• Editorial: Assured guarantee and animal welfare • Article: We don’t have “chicken brains” Assured guarantee and animal welfare More and more often one hears expressions like - food safety – animal welfare, with more and more frequent demands on the type of feeding of animals. It is doubtless that subsequent to emergencies in the food industry, sometimes without fail deserving of the utmost attention, at other times actual hoaxes, many consumers have become very sensitive to issues that until a few years ago interested only those in the industry. Even legislation at European Community level is adjusting more and more to the requests for more information or greater controls on the part of consumers. The recent modification of EC reg. 1274/91 on the commercialisation of eggs confirms this irreversible trend. The lines of this new regulation concern "product traceability", the different breeding procedures and information on the feeding of laying hens. The breeding procedures are reduced to three: free range, barn and in cages. Thus was eliminated the distinction between intensive and extensive free-range systems, with the introduction of only one parameter equal to at least 4 m2 of external surface for each hen, and the traditional "battery system" remains, which also includes “furnished” cages (with more space for the hens and "furnished" with nest and bedding) For the alternative systems, a very strict system of traceability has been outlined, regarding for the first time eggs designated for the food industry, and outlining the specific tasks of each phase of the distribution chain. Limits have been set regarding indications on the feeding of the hens, since until now it was possible to find misleading information for consumers. To we producers falls the duty to be more clear and attentive to client needs. We don’t have “chicken brains” Some experiments by prestigious European universities have revealed that hens are able to feel emotions Hens are intelligent. Be careful when you joke about "chicken brains", because it has been scientifically proven that hens, chickens and roosters are able to feel emotions. These winged creatures, often ignored regarding their cerebral life, have interesting intellectual functions linked especially to group defence. Early research and experiments Research began at the University of Leuven, in Belgium, when two researchers decided to discover whether hens were able to recognize their peers individually. Starting with the premise that these animals are organized in hierarchical groups and that the more or less red colouring of the crest is a sign of supremacy, René Zayan and his colleague Dominique Domken selected two identical groups of hens (in terms of form and crest), but one group belonging to the poultry yard, and the other an outside group. They recognize and attack the unknown hens the result? Hens normally submissive in their own poultry yard always behaved submissively in the presence of their peers, while they attacked strangers. First point: hens are able to distinguish between familiar and unknown individuals. The second step was to discover whether they were able to distinguish one individual as a particular subject. To find out, Zayan used this experiment: some hens were conditioned to peck a lever that let food fall only in the presence of images of other hens. The hens understood the mechanism right away and the test was made complicated in this way: slides of the same objects were projected, but framed differently and along with pictures taken during moulting. They recognize one another from the parts of the body This test passed as well, images of details were projected, for example a foot. It was expected that this time the hens would peck the lever even when the detail did not correspond to the correct hen, but that was not so: they were able to recognize the correct hen even from one body detail. According to the researchers, a sort of fixed and real image of the various ways in which a real peer can be presented is formed in the hens’ brains, either as an unknown or as a known individual, not only with real experience, but also through images. Continuing in the wake of these discoveries two other English scholars, Stephen Lea and Catriona Ryan, have demonstrated that hens are able to distinguish the images of chicks only 2 days old, and the recognitions happened even when the same chicks had become 33-day old chickens. As if we were able to recognize two newborns in a class photo from middle school. They have their own language "They have a complex neuronal organization", affirm Lea and Ryan. The birds and even the hens are therefore able to work out concepts more complex than mammals do, because some parts of their brains are more developed. Another interesting observation, and an umpteenth confirmation of the intelligence of these animals is language. They communicate amongst themselves with more than 20 "words", many of which serve to warn one another in case of danger and even to understand if the potential predator is coming from the air or from land. In spite of their well-known myopia they are able to distinguish birds of prey from harmless ones even at a distance and, in case of great danger, they go as far as to play dead, and they remain motionless. In this way they try to trick the predator who, attracted to moving prey, frequently does not see the motionless animals. Research continues and, among that in progress, there is talk of hens able to regulate the room temperature by using their beaks to push a button connected to a thermal lamp. They imitate one another Hens are able, from early in life, to imitate the behaviour of the dominant hens. They like to copy one another: if one goes to drink, the others follow her; if one dustbathes, the others do so as well. This behaviour is fundamental to understanding hens and their "society". Defensive synchronism is a “defensive synchronism” in that they do the same things, together, to define dangers and predators more easily, and also to find and share food and water. Even their behaviour is the fruit of imitation: the young ones learn everything from the rooster; if they are kept apart, they have few mating possibilities!