The shift to cage-free layer housing opened the door to poultry diseases that disappeared during the years of cage housing. At the Devenish Symposium held during the 2025 PEAK conference, Dan Wilson, DVM, Wilson Vet Co., discussed the return of several diseases from the past that affect today’s egg layers.
The shift to cage-free layer housing opened the door to poultry diseases that disappeared during the years of cage housing. At the Devenish Symposium held during the 2025 PEAK conference, Dan Wilson, DVM, Wilson Vet Co., discussed the return of several diseases from the past that affect today’s egg layers.
Eric Shepherd, DVM, and Brian Fairchild, DVM, recently offered practical advice for reducing disease risk in poultry environments. They spoke in a webinar sponsored by the Poultry Science Association and American Association of Avian Pathologists and presented six tips they gathered while working with poultry farms.
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Adding organic acids to poultry drinking water has been suggested as a potential intervention in managing Salmonella, but research by Auburn University scientists showed otherwise.
Low crude-protein diets are a well-proven practice to reduce diet cost and minimize excess nitrogen and excreta, thereby benefiting profitability, health and welfare in broilers and swine. However, the laying-hen industry is far behind in understanding the interaction and requirement of lower amino acids.
Faced with the emerging disease threat posed by avian metapneumovirus (aMPV), the USDA is allowing the importation of three vaccines from Boehringer Ingelheim: the live virus products NEMOVAC™ for use in chickens and AVIFFA RTI for use in turkeys and chickens, as well as the TUR-3 inactivated vaccine for primary vaccination of both turkey and chicken flocks against aMPV subtype B.
Feed is a vital part of the poultry industry, representing around 60-70% of the total costs. However, even the best feed formulation cannot deliver results if the birds cannot access it readily. Anusha Gautam and Bethany Baker-Cook, PhD, Auburn University, discuss the right type of feeders to select for each of the production phases, appropriate feeder spacing, proper feeder height, and the overall feeder arrangement.
Once the market weight is achieved in turkeys, they are herded, loaded and transported to slaughter plants for stunning and processing, but these events of known as “live haul” can pose risks to animal welfare throughout the process.
Providing the proper stocking density to maximize broiler productivity, welfare and profitability is a balancing act. Because the birds grow dramatically in just a few weeks, space and environmental demands continuously evolve.
Reducing dietary calcium concentrations in broiler diets can increase calcium and phosphorus digestibility, but deviating from recommended levels can come with costs, according to the results of an Auburn University study.
In the last 2 decades, strides in poultry nutrition helped build profitability for poultry producers in the US and around the world. Average US feed-conversion rates (FCR) have improved by 23 points (0.23) since 2000, according to Michael Kidd, PhD, professor in the Department of Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas.
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