Shubiao Wu

The composition of gastrointestinal microbiota has been demonstrated to affect behaviour and vice versa (Neufeld et al., 2011; Berthoud, 2008). In free-range laying hens, the individual preference to range can lead to characteristic sub-populations of the flock (Hinch & Lee, 2011). The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of ranging behaviour on caecal microbiota in laying hens. ...

Feed represents 65-75% of total production cost while energy represents approximately 50% of the diet cost. Apparent metabolisable energy corrected to zero nitrogen retention (AMEn) is most commonly used in poultry feed formulation. AMEn, however, does not consider energy lost during digestion as heat increment (HI). AMEn minus HI gives net energy (NE) which is energy available to the bird. An equ ...

Zinc (Zn) is a fundamental trace mineral for growth, development and health in broilers. The form of Zn has a direct impact on its biological function in broiler chickens (Bun et al., 2011). Hydroxy forms, Zn hydroxychloride (IBZ) can potentially offer advantages over other inorganic and organic sources. This study was designed to determine the optimum level of IBZ in broiler diets, by evaluating ...

I. INTRODUCTIONNecrotic enteritis (NE) is of great concern to the poultry industry due to its deteriorating impact on production and increasing mortality, resulting in a US$6 billion global economic loss (Wade and Keyburn, 2015). The causative agent of NE is Clostridium perfringens, a gram-positive spore-forming anaerobic bacterium. The subclinical form of NE is financially more devastating than t ...

Laying hens need to maintain their health status, including their gastrointestinal health until at least 72 weeks of age. Gut microbiota composition is extremely important to gastrointestinal and overall health. Furthermore, the gut-brain axis enables interactions between the enteric microbiota, the enteric nervous system and the central nervous system (Dinan & Cryan, 2017). The composition of ...

Growth promoting effects of zinc bacitracin, Bacillus-based probiotics and a blend of Yucca and Quillaja saponin in broilers have been well documented (Engberg et al. 2000; Cheeke, 2009; Jeong and Kim, 2014). These in-feed additives are commonly used in broiler diets but their effects at different dietary crude protein (CP) concentrations remain unclear. This study was conducted to study the effec ...

Meat and bone meal (MBM) is a valuable source of protein, calcium and available phosphorus for broiler diets (Anwar et al., 2016). The use of MBM in broiler diets at levels above 50 g/kg minimizes the need for inclusion of inorganic P, thus reducing feed cost. Potential indigestibility of protein in MBM (Kim et al., 2012) may act as a predisposing factor for necrotic enteritis (NE). Increased prod ...

Measures to improve bird performance have been sought due to the imminent phase out of in-feed antibiotics in poultry and continued demand for higher poultry feeding efficiency. Promotion of gizzard development by physical structure of feed ingredients or addition of dietary fibre is one such strategy with the hypothesis that larger ingredient particles and higher fibre enhance digestive enzyme se ...

Low protein diets are being investigated to reduce feed cost and address health, welfare and environmental concerns associated with feeding meat chickens excess dietary crude protein (CP). Low CP diets supplemented with only essential amino acids (AA) have failed to improve performance to that observed with standard CP diets (Dean et al., 2006). The nonessential amino acid glycine (Gly) is believe ...

I. INTRODUCTIONNecrotic enteritis (NE) in broiler chickens is an economically important disease which can be controlled by antibiotics (Timbermont, et al., 2011). The occurrence of necrotic lesions in the small intestine is associated with proliferation of Clostridium perfringens, which leads to lower growth rate in subclinically infected chickens. Increasing concerns regarding antibiotic resistan ...