Growth, livability, feed consumption, and carcass composition of the Athens Canadian Random Bred 1955 meat-type chicken versus the 2012 high-yielding Cobb 500 broiler.

A flock of the Athens Canadian Random Bred (ACRB), a 1955 meat-type chicken control strain, was raised alongside a flock of 2012 Cobb 500 fast feathering high-yielding broilers to determine selection changes over the past 57 yr. All birds were reared under management practices appropriate for the Cobb 500. Birds were weighed weekly and processed at 6, 8, and 10 wk. Whole carcass, carcass parts, and organs were weighed. Modern broilers outweighed ACRB at every age, ranging from 3.7 to 4.7 times the size of the ACRB. All parts and organs were compared as a percentage of live fasted BW. The ACRB had significantly heavier feet, wings, internal organs, and feathers. The modern Cobb broiler had double the breast and larger leg muscles and had a significantly greater fat pad. Despite the larger muscle mass, the supply organs, the heart and lungs, were significantly smaller in the Cobb broiler than the ACRB as a percentage of BW. Relative size of supply and other vital organs should be given consideration for genetic selection of the future broiler. Comparisons of ACRB weights and organ percentages with past published data indicates that the ACRB remains a consistent control strain.

Research Note: Evaluation of several inoculation procedures for colonization of day-old broiler chicks with Salmonella Heidelberg.

Before starting a study with many birds, it helps to know the method of chick inoculation. The objective was to compare 3 methods of Salmonella challenge (oral gavage [OR], intracloacal inoculation [IC], and seeder bird [SB]). Day-old broiler chicks (n = 100) were inoculated with 106 colony forming units (CFU) per chick of a marker strain of Salmonella Heidelberg (SH) with each route of inoculation. Chicks (n = 25) inoculated by each route were placed in floor pens on fresh pine shavings litter. For the seeder batch, 5 colonized chicks, each orally gavaged with 106 CFUs, were placed with 20 pen mates. Two weeks after inoculation, 10 birds from each pen and the 5 inoculated seeder birds were euthanized, the ceca were aseptically removed and macerated with a rubber mallet and weighed, and 3 times (w/v) buffered peptone was added and stomached for 60 s. Serial dilutions were made and plated onto Brilliant Green Sulfa plates containing 200 ppm nalidixic acid. Plates were incubated along with the stomached ceca for 24 h at 37°C. If no colonies appeared on the plates, an additional plate was streaked from the preenriched bag and incubated for 24 h at 37°C. In addition to all seeder birds being positive, the number of SH-positive birds out of 20 sampled in each group was 13, 17, and 7 for OR, IC, and SB, respectively. The level of SH per g of ceca and cecal contents was log (SE) 3.0 (0.7), 2.0 (0.4), and 2.6 (0.4) for OR, IC, and SB, respectively. After enrichment, the number of colonized birds out of 20 was 18, 20, and 10 for OR, IC, and SB, respectively. In conclusion, this study suggests that IC is the method to use to ensure most of the challenged birds are colonized. However, if you prefer to have a smaller percentage of the birds colonized with higher levels, then OR might be better.

Antimicrobial interventions to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter populations and improve shelf life of quail carcasses.

Quail (Coturnix japonica) is processed and marketed as fresh meat, with limited shelf life. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of antimicrobial interventions during slaughter on reducing Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination and to determine the microbiological shelf life of quail during refrigerated (4°C) storage. Three antimicrobials, peracetic acid (400 ppm; PAA), Citrilow (pH 1.2), and Cecure (cetylpyridinium chloride [CPC], 450 ppm), along with a water and no-treatment control were evaluated. Quail carcasses (n = 75) were inoculated with a cocktail of nalidixic acid-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium and gentamicin-resistant Campylobacter coli. After 30 min of attachment time, quail carcasses were submerged in each antimicrobial solution for 20 s with air agitation. Noninoculated quail carcasses (n = 25) were similarly treated, packaged, and stored under refrigeration (4°C). Aerobic plate counts (APC), psychrotroph counts (PC), Enterobacteriaceae counts (ENT), total coliform counts (TCC), and Escherichia coli counts on quail carcasses were determined on 1, 4, 7, and 10 d. Salmonella and Campylobacter populations were determined by plating on Petrifilm APC supplemented with 200-ppm nalidixic acid and Campy Cefex agar supplemented with 200-ppm gentamycin, respectively. No significant reductions in (P > 0.01 log cfu/mL) in APC, PC, ENT, TCC, and E. coli counts were observed on carcasses submerged in water. However, treatments with PAA, Citrilow, and CPC significantly reduced (P ≤ 0.05) Salmonella and Campylobacter coli contamination. Citrilow showed greater (P ≤ 0.05) reduction in Salmonella and Campylobacter population (1.90 and 3.82 log cfu/mL reduction, respectively) to PAA and CPC. Greater (P ≤ 0.05) reductions in APC, PC, ENT, TCC, and E. coli counts (2.22, 1.26, 1.47, 1.52, and 1.59 log cfu/mL, respectively) were obtained with the application of CPC. Application of antimicrobial interventions resulted in a reduction in Campylobacter and Salmonella, APC, PC, and ENT populations after treatments (day 0) and throughout the storage period (day 10). Use of antimicrobial interventions after slaughter can improve the microbiological safety and shelf life of quail.

Impact of litter Salmonella status during feed withdrawal on Salmonella recovery from the broiler crop and ceca.

Research was conducted to evaluate the impact of litter Salmonella status during feed withdrawal on Salmonella recovery from the crop and ceca following feed withdrawal. In 4 experiments, pens of broilers in separate rooms were challenged with marker strains of either Salmonella Montevideo or Salmonella Heidelberg. Three d post challenge, a 12-hour feed withdrawal was initiated, and one pen of broilers was switched between rooms for each Salmonella serotype. In experiments 3 and 4, non-challenged broilers also were added to the Salmonella challenge pens. The litter of each pen was sampled before and after the feed withdrawal period, the broilers euthanized, and the crop and ceca aseptically removed for Salmonella isolation. Results showed that only the challenge Salmonella serotype was recovered from the litter in challenge pens where broilers were not moved, while both Salmonella serotypes were recovered from the litter of the switched pens. Salmonella was recovered from 56/80 crops and from 66/80 ceca of challenged broilers that remained in the challenge pens. The challenge Salmonella serotype was recovered from 50/80 crops and from 60/80 ceca, and the switched pens' litter Salmonella serotype was recovered from 19/80 crops but not from the ceca in broilers challenged with Salmonella and then switched between pens. For experiments 3 and 4, Salmonella was recovered from 19/40 crops and from only 2/40 ceca from the non-challenged broilers placed into the Salmonella challenge pens. The results from broilers that were switched between Salmonella challenge pens indicate that the recovery of Salmonella from the crop of broilers following feed withdrawal (on Salmonella-contaminated litter) appears to depend mainly on the initial challenge Salmonella (62%) and less on the litter Salmonella (24%) status during the feed withdrawal period. In contrast, only the initial challenge Salmonella was recovered from the ceca (79%) from broilers that remained in challenge pens or were switched between Salmonella challenge pens. However, when non-challenged broilers were placed into the Salmonella challenge pens and commingled during the 12-hour feed and water withdrawal period, it was possible to recover the pen litter Salmonella from the ceca at a low level of 5% (2/40).

Effect of intermittent and continuous photoperiods on fly populations.

Six rooms, identical and environmentally controlled, and each housing 14 caged turkey breeder hens, were exposed to light schedules to provide continuous and intermittent photoperiods of 14, 12, and 10 h as follows: 1) 14 h, continuous; 2) 14 h, intermittent; 3) 12 h, continuous; 4) 12 h, intermittent; 5) 10 h, continuous; and 6) 10 h, intermittent. Observations were made regarding: 1) the number of flies on feeders, in jug traps, on sticky fly tapes for 24 h, and sticky fly tapes for 1 h; 2) fly spots on paper sheets and fly spots on hanging cords. There were significantly (P less than .05) fewer fly per spot observations under intermittent lighting for all quantification methods except the jug traps.

Endogenous amylase levels and response to supplemental feed enzymes in male turkeys from hatch to eight weeks of age.

Amylase and xylanase enzyme concentrations in the pancreas, small intestine, and crop were measured in Nicholas male poults fed diets with and without supplemental amylase and xylanase from 0 to 8 wk of age. Eight birds from each of three diets (control, amylase-supplemented, xylanase-supplemented) were killed every 3 d to determine the amylase and xylanase activity within the pancreas, small intestine, and crop. Pancreatic organ weight was not affected by diet, indicating an absence of dietary amylase effect upon pancreatic tissue growth. Pancreatic amylase activity was not consistently affected by diet. Amylase activity within the intestinal chyme increased sporadically with dietary amylase supplementation over the control and xylanase-supplemented diets. Increasing supplemental amylase activity levels may provide more conclusive evidence of an additive effect of dietary amylase and endogenous amylase activity. Xylanase supplementation within the feed did not affect endogenous amylase activity.

Effects of protein level and enzyme supplementation upon growth and rate of digesta passage of male turkeys.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of feeding enzyme supplements (Avizyme and protease) at two levels of dietary crude protein (24 and 28%) to male turkeys from 0 to 5 wk of age. The Avizyme-protease enzyme mixture was fed at five concentrations within each protein level in an effort to determine an optimal level of supplementation. Enzymes were added to the 24% protein diet to determine whether the supplements would enhance the growth performance of birds fed the lower protein diet to the level of those fed the 28% protein diet. Rate of passage was evaluated to determine whether an ANF effect corresponded to enzyme concentration or protein level. Dietary protein level significantly influenced growth. Birds fed the 28% protein diet had improved body weight gain, feed consumption, and feed efficiency of 11.5, 6.5, and 4.4%, respectively, when compared with birds fed the 24% protein diet. Enzyme addition to the 24% protein corn-soybean meal diet produced a graded response but did not improve growth over the control. Although enzyme supplementation improved poult utilization of the 24% protein diet, growth and feed utilization were not equal to the performance of the poults fed the 28% protein diet. When the enzyme mixture was added to the 28% diet, performance was not consistently altered. Rate of digesta passage was not different between the levels of dietary protein or among levels of enzyme supplementation, indicating that the applied protein levels did not deleteriously affect nutrient utilization.

Growth and intestinal morphology of male turkeys as influenced by dietary supplementation of amylase and xylanase.

Three diets, a control and two diets supplemented with an enzyme cocktail premix containing either amylase or xylanase, were each fed to 100 male poults (10 replicates of 10 poults per pen) from 0 to 5 wk of age to observe the effects upon body weight gain, feed intake, and feed efficiency. The amylase-supplemented diet significantly increased feed efficiency through the first 2 wk and significantly increased body weight gain and feed intake through the first 3 wk. Xylanase supplementation did not improve growth or feed efficiency over the control. Mean villus length within the jejunum and ileum was significantly increased at 2 and 3 wk of age by dietary supplementation of amylase when compared with the control and xylanase diets. These findings suggest that the increased growth associated with the amylase diet during 0 to 3 wk can, in part, be explained by the increase in absorptive surface area, allowing for increased digestion of available nutrients coupled with increased enzyme activity for carbohydrate degradation from the supplemental enzymes.

Ammonia emissions from broiler litter: response to bedding materials and acidifiers.

1. In a pen study, NH(3) flux estimates were performed when clean wheat straw or wood shavings were used as bedding materials in combination with two NH(3) control amendments: sodium bisulphate and a commercial premix of phosphoric + hydrochloric + citric acids. 2. Ammonia emissions from wood shavings were 19% greater than from wheat straw around waterers, but statistically similar around feeders. These results could be due to the greater caking observed when wheat straw was used. 3. Sodium bisulphate reduced NH(3) emissions significantly only in the first half of the rearing period; the loss of efficacy in the second half resulted in total NH(3) volatilisation not statistically different from the untreated control. The treatment containing phosphoric + hydrochloric + citric acids did not have a significant effect in decreasing NH(3) emissions. 4. Bird mortality was not affected by the treatments, but broiler weight gain when wheat straw was used was significantly lower than with wood shavings, which could have been caused by the greater caking observed with wheat straw.