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73 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back

What is a pullet?

A chicken raised fro a day old to 16wks

When do birds reach sexual maturity?

at 17-18 wks

Mortality in the rearing phase for chickens?

2-3%

Hen day production?

Ranges from 250-330 eggs in 12 months

When are hens culled?

At 68-72 weeks of age

Mortality in the laying phase?

2-15% (3% is good performance)

What is the typical mortality rate/month?

.2-1%

How many eggs can a rhode island red produce?

10x its weight in eggs

Why do we use leghorns?

Lower body weight and increased egg production

What are red jungle fowl?

They only weigh about 2kg, but this is where the domestic chicken comes from

What is the minimal space allocated to layers?

550cm^2/bird

What is the ethical dilemma?

Birds need to forage and bathe, but they're prone to parasites and disease

What does the experimental enriched cage offer?

Can house 8-12 birds, contains dust bath, small nest box, and perch. The nest boxes need to be bigger but they are the best alternative to free range, protects the birds. But still a cage in welfare standards.

What is an eco-shelter and free range?

Large shed. They're allowed to go outside but a lot of times they won't go and the moisture builds up inside.
Equivalent to a feedlot
You'll need to be aware of the runoff.

Free range type 2 Mobile shed

1 bird per m^2 Low technology, more manual work

Barn egg production system?

Automatic nest to load eggs and automatic feeder and drinker. The birds are confined to a large shed. The problem with this is the buildup of moisture, but birds are constrained so you do have bio-security management.

What do we use in nest boxes?

Astroturf to mimic natural grass

What do we do with the eggs?

Collected, labeled and placed on a large truck

What are the benefits of having the birds on a grated system?

No bio-security risk, no oral to fecal contamination, as fecal matter falls through the grates

Intensive aviary systems?

Intense barns that will offer free range are at risk for fecal build up because we can't move the sheds and birds don't like to leave the sheds.

Aviary

 Limited use commercially in Australia
 European housing system
 High rise barn system combined with free range?
 Large farm of 120,000 birds plus free range

Experimental facilities

Modern Cages/ Concrete floor &sealed walls. Control of people coming in and out

What kind of cooling systems are used?

Evporative cooling

What is an enclosed/controlled environment barn egg/breeder production system?

Confines the birds, no free range, but no cages.

Plastic slatted floor with largecolony nests

Not exactly welfare happy, but can put about 80 birds in big cage with nest box and perch, but no bedding or dust bath. We use these for broilers. If we allow birds to dust bathe, it can compromise their respiratory immune system.

What is the future for free range?

 Free range type 1 ???
 Free-range type 2 will be restricted to a small boutiquesector with farm size ranging from 200-4,000 hens
Barn Laid
 automated deep litter system
 5-8% of Victorian supermarket shell egg sales RSPCA accredited
Barn Advantages
 elimination of wild birds
 protection from predators
 moderate economies of scale
 Birds can nest, dust bathe, perch and movearound freely.
Barn Disadvantages
social competition isincreased

 reduced production in comparison to cages
 floor eggs.
 increased mortality compared to cages

Under weight flocks & UnderWeight birds
Lower egg production
High incidence of blood stained eggs
Higher mortality
Tends to be greater in free range/barn eggs
Cloacal Haemorrhage
Cloacal haemorrhage & oviduct eversion maytrigger vent trauma and cannibalismHAEMORRHAGE PREDISPOSES CANNIBALISM INMANY ANIMAL SPECIES
Beak induced VentTrauma/Cannibalism
Strongly correlated with oviduct impactionStrongly correlated with egg peritonitis/salpingitis
Egg peritonitis/salpingitis not observed in single bird cages
CANNIBALISM IN THE FOWL
MULTIFACTORIAL PROBLEM
INATE BIOLOGY
LEARNT BEHAVIOUR IN YOUNG CHICKS ASSOCIATED WITHFEATHER PICKING
HIGH TEMPERATURE
HIGH HUMIDITY
HIGH LIGHT INTENSITY > 30 LUX
SUDDEN INCREASES IN LIGHT INTENSITY
PICA OR NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES
HAEMORRHAGE & TISSUE TRAUMA
CANNIBALISM IMPORTANT INWELFARE DEBATE
INFLUENCES DENSITYI
NFLUENCES HOUSING SYSTEM
INFLUENCES GROUP SIZE
Management Control ofCannibalism
Improved control of feather picking in young pullets (3-6weeks of age) highly correlated with life time control ofcannibalism
Converse also true
Low light intensity used as management tool
Sudden changes in light intensity or high light intensitytriggers feather picking and cannibalism
Beak trimming also used to control cannibalism

How can we beak trim?

Hot Blade Beak Trimmer
Infra red day old trimmer (the white part is treated)

What happens if we inconsistently trim the beaks?

They have different lengths of the beak and this can affect their eating habits

Options For Egg Layers to prevent canibilsm
BODY WEIGHT MANAGEMENT & CONTROL OF LIGHTINTENSITY
LIGHT MANAGEMENT & NO BEAK TRIMMIMG
LIGHT MANAGEMENT & DAY OLD TRIM USING INFRA RED
LIGHT MANAGEMENT , DAY OLD TRIM & SECOND HOTBLADE TRIM
NO LIGHT MANAGEMENT, DAY OLD TRIM & SECOND HOTBLADE TRIM
What is the Impact of BeakTrimming
Mechanical inhibition
Influencing behaviour
Both ??
Reversion to cannibalism following beaktrimming can occur in predisposed flocks in 6-8 weeks!!!
Study evolution of picking behaviour
Antibiotic Growth Promotants inPoultry Production
All antibiotic compounds are registered andhave Maximum Residue Limits with withholdperiods
Some antibiotics produced bacterial resistanceproblems
Most antibiotic with a human application nowremoved from the food chain.
Some antibiotic resistance problems in humanstriggered by over prescription
Some are still used to control coccidiosis, must have w/hold period to prevent transport into meat
Hormones
No hormone used since 1960 (they grow faster now through the use of genetics)
Oestradiol compound used called HexonCapsule injected in the neck of male layingcockerels
Never applied to modern Meat Chickens
AU doesn't export their poultry
Global structures & Genetic Resource inChicken Meat Industry
Hendrix Poultry: Cobb Breeders: Hybro Broilers, HubbardBroilers (franchise all around the world)
Lohmann Tierzucht: Aviagen: Ross Breeders & Arbor Acres
These are the companies that hold the genetic material
Victorian Industry
120 million broilers produced in Victoria (25.4% of Australianproduction) in 2005
4 major processors in Victoria
Ingham's 23%

Bartter/Steggles & La Ionica 31 %
Baiada Poultry - 33 %
Hazeldene's - 13 %

Broiler Breeders

Produce fertile eggs, which are incubated and then the chicks are placed in intensive sheds. They can weigh up to ~4kg and lay about 180eggs

What are some of the synthetic meat lines?

Plymouth rock and Cornish or Indian Game

THE AUSTRALIAN &VICTORIAN CHICKENMEAT INDUSTRY
 emerged as a specialist industry in the late1950's.
 produced ~ 3 million broilers in 1950-'51
 SYNTHETIC LINES
 ~ 450 million broilers slaughtered in 2005
Australian Consumption of ChickenMeat
 per capita consumption of poultry meat growingrapidly - risen from 4.4kg in 1950-'51 to over 38 kg in 2006
 price competitiveness has been the major factor
 perception that poultry is a healthy, low fat foodwhich is easy to prepare
 increased emphasis on convenience foods

What is the driving force behind poultry consumption?

It keeps getting cheaper

Victorian Chicken Meat IndustryStructure
high levels of vertical integration (the bringingtogether of successive stages in production andmarketing under the control of one organisation)

Broiler Breeders on Slatted Floor

Very similar to barn system, they have litter and nest boxes and the slating in the floor limits the fecal to oral contimination ~10k birds

Incubation of Fertile Eggs
Birds are mated every 5-7d

10 days to 14 days fertile egg collection
21 days incubation

Fertile eggs in the cool room?

12-15C, 75% humidity, store for about 15d. The eggs are all stocked and turned during the incubation process
They have sensor monitoring to help monitor humidity and temperature

Fertile egg during candling?

Put a light on the embryo around 7d you should start to see the blood vessels. There are other methods where you can break the egg, but then it is no longer viable.

What happens once the chicks hatch?

Once the chicks hatch, they are counted and sexed. They receive an automatic course spray vaccination then they're moved onto warm trucks and transported.

What about dead eggs?

Dead in shell breakout and microbial monitoring. We need to confirm the cause of death

How are the chicks raised?

About 60k chicks come off the truck. The shed starts off at 30/32C and the temp decreases 2 degrees every week until they're fully feathered at about 4wks. They have an automatic feeding pen and are given starter feed. The shed is a modern tunnel ventilation system with ventilation fans at the end.

Free range broiler production

More traditional, smaller farms, about 10% of free range farms; lower density. Once the birds are 2-4wks they're allowed to roam outside. This will decrease the faeces within the shed.
40 from 220 farms
Increasing component (fairly stable)

Growth cycle

Birds are grown to an age ranging from 5-8 weeks depending on a processor (they'll be given a grower feed during such time)
After each batch sheds are cleaned and disinfected
Each farmer grows an average of ~5.5 batches annually. (you're looking at about 550,000 birds a year)

Contract production

Majority of the chicken growing in victoria is done under contractual arrangement between the grower and the processing corporations.
~200 contract growers in Victoria

Processing sector

Chickens are transported directly from the farm to the processing plant in crates. When they arrive at the plant they are placed in shackles and electrically stunned followed by slaughter.
Largest plant in Victoria currently processes about 700,000 birds per weel using a standard 40hr week.
Victoria processes about 2 million birds/week

Electrical Stunning
Defined Current and Duration
Some gaseous stunning using CarbonDioxide

Broiler growth curve

Feed efficiency is optimized at about 7d to 56d. You'll see a massive acceleration of growth; REALLY need to monitor nutrition to ensure maximal growth, if there's going to be a physiological or metabolic problem it will be noted here. The extra growth rate is driven by genetics and nutrition.

BASIC INFORMATION on broilers
Broilers grow from day old to processing age in 35-49 days
Mortality range 1.5- 6 % ( Good performance 2-3%)
0.5-1.0% mortality in week one
0.2-0.5% mortality week 2 to week 8.
MORTALITY
Yolk sac infection 1-5 days/bacterialdiseaseAcute death syndrome
Ascites
Lameness and skeletal disease
Respiratory disease & bacterial septicaemia
Rachitic Disorders
develop between 7-14 days of age .
Skeletal problems. If they don't get the nutrients to the bones at the correct rate (during fast growth) will develop skeletal problems.
Ventricular Enlargement
5-14days of age.
R heart becomes quite dilated as a result of improper nutrients during rapid development

How does asites form?

When the R heart encounters increased BP in the arteries of the lungs, it responds to increase workload as other muscles do by getting bigger. If the pressure remains high, the muscles continue to thicken until the valve non longer is able to completely close. This causes the blood pressure to rise in the veins leading to the heart, especially from the liver. The result is an increased pressure in the liver with leakage of blood fluids, without the RBC, into the body cavity.
This decrease in circulating fluid will activate the sympathetic nervous system which will increase the production of renin and increase the HR. Renin will restrict the blood flow (increasing HR) and will cause the kidneys to further retain fluid thus further aggrevating the issue

What causes asites?

Broilers are growing so fast, the growth of the heart and lungs has not increase in size proportional to the increase in BW and breast meat yield. This rapid growth requires greater O2 demand, requiring more work out of the heart and the lungs.
Anything that limits oxygen uptake from the lungs is going to cause the heart to work harder. Diseases of the lungs and poor ventilation may also increase the problems.
Excessive Na levels lead to increase pulmonary BP.
High altitudes

When does ascites develop?

14-35d

Rachitic disease improved by
Growth restriction day 4-11
Correct dietary calcium:phosphorus ratio
Vitamin D supplementation (25-Hydroxycholecalciferol orvitamin D3
Sudden death & Ascites improved by
Growth Restriction
Warm brooding
Low dietary sodium ???
Cation/Anion Balance
Correct coccidiostat
Animal Welfare Issues
Culling for immobility and dehydration
Shed ammonia
Tissue scalding
Densities