Etologia e perfil de corticosterona nas excretas de maritacas (Aratinga leucophthalma) em cativeiro com arrancamento de penas psicogênico tratadas com haloperidol e enriquecimento ambiental

Abstract

Animal welfare has attracted great attention from the academic and scientific community, as well as the society that cares about how animals have been treated by man. Animals in captivity, often living under conditions of stress that can be investigated through behavioral, physiological and hormonal assessments. The psychogenic feather picking is a relatively common behavioral disorder in psittaciforms birds subjected to stressful conditions in captivity and the white-eyed parakeet (Aratinga leucophthalma) is a species quite susceptible to the expression of this disorder. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental enrichment methods and haloperidol administration in control of feather picking in white-eyed parakeet kept in captivity. Three groups were formed, the Group 1 with six birds treated with haloperidol (G1). Group 2 with six birds subjected to environmental enrichment (G2) and Group 3 (G3) with six animals without feathers picking disorder. The behavioral study consisted of an ethogram of recorded behaviors walking on the perch, walking on the screen, sleeping, positive social interaction and others, and the corticosterone assessment was measured in the birds excreta. The observations showed that the white-eyed parakeet had a preference for staying on the perch instead of the use of cages grid. Moreover, the haloperidol significantly reduced the physical activities of birds, increasing the time the animals spent standing on the perch and also reduced the expression of other behaviors. The use of environmental enrichment provided to white-eyed parakeet the expression of behaviors similar to those of birds without feathers picking disorder (G3). Measurements of corticosterone in the birds excreta did not differ significantly in stages and groups comparation. The plumage was subjectively assessed with scores in a scale of 0 to 10 and no birds treated with haloperidol (G1) showed improvement in the quality of the plumage in the comparison between the first and third stages. However, in the group that received environmental enrichment (G2), when comparing the same steps, only one bird had no improvement of feather condition. Thus, the use of environmental enrichment promoted better animal welfare condition and provided the growth of new feathers in the picking areas unlike the observations made in psychogenic feather picking birds treated with haloperidol.