This study deals with the effects of different hatcher temperatures on hatching traits in modern commercial broiler eggs during the last five days of incubation. The hatching eggs were obtained from a 52wk old (Ross 308) flock. All eggs were distributed randomly into one incubator and incubated for 17 d using uniform conditions (37.6 ± 0.5 °C and 58% relative humidity). At the start of 18 days ...

The effects of 6/85-strain Mycoplasma gallisepticum (6/85MG) inoculation alone or in conjunction with a F-strain M. gallisepticum (FMG) overlay and its timing on the performance of commercial egg-laying hens were investigated. Control birds received sham inoculations at 10 wk of age. A second treated group of birds was inoculated with 6/85MG at 10 wk of age, a third treatment group of birds was...

Hosts of brood parasites use a variety of cues relating to eggshell appearance of parasitic eggs, which facilitate their recognition and rejection. It has been documented that host visual perception of different colours including UV wavelengths plays an important role in this respect. In the study reported here, we aimed to test whether artificial reduction of the UV wavelengths reflected from ...

The chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) containing tiny blood vessels is an alternative to large animals for studies involving angiogenesis and tissue engineering. However, there is no technique to design the direction of growing blood vessels on the CAM at the microscale level for tissue engineering experiments. Here, a methodology is provided to direct blood vessel formation on the surface of a th...

Food borne Salmonellosis in human is mainly caused by the consumption of contaminated eggs and other poultry products. Trans-shell route is considered the underlying phenomena leading to the production of Salmonella Infantis contaminated eggs. Salmonella Infantis comes in the top 10 human pathogenic Salmonella serovars, been isolated from human and poultry from diverse group of countries in pat...

This study examined the long-term effects of housing system on several aspects of laying hen production. At 19 wks of age, 336 White Leghorn hens were placed, 3 birds per cage, into battery cages; 437 birds were assigned to an aviary with communal nests, ambulation areas, and three raised tiers with feeders and drinkers. Family groups were split between the two housing systems. The hens were ho...

Aim. External fertilisation requires synchronisation of gamete release between the two sexes. Adequate synchronisation is essential in aquatic media because sperm is very short-lived in water. In the cichlid Lamprologus callipterus, fertilisation of the eggs takes place inside an empty snail shell, where females stay inside the shell and males have to ejaculate into the shell opening. This spaw...

Variations in egg size and composition can have important consequences for the quality of offspring. We investigated the effect of temperature, in the 5 days preceding laying, on yolk, albumen, shell and total egg mass. Moreover, we examined the influence of temperature on three important egg components, i.e. the yolk carotenoids and the albumen lysozyme and avidin. In our experimental conditio...

Production performance and egg quality characteristics of pullets and spent layers were compared in this study. Forty birds, each from the flocks of pullets (24 weeks old) and spent layers (76 weeks old) were selected as experimental birds. The birds from each age group were divided into five replicates, each comprising of eight birds. All the experimental birds were fed a commercial layer rati...

The medullary bone serves as a source of labile calcium mobilized during calcification of the egg shell in birds. Quantitative histological methods demonstrate that the numbers of medullary bone osteoclasts and nuclei per osteoclast remain unchanged during the egg cycle in the Japanese quail (Coturnix). Therefore, cyclic changes in bone resorption cannot be explained by modulations of osteoclas...