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Ostrich welfare research kick-starts in style

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“GOOI SOMMER”!

“GOOI SOMMER”!

by Dr Maud Bonato

eggs at two years of age than birds only exposed to humans for the provision of food and water. Finally, he demonstrated that ostriches discriminated between familiar and unfamiliar handlers and adjusted their behaviour accordingly. Slight changes of management could thus not only benefit the welfare of ostriches, but also the occupational safety of agri workers.

He was supervised by Dr Maud Bonato (Stellenbosch University), Prof Schalk Cloete (Directorate of Animal Sciences, Elsenburg) and Prof Irek Malecki (University of Western Australia).

TThe department’s Directorate of Animal Sciences and the Department of Animal Sciences at Stellenbosch University delivered their first MSc focussing exclusively on ostrich welfare at the March 2018 graduation ceremony. Pfunzo Tonny Muvhali, who conducted his studies at the Oudtshoorn Research Farm, received his MSc for his thesis titled “Improving ostrich welfare by developing positive humananimal interactions”.

Welfare only recently gained momentum as a potential tool to alleviate major problems still plaguing the ostrich industry (i.e. high chick mortality, low egg output, a wild demeanour and failure to adapt to the production environment).

Tonny established that regular and gentle interactions with ostrich chicks from a young age benefitted important characteristics like weight gain, survival, immunity and resistance to stressors. Birds habituated to human presence also produced more

Tonny will now apply his “ostrich whispering” skills to a challenging PhD project on the establishment of an operational ostrich artificial insemination programme. AP

For more information, contact Dr Maud Bonato: maudb@elsenburg.com

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