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Poultry welfare
Proper animal welfare involves providing the proper housing, management, nutrition, disease prevention and treatment, responsible care, humane handling and, when necessary, humane euthanasia. These factors allow for the most optimal and humane growing environment. The concept of animal welfare includes three elements: the bird’s normal biological functioning, its emotional state and its ability to express its natural behaviors. Improving animal welfare can be accomplished through offerings like poultry feed enrichment, which can reduce stress, thereby increasing performance, productivity and profitability. Animal welfare is currently a major requirement for intensive poultry production. Beak trimming, stocking density, free access to feed, heat stress, and air pollutants became important issues, which are regulated in several countries. Animal welfare is observed by watching how birds naturally behave and even by looking at mortality stemming from aggressive behaviors.
This newsletter provides an overview of the anatomy of the keel bone, risk factors and welfare implications associated with keel fractures, how to assess keel bone integrity, and management strategies to mitigate keel fractures in laying hens. ...
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Maven of diversified fields including Steve Jobs believes in Quality rather than quantity. In Poultry, quality egg even if less quantity can conquer more profit than the poor quality (cracked, soiled, smelled, less weight, misshapen, etc) but more in quantity eggs. Summer is the...
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Leg problems are among the top health concerns of poultry raised for meat. Leg problems influence poultry at all stages of production, lead to reduced productivity and contribute to mortality. Leg problems have many different causes and contributing factors, including...
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I. INTRODUCTION Human consumption of chicken meat products has risen exponentially over the past five decades and continues to grow on a global scale. Thus chicken meat production has seen unparalleled expansion, to meet the continually increasing consumer demand (Allievi et al., 2015). Such expansion has resulted in the chicken meat industry being at the forefront of animal production, where advances in animal nutrition and genetics are near optimal. Therefore, producers...
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DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM Farm animals need optimal environment for development and growth in order to reach their genetic capacity. Any weakness of the components of environment may decrease the performance. Consuming water is one of the main pillars of the obtained performance. Importance of consumed water by animals during the growing and fattening period is a reality in the whole livestock sector. Water is considered as nutrient and essential element for all the...
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Calculating a proper stocking density will determine the maximum farm profitability in broiler chickens. Choosing the stocking density implies knowing the impacts on live performance, and its interrelations with the environment and dietary nutrients. Abundant studies about stocking density run under non-commercial conditions might not indicate the best reliable information to know the farm profitability. As a result, few studies are reliable for commercial purposes. Poultry managers should...
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Heat Stress in Laying Hens Heat stress is one of the primary concerns for laying hen production in the summer as heat waves may significantly increase flock mortality and reduce egg production in hen houses. The use of mechanical ventilation and cooling cells are popular cooling methods used in the southern US, including Georgia. However, most of the layer farms in the US Midwest (where over 50% of US table eggs are produced) do not have evaporative cooling systems due primarily...
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It is widely accepted that the absence of suffering no longer defines animal welfare and that positive affective experiences are important (Mellor 2015). However, there are few valid and reliable tools available to comprehensively...
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Evonik’s Amino Acids Strategy: Goals and Methionine Asset Insights
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Bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO) is an infective leg condition that results in lameness, affecting meat chickens internationally. BCO can be induced using mechanical challenges such as wire ramps (Wideman 2016). Based on a study wherein perches had a negative impact on bird latency to lie (LTL) at 42 days (d) old (Phibbs et al. 2020) perches may be a mechanical challenge to birds also, reducing their leg health in a similar way to Wideman’s ramps. This study compared...
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I. INTRODUCTION Maintaining vegetation on free range farms with fixed ranges is a significant issue (Singh et al., 2017). Nonetheless, free range accreditation programs stipulate palatable vegetation to be available on the range at all times (RSPCA 2015). This is more problematic to achieve during dry seasonal conditions and drought, which are common features of the Australian climate. ...
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Free-range layer pullets are typically reared indoors within Australia, but adult layers go outdoors which might cause poorer adaptation due to the mismatch between rearing and laying environments. Indoor enrichments may optimise physical development of pullets and subsequent welfare as adult free-range hens (Campbell et al., 2019). In the outdoor environment, hens may have greater opportunities for exercise and natural behaviours which might contribute to improved physical health and...
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I. INTRODUCTION Heavily driven by public perception and large supermarket monopolies, welfare is of major concern for the poultry industry. The past few decades have seen development of poultry practices with a heavy focus on the welfare of poultry. There have been huge changes implemented to accommodate improvements in welfare, particularly in the layer industry. There are now a number of production systems...
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1. INTRODUCTION Consumer demands and the pressure of supermarket chains are changing rapidly the way eggs are produced. Enriched cages are not considered a sound alternative to improve animal welfare standards in the developed countries. Consequently, the industry is moving hens from battery cages towards alternative systems, such as deep litter and aviary barns, with or without access to an outdoor area. In addition, organic production with non-beak trimmed hens, under...
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Free-range layer systems are increasing globally but range use can be low, particularly when birds are first provided outdoor access. It is recommended to match the rearing system with the layer system for optimal bird welfare (Janczak and Riber, 2015). However, within Australia, pullets destined for free-range systems are typically reared indoors which may hinder their adaptability to the outdoor environment as adults. Rearing enrichments may optimise behavioural development and better...
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by Sam Shafer
For broiler chickens, how much space each bird gets around a feeder may be an important factor in weight gain and overall productivity.
According to a new Journal of Applied Poultry Research ® study led by scientists at Mississippi State University and the USDA-ARS Poultry Research Unit, increased feeder spacing can help growing broiler chickens get off to a good start—but these improvements don’t appear to translate to...
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1. Introduction The food demand is projected to double over the next 50 years [1]. The increase in the demand of poultry meat over the past decade has been due to the low cost, the positive nutritional profiles, and the suitability in farming [2]. Intensive production is required to achieve the demand, and poultry health should be approached in a multidisciplinary way to ensure animal health [3]. According to OIE, an animal is in a good state of welfare if it is healthy,...
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Managing heat stress in poultry remains a major concern for both producers and scientists as it accounts for an annual loss of $128 to $165 million in the poultry industry alone. The impact of heat stress results in a drastic change in physiological activity linked with a decrease in feed consumption, growth rate, eggshell quality, and biochemical change like increase in the level of glucocorticoids leads to reduced immunity, and breakdown of muscle due to gluconeogenesis and the upward...
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Introduction The improvement of genetic selection and management practices are increased dramatically for the last decades (Kryeziu et al., 2018), stocking density of broilers is one of the major factors that can improve performance to face the improvement of genetic selection (Simsek et al., 2011). Stocking density has a significant impact on production cost, however, excessive density may affect broiler performance and thus slaughterer traits. Slaughter traits are...
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by Sam Shafer
Poultry producers maintain healthy, productive flocks by carrying out depopulation when hens reach 65 to 90 weeks old. Depopulation means hens need to be caught, carried and put in crates on their way to slaughter. The challenge is that hens in commercial systems are not used to being handled, and they often struggle to avoid being caught. As a result, each step of the depopulation process comes with a risk of injury and stress for the...
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By Claire Marie Coleman
As the No. 1 poultry producing state in the U.S., Georgia’s poultry industry generates more than $3.8 billion annually. Part of...
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