Fifty 18-day-old broilers were used to investigate the effects of 30% energy restriction from 18∼48 d on growth and slaughter performance, serum biochemical parameters, and gene expression of WDTC1 and Lpin2 in hepatic tissue. Fifty 18-day-old Arbor Acres female broilers were randomly divided to ad libitum group (control) and energy restriction group (experimental) and housed individually. The ...

Previous experiments have shown lower abdominal and body fat deposition in broilers fed polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) compared with those fed saturated fatty acids (SFA) or monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). These changes in fat deposition may be related to different rates of lipid synthesis or lipid oxidation. In Experiment 1, in vivo lipogenesis of broilers fed different dietary fatty a...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the gluconeogenic response of in vitro stimulated hepatocytes from control broilers and broilers with clinical manifestations of the ascites syndrome. The basal rate of glucose synthesis from lactate was found to be threefold greater in sick birds than in the control group and stimulation obtained with epinephrine was found to be quantitatively simila...

The genetic progress of broilers, since the beginning of the industrial poultry industry, has been indicated as one of the most impressive evolutions of animal production. To justify such changes, Sluis (1999) exemplified how much the broilers’ performance increased since 1978 and what are the predictions for 2008. As an example, in this period he demonstrated an improvement of 44% feed convers...

OBJECTIVES Campylobacter jejuni isolated from broiler and layer chickens from registered abattoirs in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, were tested for their susceptibility to eight antibiotics. METHODS Using agar dilution, susceptibility to eight antibiotics was determined for C. jejuni recovered from the caeca. RESULTS A total of 155 isolates were collected of which 77 were identified as C. je...

Death losses among broilers transported to processing plants are caused by poor welfare. The number of birds dying during transport and in processing plants shortly after arrival there may serve as an indicator of the quality of welfare during loading and transport. In the Czech Republic, shipments of broilers to processing plants were monitored from 1997 to 2004. It was found that the mortalit...

Fumonisin B1 (FB1), a mycotoxin produced by Fusarium species is a predominant Group 2B carcinogen occurring in maize and maize-based poultry feeds. It is shown to be nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic, neurotoxic, and immunosuppressing in animals. In this study, we report the ameliorating effects of a probiotic strain, Lactobacillus plantarum MYS6 on FB1-induced toxicity and oxidative damage in broilers....

The present experiment was conducted to examine the effects of pre- and postnatal conditioning to induce thermotolerance in broilers hatching from eggs orginating from younger and older breeder flocks. From each flock, 500 eggs were randomly divided into 2 groups and incubated at standard (SIT) and high (HIT) temperatures. At hatch, chicks were allotted to 36 floor pens. At 5 d of age 3 pens pe...

Salmonella typhimurium colonization, pH, and density of ceca were measured in 3-, 5-, and 6-wk-old broilers fed either a control ration or rations with added fructooligosaccharides (FOS) or lactose derivatives (LD). The purpose was to compare dietary crude FOS from Jerusalem artichokes with refined FOS and two LD for ability to reduce Salmonella colonization as determined by semi-quantitative p...

An experiment was conducted to determine the influence of 2 levels of dietary Ca from limestone and 3 levels of phytase on broiler performance, bone ash, gastrointestinal pH, and apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of Ca, P, and amino acids. Cobb 500 broilers (n = 576) were allowed access to one of 6 corn-soy diets from 0 to 16 d. Experimental diets contained 1.03% or 0.64% Ca from limestone and...