Calcium plays a key role in poultry feed conversion. In addition to bone density, muscle contraction and other critical functions, calcium affects the efficiency of turning food into weight gain. But in broilers, it’s not just the amount of calcium that matters. What really counts is bioavailability: how much of that nutrient the bird can actually use.
Regular monitoring of broiler drinking-water consumption helps track flock health and performance. A sudden dip or downward trend can alert the producer to potentially serious health or production problems.
A precision poultry-feeding system developed by University of Alberta scientists has the potential to bring improved fertility, better flock uniformity and significant savings for broiler breeder producers.
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.
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.
A North Carolina State University study, led by graduate student Athena He-DeMontaron, compared the growth performance and mortalities of fast- and slow-growing strains of broilers reared in silvopastures, which provide a natural habitat with trees, shrubbery and vegetation and indoor facilities. How did these systems impact the different bird strains?
An innovative vaccine designed to protect broilers against increasingly virulent forms of Marek’s Disease is helping producers rethink how they approach immune health, and how they use data to diagnose problems before they’re visible in the flock.
By Shreeya Sharma
Graduate research assistant
Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences
Clemson University
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.
US broiler operations commonly reuse litter for environmental and economic reasons. Research and real-world results have shown that the first broiler flock raised on brand-new litter underperforms flocks raised on used litter, but the reasons remain unclear.
As poultry companies weigh cost and efficiency with higher animal welfare standards, research comparing conventional and slow-growing broiler breeds showed that the slow-growing chickens displayed behaviors more closely associated with positive welfare.
