The Effect of Body Weight Prior to Molting in Brown Laying Hens on Egg Yield and Quality During Second Production Cycle

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 768-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Ocak . ◽  
M. Sarica . ◽  
G. Erener . ◽  
A.V. Garipoglu .
2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-209
Author(s):  
Vladan Djermanovic ◽  
Sreten Mitrovic ◽  
Milena Milojevic

Certain investigations have been conducted in two broiler breeder flocks of Ross 308 and Cobb 500 hybrids. At the beginning of the production cycle (24 weeks of age), an average laying hens? body weight of 2680.40 g was found in the case of Ross 308 hybrid, and 2697.80 g in the case of Cobb 500 hybrid. During 42nd week of age (the middle of the production cycle), the body weight of laying hens was 3565.10 g (Ross 308) and 3599.05 g (Cobb 500), while at the end of the production cycle (61 weeks of age) the body weight of laying hens of Ross 308 hybrid was 3841.50 g, and 3850.00 g of Cobb 500. Identified differences in body weight of laying hens (17.40 g, 33.95 g, 8.50 g) in certain periods of the production cycle, as well as the difference in body weight of laying hens for the entire production cycle (23.26 g) were not statistically significant (P>0.05). More specific observation of the effect of body weight of laying hens on productive capacity of broiler breeders was determined by calculating the coefficients of phenotype correlation between the indicators studied. Thus, statistically significant (P<0.001, P<0.01, P<0.05) coefficients of phenotype correlation between the body weight of laying hens and the majority of production indicators have been determined, while statistically significant (P<0.001, P<0.01, P<0.05) correlation coefficients between the body weight of laying hens and the intensity of laying capacity for hatching and fertilized eggs have been determined, but for a shorter period of the production cycle.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2124
Author(s):  
Franziska Keßler ◽  
Angelika Grümpel-Schlüter ◽  
Christian Looft ◽  
Stefanie Petow

It is difficult to objectively assess the chronic effects of housing systems on livestock and particularly on laying hens. However, this seems to be important in the context of animal welfare. Therefore, we conducted the present study in order to compare the effect of two different housing conditions, single cage (SC) and floor pen (FP), on the morphology of the adrenal gland. A higher amount of interrenal cells, which secrete stress hormones, can lead to a difference in the relation of adrenal and interrenal cells, which could be interpreted as an indication of chronic stress. For this purpose, adrenal glands were extracted, prepared, stained and examined by microscopy, and total area of the cut, total area of interrenal cells and total area of adrenal cells were measured. As a result, all laying hens had a higher percentage of interrenal cells than adrenal cells (FP: interrenal cells/adrenal cells = 78.37%/21.63%; SC: 80.00%/20.00%). The median of adrenal–interrenal ratio did not differ significantly (FP = 0.2503, SC = 0.2499), while the variation of the ratio between laying hens in FP and SC showed a slight tendency of a higher ratio in adrenal glands of FP (p < 0.0870). Body weight and adrenal–interrenal ratio were significantly negatively correlated in laying hens in FP (rS = −0.943, p < 0.0048) but not in SC (rS = −0.162, p = 0.7283). There was no significant correlation between body weight and total cell area for interrenal cells or adrenal cells. Body weight was significantly lower for laying hens kept in SC than for laying hens kept in FP (p < 0.0001). Due to the present results, it can be concluded that keeping laying hens in single cages can have a negative effect on body weight.


1975 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 741-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. STRAIN ◽  
A. P. PILOSKI

Dwarf broiler breeders in single-bird cages (DC), in floor pens (DF) and normal broiler breeders in floor pens (NF) were compared for their own and their offspring’s performance. No differences were observed in rate of egg production at 147–329 days of age between the NF and DF birds (48 vs. 47%) whereas the DC birds laid at the rate of 40%. Hen-housed egg numbers for the same period followed the same general pattern (NF, 81; DF, 82; DC, 70 eggs/bird). DF and DC birds consumed less feed per dozen eggs than the NF birds (3.4 vs. 4.3 kg/doz). Egg weights in the early part of the production cycle were not significantly different among the groups but at 294 days of age the normal birds laid larger eggs than the dwarfs (65 vs. 62 g). Dwarfs in cages reached 50% production earlier than the DF or NF birds. Female offspring from the three groups grew at the same rate and weighed 1.7 kg at 56 days of age but there were significant differences in feed conversion (NF, 2.46; DF, 2.43; DC, 2.53 kg/kg body weight produced). Male offspring had small but not statistically significant differences in body weight at 56 days (NF, 2.16; DF, 2.12; DC, 2.09 kg) or feed conversion (NF, 2.30; DF, 2.29; DC, 2.34 kg/kg body weight). Mortality in the offspring ranged from 2.7 to 9.2% but did not differ significantly. Income over feed costs per broiler started did not differ from the three groups regardless of the meat price – feed price combination considered. However, when profit was computed on a breeder hen basis, the DF females were more profitable than either the NF or DC females.


2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 857-862
Author(s):  
Fernando Guilherme Perazzo Costa ◽  
Janaine Sena da Costa ◽  
Cláudia de Castro Goulart ◽  
Denise Fontana Figueiredo-Lima ◽  
Raul da Cunha Lima Neto ◽  
...  

This study was carried out to evaluate the energy levels in the diet to obtain better performance rates and quality of eggs from laying hens in the second production cycle. One hundred and eighty Bovans Goldline laying hens with 62 weeks of age were used during four 28-day periods. A completely randomized experimental design was used with four metabolizable energy levels (2,650, 2,725, 2,800, 2,875 and 2,950 kcal/kg), each with six replicates of six birds. The energy level of diet did not affect the weight of the egg, yolk, albumen and eggshell, the percentages of yolk, albumen and eggshell, yolk color and egg specific gravity. Feed intake, egg production, egg mass and feed conversion per egg mass and per dozen eggs increased significantly with increasing levels of metabolizable energy. Feed intake decreased linearly as the energy level in the diet increased. The metabolizable energy levels showed a quadratic effect on egg production, egg mass and feed conversion per egg mass and per dozen eggs. The metabolizable energy level of 2,830 kcal/kg was the most appropriate to promote better performance and quality of eggs from laying hens in the second production cycle.


2014 ◽  
Vol 93 (7) ◽  
pp. 1623-1635 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.H. Marin ◽  
M.G. Liste ◽  
I. Campderrich ◽  
I. Estevez

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Guilherme Perazzo Co ◽  
C.F.S. Oliveira ◽  
C.C. Goulart ◽  
D.F. Figueiredo ◽  
R.C.L. Neto

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remigiusz Gałęcki ◽  
Michał Dąbrowski ◽  
Tadeusz Bakuła ◽  
Kazimierz Obremski ◽  
Adriana Nowak ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the biopreparation Deodoric® on ammonia (NH3) concentration, performance, and hygiene standards in laying hen (ROSS-308) production. Statistically significant differences in NH3 concentration and the body weight of laying hens were observed between the control group (C) and the experimental group (E) where Deodoric® was applied at the set dose. In the control group, an increase in NH3 concentration could have contributed to the decrease in the body weight of laying hens, egg production, and % hen day egg production, whereas no such correlations were observed in the experimental group. A moderate linear correlation between NH3 concentration vs. humidity (r = 0.68), air flow (r = 0.48) and weakly linear correlation between NH3 concentration and age of birds (r = 0.27) was noted in group C. In group E, NH3 concentration vs. temperature (r = 0.27) and humidity (r = 0.14) were weakly correlated. Statistical analysis of changes in the microbial counts isolated from manure revealed a significant decrease of mesophilic microorganisms on day 28 decrease of Campylobacter spp. days 14 and 84 in group E. However, for the entire experimental model no statistically significant changes in the number of Campylobacter spp. and mesophilic bacteria were found. The tested preparation did not cause changes in the microbial composition of tissue swabs. Deodoric® contributes to animal welfare by reducing the ammonia concentrations in poultry houses. It is also recommended for use in poultry farms to improve animal health and performance and to generate benefits for producers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. 56-56
Author(s):  
Han A Mulder ◽  
Marieke Poppe ◽  
Tom V L Berghof

Abstract In their lifetime, animals experience various environmental perturbations, such as heat stress, a disease or a change in feed, which require a response. Animals differ in their capacity to respond to various perturbations; this is called resilience, which is the capacity of animals to be minimally affected by perturbations or to rapidly return to the state before exposure to perturbations. The main obstacle in research on genetics of resilience is how to define and quantify resilience. Big data offers great opportunities because longitudinal profiles of animals, such as feed intake, body weight, milk yield or egg production, contain information about how animals respond to perturbations. The objectives of our research were to define resilience indicators and estimate heritable variation in resilience indicators and to estimate associations with existing health and longevity traits to assess the utility of resilience indicators to improve resilience by breeding. The resilience indicators studied were log-transformed variance of deviations (LnVar), lag-1 autocorrelation (Auto) of deviations and skewness of deviations (Skew) based on daily milk yield in dairy cattle and four-weekly body weight measures in laying hens. In dairy cattle, we estimated a heritability of 0.20–0.24 for LnVar, a heritability of 0.08–0.10 for Auto, and a heritability of 0.01 for Skew. The strongest genetic correlations between a resilience indicator and existing health and longevity traits were found for LnVar with udder health (-0.22 to -0.33), ketosis (-0.27 to -0.33) and longevity (-0.29 to -0.34). In laying hens, we estimated similar heritabilities for the three resilience indicators: 0.10 for LnVar, 0.11 for Auto, and 0.09 for Skew. We found predictive value of LnVar breeding values for lesion scores after challenge with an E-coli infection. These results show that especially the variance of deviations is a promising resilience indicator to improve resilience and health in animals by genetic selection.


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 695-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kailao Wang ◽  
Kai Liu ◽  
Hongwei Xin ◽  
Lilong Chai ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract. Perching is a natural behavior of poultry. Considerable research has been done to explore the relationship between group overall perch usage and well-being of laying hens. To quantify the potential cause-effect relationship on individual hens with different health or well-being status (e.g., keel bone deformation, foot pad lesion, social ranking) in a group, it is necessary to identify the perching behavior of individual birds. However, continuously monitoring individual birds in a group poses considerable challenges. To enable such research and potential commercial application, this study developed and validated a radio frequency identification (RFID) based automated perching monitoring system (APMS) for characterizing individual perching behaviors of group-housed poultry. The APMS consisted of an RFID module, a load cell module, and a round wooden perch. The RFID module was comprised of a high-frequency RFID reader, three customized rectangular antennas placed under the perch, and RFID transponders attached to the birds. The load cell module was comprised of a data acquisition system and two load cells supporting both ends of the perch. The daily number of perch visits (PV) and perching duration (PD) for individual birds were used to delineate perching behavior. Three identical experimental pens, five hens per pen, were equipped with the monitoring system. Two RFID transponders were attached to each hen (one per leg), and a distinct color was marked on the bird’s head for video or visual identification and validation. Performance of the APMS was validated by comparing the system outputs with manual observation and labeling over an entire day. Sensitivity and specificity of the system were shown to improve from 97.77% and 99.88%, respectively when using only the RFID module to 99.83% and 99.93% when incorporating weight information from the load cell module. Using this system, we conducted a preliminary trial on the relationship of perching behavior and body weight of laying hens, which revealed little effect of body weight but considerable variability in perching behavior among the individual hens. The study demonstrated that the APMS had excellent performance in measuring perching behaviors of individual birds in a group. The APMS offers great potential for delineating individual differences in perching behavior among hens with different social status or health conditions in a group setting. Keywords: Individual perching behavior, Laying hen, Load cell, Precision livestock farming, RFID, Welfare.


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