Terence Sibanda

Flock uniformity is crucial to increase the performance and profitability of commercial egg production (Corzo et.al, 2004). Obtaining flock uniformity in a free-range system may be challenging due to the variation in feeding and ranging behaviour of individual birds.The current study investigated the effect of body weight on initial range utilization and flock uniformity in two free-range laying f ...

The Australian Egg Industry has identified opportunities to optimise production performance, health, flock consistency and egg quality through best practice. Using a cross-sectional survey design for 3 stakeholder groups (farm staff, managers, and consultants), we assessed current knowledge, attitudes, practices, barriers and enablers of adoption of best practices in poultry welfare, health, biose ...

Early warning systems and decision-making tools have the potential to forecast and simulate egg production losses, allowing producers to implement corrective actions pre-emptively. The aim of this study was to create an egg loss forecasting model for free-range egg producers. Commercial farm records comprising of 281 Australian free-range flocks dating from January 2010 until November 2021 were us ...

Frequent visits to an outdoor range has been associated with good meat chicken welfare but not all chickens will access the outdoor range when provided with the opportunity (Taylor et al., 2018). On average, it takes an average of three to four days for most meat chickens in commercial conditions to access the range after the pop-holes first open (Taylor et al., 2017a). Yet chickens that access th ...

1-Monoglycerides of short and medium chain fatty acids (monobutyrin, monocaprin and monocaprylin) have shown positive effects on cell metabolism, intestinal integrity and immune system (Calder 2008). However, little is known about their effect on laying hen health, performance and egg quality. Therefore, this study was designed to add further insight into the applied benefits as well as optimal in ...

Minerals such as copper, manganese and zinc are essential nutrients for enzyme functionality, immune system responses, tissue and bone quality as well as eggshell formation (Richards et al., 2010). Organic trace minerals are used in animal feeds to provide increased mineral bioavailability. In this experiment we investigated the benefits of hydroxy analogues of chelated trace minerals on pullet qu ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of feeding xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS), xylanase (XYL) and fermentable fibre, in the form of wheat bran (WB), on egg quality. It is theorised that WB stimulates and trains the microbiota in the hindgut to hydrolyse and ferment dietary xylan, and XOS and XYL may further upregulate xylan fermentation pathways, resulting in improved nutrient utilisatio ...

It has been proposed that the metabolic energy requirements of free-ranging hens are up to 15% higher compared to caged hens due to the increased metabolic activity required for locomotion and thermoregulation (GfE 1999; Tiller 2001; Aerni et al. 2005). The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of various feed strategies on laying performance and egg quality of free-range laying hens. A t ...

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been used for animal behaviour and welfare research, to monitor animal location and resource utilization. The aim of this study was to develop and validate an in-house custom built ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID system to be used on a commercial free-range egg farm with three-tier aviaries. The system was designed and constructed to detect hens ...

Osteoporosis in laying hens is of health, welfare, and economic concern. During the onset of lay, hens rapidly build up the amount of medullary bone which has less structural integrity instead of structural bone formation (Whitehead, 2004). However, freedom of movement in cage free systems can stimulate structural bone formation to avoid mechanical failure which may improve bone health at the end ...