Food Safety

Industry Insights

Multi-strain bacterin vaccine demonstrates broad protection against spotty liver disease

Recently, Campylobacter hepaticus was identified as the causative agent for chicken spotty liver disease (SLD), an illness which manifests as acute infectious hepatitis and causes a significant drop in egg production and high mortality in layer chickens. Researchers from Iowa State University, led by Orhan Sahin, DVM, PhD, are studying Campylobacter bacterins in the control of SLD.

Layers

broilers

Welfare

Embryologist eyes blue-light treatment to end male-chick culling

Culling day-old male chicks from egg-laying hens is an on-going dilemma for the global poultry industry, resulting in the culling of 7 billion male chicks annually. At the 2025 International Poultry Scientific Forum, Yuval Cinnamon, PhD, outlined the work his research team has done on the Golda hen and optogenetics — a blue-light treatment — to halt the development of male chicks and thereby the need for culling.

Feed

Turkeys

Breeders