Early life experiences can be important
in determining offspring phenotypes and may influence
interaction with the environment and hence
health, welfare, and productivity. The prenatal environment
of poultry can be divided into the pre-lay
environment and the egg storage/incubation environment,
both of which can affect offspring outcomes.
The ability to separate maternal and egg/incubation
effects makes birds well suited to this type of research.
There are many factors, including feeding and nutrition,
environmental conditions, husbandry practices, housing
system, social environment, infectious environment,
and maternal health status, that can influence both
the health and performance and behavior and cognition
of the offspring. There are some aspects of the
environments that can be changed to produce beneficial
effects in the offspring, like addition of certain
additives to feed or short changes in incubation temperatures,
while other aspects should be avoided to
reduce negative effects, such as unpredictable feeding
and lighting regimens. Measures of offspring characteristics
may prove to be a useful method of assessing
parent stock welfare if known stressors result in
predictable offspring outcomes. This has the advantage
of assessing the parent environment without interfering
with the animals and possibly affecting their
responses and could lead to improved welfare for the
animals.