provide an adequate measure of the experimental error.

Considerations of social behaviour are likely to be relevant in many types of animal experiments, both husbandry and breeding.

It is, however, emphasised that the amount of information available on such an important question is completely inadequate and that behaviour studies should be incorporated into all types of animal experiments to obtain such information.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 1959 , pp. 81 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1959

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References

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