Article published the December 15, 2021
BackgroundMaintaining and improving gut health is fundamentally important as the gut supports optimal digestion and therefore performance and profitability of production. Managing gut health through barrier function is regarded as a new frontier for disease prevention across different species [1]. In poultry, considerable research has been done on improving animal performance and gut health throug ...
Article published the December 3, 2021
INTRODUCTIONPoultry production is one of the largest sources of animal protein supply for human consumption in the world. For many countries, like Australia, chicken-meat is the dominant animal protein, therefore production must continue to expand to supply increasing demand. In Australia, for instance, per capita consumption of chicken-meat is predicted to increase by 7.9% over the next 5 years [ ...
Article published the April 23, 2021
I. INTRODUCTION Flock uniformity is a key performance indicator and economic driver in commercial practice. Hughes et al. (2017) pointed out that Australian losses could exceed AUD$127M per annum, assuming that 5% of throughput totalling 1,159,602 tonnes chicken meat per annum was downgraded by 40% due to out-of-range weight specifications. From these brief comments it is easy to see that flock un ...
Article published the October 20, 2020
1. IntroductionHeat stress (HS) has undesired effects on the growth performance [1,2] and meat quality [3] of broiler chickens. During HS, chickens seek to dissipate unwanted and excess body heat by increasing panting, resulting in alteration of blood acid/base status, which in turn can give rise to respiratory alkalosis [4] and disruptions in muscle membrane integrity [3]. Additionally, the work ...
Article published the November 18, 2016
1. Introduction The occurrence of ‘wet litter’ in meat chicken sheds is associated with concerns regarding animal welfare, flock health, food safety, environmental impacts and reductions in production efficiency. Mitigating wet litter will only be achieved when there is thorough understanding of the multidimensional causal factors. This will require a multidisciplinary approach to unde ...
Article published the March 8, 2015
I. INTRODUCTION Calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) are essential minerals for many biological processes and skeletal health, however, they have a complex interactive relationship. Phytate is the naturally occurring storage form of P in plants, with the main storage site of phytate-P being seeds (Tamim et al., 2004). As poultry diets are comprised mainly of seed based ingredients, there is a considera ...
Article published the November 4, 2014
BACKGROUNDCalcium (Ca) is an essential nutrient for poultry that is generally provided to laying hens at approximately 4.6% of the total feed volume. Calcium is usually supplied to layers as a calcite grit or flour i.e. limestone (CaCO3) and also as part of the inorganic phosphorus (P) supplye.g. dicalcium or monocalcium phosphate. Though, in some markets, meat and bone meal may also c ...
Article published the June 20, 2014
I. INTRODUCTION Calcium (Ca) is an essential nutrient for poultry for biological processes such as bone development and egg shell formation (De Vries et al., 2010). Laying hens must be provided with Ca at approximately 4% of the total feed volume. Very little Ca is provided within the cereal grain component of the diet, therefore diets must be supplemented with sources of Ca. Dietary Ca is provide ...
Article published the June 4, 2013
I. INTRODUCTION
Limestone is composed primarily of CaCO3 and is commonly used as a source of calcium (Ca) in poultry diets. Pure CaCO3 has a molecular weight of approximately 100g/mole and so is around 400 g/kg Ca. However, CaCO3 sources used in animal feeding are typically only 370-380 g/kg Ca, sometimes less, due to the presence of other minerals such as Mg or Fe. Furthermore, the bioavailabili ...
Article published the June 4, 2013
I. INTRODUCTIONThe relationship between calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) in broiler nutrition is one that is complex and multifactorial. The digestion and absorption of these minerals is influenced by other dietary vitamins and enzymes as well as endogenous hormones. The modern broiler has a high requirement for Ca and P for energy metabolism and skeletal development. Deficiencies in Ca, P or both ...