Behaviour and welfare impacts of water provision via misting in commercial Pekin ducks.

Ducks will access water to maintain feather condition and exhibit natural water-related behaviours such as wet preening. Providing water to ducks commercially is challenging as it may reduce litter and air quality leading to higher duck mortality or illness. This research aimed to measure the behavioural and welfare impacts of water provision via a misting system for commercial Pekin grower ducks in Victoria, Australia. Seven grower flocks were observed (4 misted, 3 non-misted in open-sided sheds) during May and November 2021. From 26 until 33 days of age, treatment ducks were provided one hour of misting with shed curtains closed in both treatment and control sheds. At the start and end of the misting application period, external health and welfare measures were taken directly on the ducks via transect walks throughout each shed and catch-and-inspect observations on a sample of 150 ducks from each shed. Video recordings were also made of the misted and non-misted ducks for three hours representing time periods of prior, during, and after the 1 h misting across all sheds for all 8 days of the treatment period. Observations were made of all behaviour that ducks exhibited at 10-min scan sample intervals across 4 cameras per shed, totalling 4198 scans across the 7 sheds. General linear mixed models showed the misting application predominantly had impacts on the patterns of behavioural change across the treatment time periods between the misted and non-misted ducks rather than increasing or decreasing overall expression of specific behaviours (interaction terms all P ≤ 0.003). The misted ducks increased drinking, tail wagging and walking and reduced preening, rooting litter, sitting, and stretching during misting relative to what they showed prior. The non-misted ducks showed less sitting and more panting during misting relative to prior. Pearson's Chi-square tests showed some differences between the treatment groups in feather cleanliness on the back and wings (both P < 0.0001), likely resulting from pre-existing differences between sheds in blood from pin feathers. Most welfare indicators showed no positive or negative effect of the misting treatment. These results indicate overhead misting does affect duck behaviour to some degree without compromising their welfare, but further research with larger water droplet sizes resulting in greater accumulation of surface water or extended durations of misting may lead to greater effects.