The move to cage-free egg production has spawned a new generation of aviary systems available for hen housing. The question now is how well the new systems perform when balancing egg production and profitability with bird welfare.
Lighting has emerged as one of the most powerful tools to manage and optimize layer performance. It profoundly impacts production, health and overall welfare.
Cloacitis, or vent gleet, is chronic inflammation of a bird’s cloaca that can result in urate scalding, prolapse, weight loss, inactive ovaries and high mortality. Investigators looked at blood biomarkers to identify correlations to birds with cloacitis versus healthy birds.
For laying hens, bone health and eggshell development are critical aspects of lifetime productivity, and calcium supplementation can be beneficial. But when does it become too much of a good thing?
The recent shift to cage-free production has led to more problems with internal parasites and coccidiosis, explains Kenneth Anderson, MS, PhD, North Carolina State University, in a Q&A sponsored by Cargill Animal Health.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming widely used across various fields and could be a transformative tool for enhancing poultry management practices.
Research is showing how to effectively adjust amino acid levels in layer pullet diets, maintaining birds’ longevity and egg production without adding cost.
With the recent rise in the use of slow-growing lines for pasture-based and free-range broiler production, worm infestations could become a significant issue. Warmer weather also contributes to the rise in worm populations, as moisture and humidity create favorable conditions for parasite eggs to thrive, explains Prafulla Regmi, PhD, University of Georgia.
Traditional methods to detect Salmonella in poultry and trace outbreaks often fail to give the full picture of the threat in enough time for integrators to act. This lack of oversight limits the effectiveness of intervention strategies designed to mitigate Salmonella transmission.
The pathogen that caused spotty liver disease (SLD) in chickens from the 1950s to 1980s is re-emerging as a threat to poultry. Since 2018, Campylobacter hepaticus has been identified in laying birds in Iowa, Florida, Georgia and worldwide.
In cage-free systems, it’s not only the birds that are moving around more freely. Bacterial transmission is also quicker and more efficient when birds roam uninhibited in large groups, underlining the importance of effective disease management.
Novel disinfection strategies — electrostatic disinfection (ED) and cold fog (CF) disinfection — could help improve hatchability, reduce chronic respiratory disease (CRD) incidence and improve overall health outcomes for poultry, according to a recent Poultry Science report.
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