Explore all the information onPoultry management
Poultry management usually refers to the husbandry practices or production techniques that help to maximize the efficiency of production. Sound management practices are very essential to optimize production. Scientific poultry management aims at maximizing returns with minimum investment. A carefully controlled environment that avoids crowding, chilling, overheating, or frightening is almost universal in poultry farming. Cannibalism, which expresses itself as toe picking, feather picking, and tail picking, is controlled by debeaking at one day of age and by other management practices. The feeding, watering, egg gathering, and cleaning operations are highly mechanized. Birds are usually housed in wire cages with two or three animals per cage, depending on the species and breed, and three or four tiers of cages superposed to save space. Cages for egg-laying birds have been found to increase production, lower mortality, reduce cannibalism, lower feeding requirements, reduce diseases and parasites, improve culling, and reduce both space and labour requirements.
The National Chicken Council Broiler Research Award recognizes distinctive research work that has a strong economic impact on the broiler industry, primarily on the economic influence the work has had or will have on the industry. It is an annual award.
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I. INTRODUCTION
HB trimming is still used worldwide for retrimming birds on farm where required to reduce the risk of or control serious outbreaks of cannibalism and feather pecking. In the review by Glatz (2000) other methods of trimming included a gas beak trimming machine, an electric soldering iron and a cold blade. These methods are only practical to use when retrimming birds on smallholder farms as they are too slow to use on a large number of birds on a...
I. INTRODUCTION Avian influenza viruses (AIVs), subdivided into Low Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (LPAI) and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), are diseases of major concern to domestic chickens worldwide (Hansbro et al., 2010). LPAI is known to circulate naturally in wild birds of the order Anseriformes (waterfowl) and Charadriiformes (shorebirds) and can potentially mutate into HPAI once transmitted to chickens (East et al., 2008). Reducing direct and indirect contact...
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 uniformity in live weight is a very important matter. This raises questions...
This award recognizes the achievements of PSA members in the early stages of their career in poultry extension. It is given every other year.
Dianna V. Bourassa
Auburn...
Tracking and understanding hen movement in commercial free-range flocks is challenging due to complex housing furniture as well as the sheer volume of individual data involved. The purpose of this study was to develop interactive visualisation software that allows users to display recorded data and individualise graphs on demand using existing data. A total of ~9,375 laying hens were housed in three identical commercial free range sheds equipped with an open aviary system. Hens were...
Damaging pecking, or injurious pecking, is a major animal welfare concern. There are various forms of injurious pecking, including injurious feather pecking, feather picking, cannibalism, and aggressive pecking (see Table 1 on page 2). Not all species or breeds of birds perform...
Ensuring welfare of birds at the farm is key to maintaining a healthy supply of eggs and chicken during the pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on various industries, including the poultry and livestock sectors. Livestock prices are...
The Poultry Extension Collaborative (PEC) brings you the webinar "Global Standards and Research Advances in Poultry Welfare" on May 25th, from 10:00 am to 1:15 pm EST, via Zoom.
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What are the key production indicators (KPI) in poultry industry commercial layers, broilers, broiler breeders and breeder layers? ...
I. INTRODUCTION Since the 20th century when commercial poultry breeding first started, the growth rate of meat chickens has quadrupled, and their body structure has also changed dramatically especially with the enlarged size of the breast muscles (Muir and Aggrey, 2003). This is the result of a combination of selective breeding, efficient production systems, improved diets and veterinary care (Fanatico et al., 2007). It now takes about 38 days for day old fast-growing broilers...
Free range hens are exposed to various potential stressors including weather conditions and risk of predation (Gilani et al., 2014). Distress can result in impaired biological functions including reduced reproduction, immunity and growth (Palme, 2012). In order to investigate the impact of early range usage, corticosterone concentrations in egg albumen were measured in response to a stressor (manual handling and relocation) in free range hens. Two groups (n = 625) of commercial free...
I. INTRODUCTION The feed efficiency (FE) of commercial laying hens has improved steadily since genetic selection began in earnest, with modern hybrids converting approximately 2.1 kg of feed into 1 kg of eggs. Recent research suggests considerable variation in FI and FE between hens kept under common management and dietary conditions (Akter et al., 2018). Research also indicates that many factors affect FE, including body composition, the digestion and metabolism of nutrients,...
Let's Squawk About It is a monthly interview segment by the Poultry Science Association. The COVID-19 Pandemic has changed many aspects of life, but how about for a chicken? Roy Brister, of Tyson Foods, shares some insight on how feed formulation had to change due to a domino effect brought on by the pandemic....
A patented split-feeding program for broiler breeders is disrupting conventional approaches to poultry nutrition. Developed by Trouw Nutrition, a Nutreco company, the split-feeding innovation has demonstrated improved hatching rates and lower feed costs in research centre trials and commercial farm studies.
The system delivers nutrients that support the birds’ requirements for egg formation at different times of day, as research conducted with laying hens shows birds’...
Diseases and infections have always been a major concern to the poultry industry. Fortunately, microbial contamination can be prevented and controlled using proper management practices and modern health products. Microorganisms are everywhere! Some are relatively harmless, while others can cause disease. Some pose a lethal threat to one species of animal while remaining harmless to another species. Some organisms are easily destroyed, while others are very...
By Leonie Jacobs/Poultry Extension Collaborative Blog
Tessa Grebey and colleagues researched dustbathing behavior in a range of commercial laying hen breeds, including Hy-Line Brown, Bovan Brown, DeKalb White, and Hy-Line birds.
They found that strains respond to social situations differently.
DeKalb White and Hy-Line W36 birds dustbathe in larger groups (10-11 birds), compared to the brown breeds (3-4 birds)
DeKalb White and...
In general, composting poultry can be described as an all-natural, environmentally friendly method of mortality management, which minimizes water and air pollution by retaining nutrients, pathogens, and odors. Given the right conditions, microorganisms break down organic material (poultry mortalities, in this case) and carbon into a useful and valuable finished product. Composting also can enhance disease prevention efforts and biosecurity practices by operating in an...