background:avian intestinal spirochetosis (ais) is causedby spiral-shaped gram-negative brachyspira spp. in poultry. it isknown as a cause of diarrhea, low egg production, and increasedoccurrence of dirty eggs in layer hens. objectives: in this study,the presence of some brachyspira spp. was investigated in layinghens. methods: a total of 100 cloacal swab samples wereindividually collected from...

When the nucleus of a hen erythrocyte is introduced into the cytoplasm of a human or mouse cell in culture, it resumes the synthesis of RNA. The reactivated erythrocyte nucleus undergoes great enlargement, but it does not, for at least 2 or 3 days, develop nucleoli which can be discerned under the light microscope. During this period, the heterokaryon, although it may contain several active ery...

In this study, we expand on the examination of genetically determined differences in host responses that correlate with clearance of Chlamydia trachomatis from the genital tract. We infected C57BL/6, BALB/c, and C3H/HeN mice with the mouse pneumonitis agent of C. trachomatis (MoPn). C57BL/6 mice had the shortest course of infection (22 days) and the lowest incidence of severe hydrosalpinx. BALB...

OBJECTIVE Study of the hen immune system led to seminal contributions to basic immunological principles. Recent studies of spontaneous ovarian cancer in the laying hen show strikingly similar tumor types and antigen expression compared to human ovarian cancer, suggesting hens would be valuable for studies of tumor immunology and pre-clinical vaccine development. Circulating mesothelin is a rela...

Under Council Directive 1999/74/EC, minimum space allowances per laying hen range from 550 cm(2) in unfurnished cages to 1111 cm(2) in alternative housing, and to 40,000 cm(2) outdoors for free-range hens. In official reports on the welfare of laying hens, there is recognition that knowledge of their space requirements is inadequate. This experiment studied expression of behaviour, including sp...

an eight week study was conducted to investigate the effect of inclusion of tomato waste meal in layer diets on laying performance, egg quality and lipid profile as a means to reduce feed cost and pollution. four laying diets containing tomato waste meal (twm) at four levels of 0, 3, 6 or 9% were assigned randomly to 4 groups of 40 birds divided among four replicates of 10 birds in each dietary...

The objective of this study was to determine whether Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) has a role in alcohol-mediated acetaminophen (APAP) hepatotoxicity. TLR4 is involved in the inflammatory response to endotoxin. Others have found that ethanol-mediated liver disease is decreased in C3H/HeJ mice, which have a mutated TLR4 resulting in a decreased response to endotoxin compared with endotoxin-respons...

The properties of the few symbiotic stars detected among the 66 binary S stars from the Henize sample are discussed. Two stars (Hen 18 and Hen 121) exhibit both a strong blue-violet continuum and strong Hα emission (FWHM of 70 km s ), whereas Hen 134 and 137 exhibit weak Hα emission. The Hα profiles are typical of non-dusty symbiotic stars belonging to class S-3 as defined by Van Winckel et al....

This article reports the first publicly available egg production costs compared across 3 hen-housing systems. We collected detailed data from 2 flock cycles from a commercial egg farm operating a conventional barn, an aviary, and an enriched colony system at the same location. The farm employed the same operational and accounting procedures for each housing system. Results provide clear evidenc...