Article published the October 13, 2025
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 ...
Article published the October 13, 2025
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 ...
Article published the September 26, 2025
In recent years, in response to consumer concerns regarding welfare of birds, there has been a move from caged to free-range production systems. This change has resulted in increased exposure of hens to pathogens, including parasites, which can compromise the welfare of the animal (Wongrak et al., 2015). Amongst helminths, Ascaridia galli is the most abundant nematode in poultry, and can cause sig ...
Article published the September 26, 2025
Beak trimming can have serious consequences on hen welfare, health and production. However, compared to hot blade trimming, the infra-red technique has resulted in more uniform beak length and symmetry (Dennis et al., 2009). Pecking stones (Analysed Values: 20.50% calcium, 4.30% phosphorus, 5.0% sodium and 2.50% magnesium) have been used in Europe and are reported to blunt hens’ beaks and al ...
Article published the August 27, 2025
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 ...
Article published the July 15, 2025
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 ...
Article published the July 15, 2025
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 ...
Article published the July 14, 2025
A recent study suggests that artificial Ascardia galli infection has no effect on performance and egg quality of free-range laying hens from the point of lay until 40 weeks of age (Sharma et al., 2017). However, the lower hepatic lipid reserve of infected hens observed in the same study indicated the potential for A. galli to affect production at a later stage. In this study, serum and yolk antibo ...
Article published the June 23, 2025
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 ...
Article published the November 15, 2024
I. INTRODUCTIONThe meat chicken industry is growing rapidly as a result of an increasing population, relatively low production costs and excellent marketability with regards to affordability, sustainability and minimal religious restrictions. Poultry diets with lower crude protein (CP) have generated global interest from the meat chicken industry due to the benefits concluded by published literatu ...