Jacob Hamidu

I have realized that keeping birds on old litter for a long time especially in hot humid environments increases the swelling under their foot. These footpad dermatitis are serious on production. What I tell farmers is to change litters at least every 20 weeks in deep litter floors if there is no issues with wet litters.

This is fundamentally about development of the gut not only looking at good versus bad bacteria in the gut but what nutrients they can provide for the host. An investigation on fibre level and metabolism by microorganisms and host development could help to explain this phenomenon. Thanks for this write up. I am already thinking beyond normal animal nutrition and physiology of the gut.

Has anyone done any work on algae in tropical regions by growing and feeding them to layer chickens and is there any published paper out there. It appears this might be a cheap way to make omega-3 eggs rather than flaxseed oil is expensive and has to be imported.