Evolution, not revolution: Moving from the Five Freedoms of welfare to Five Domains
By Ken Opengart, DVM, PhD, DACPV
3 Birds Consulting
Signal Mountain, Tennessee
By Ken Opengart, DVM, PhD, DACPV
3 Birds Consulting
Signal Mountain, Tennessee
By Shreeya Sharma
Graduate research assistant
Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences
Clemson University
Feed additives, which facilitate nutrient transport in birds, can help producers counter the rising costs of energy sources in poultry diets and loss of resources resulting from the competition for these ingredients. Emulsifiers could be a promising option here.
By Jennifer Irwin
North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine
By Matthew J. Hardy, MSc
AgriNerds – Co-owner, Waterfowl Biologist and Co-director of Ecological Modeling
Chester County, Pennsylvania
A new in ovo sexing technique with a modified genetic trait to hatch only female chicks may someday help eliminate the culling of day-old male chicks. According to developer and embryologist Yuval Cinnamon, PhD, the genetically based solution offers many benefits over the other technologies currently on the market.
By Matthew J. Hardy, MSc
AgriNerds – Co-owner, Waterfowl Biologist and Co-director of Ecological Modeling
Chester County, Pennsylvania
Campylobacter hepaticus has been identified as the causative agent in spotty liver disease, so when Roel Becerra, DVM, received a phone call from a producer that had free-range, antibiotic-free, brown layer hens with SLD, he and fellow investigators decided to study chlorine as a possible treatment.
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 “Let’s Talk Turkey” episode of the Unplucked podcast produced by the Poultry Science Association, Carrie Cremers, DVM, manager of technical service and animal welfare at Jennie-O, discussed how the weight of ever-present HPAI has led to biosecurity burnout among workers.
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.
