During the past few decades there has been a steady increase in global production of poultry meat and eggs. Although the high nutritive value of eggs and poultry meat has resulted in increasing demand, food quality and safety factors are becoming increasingly significant in determining market value of poultry products. Poultry production is one of the fastest growing sectors of Iranian agricult...

This study was carried out at El Takamoly Poultry Project, Fayoum, Egypt,. A total number of 498 (450 breeder hens and 48 cocks) birds of Golden Montazah (GM) and Fayoumi (F) strains at 42 wks of age were used to evaluate the effects of two dietary levels of Se as Sel-Plex (0.1 or 0.2 mg/Kg diet) on breeder hens performance. Birds were divided randomly into 3 equal treatment groups of 83 birds ...

Commercial White Leghorn hens (65, 63, or 70 wk of age in Experiments 1, 2, and 3, respectively) were induced molted by feed withdrawal until approximately 28% body weight was lost. All hens were then weighed, and seven replicate groups of 12 hens each were fed molt diets. In Experiment 1, three diets consisted of a corn basal diet (7.9% CP) or this diet supplemented with corn gluten meal (CGM)...

Limited opportunity for movement and load-bearing exercise for conventionally caged laying hens leads to bone loss and increased susceptibility to osteoporosis, bone fractures, and cage layer fatigue, all of which compromise hen welfare and have negative consequences for production. The objective of this study was to compare bone mineral density (BMD) and strength measures of White Leghorns hou...

Heat stress is an effective factor on immune responses, body weight, egg production and egg quality of chickens. The major effect of heat stress is due to decreased food intake and alteration in acid-base balance. During the recent years, efforts to improve laying performance at high temperatures have been relatively successful. Supplementation of the diet or drinking water with special nutrien...

Using layer hens, Gallus gallus domesticus, we compared the digestive capabilities of birds on a low-fibre diet (LF, 8.49% neutral detergent fibre; NDF), with those fed a high-fibre diet balanced for energy and protein to match the LF diet (high fibre balanced, HFB; NDF = 15.61%) and those fed a high fibre unbalanced (HFU) diet (NDF = 16.68%). The HFU diet had the lowest apparent dry matter (DM...

This study was conducted to determine the number of spermatozoa residing in the oviduct sperm-storage tubules (SST) and the relationship between these numbers and the number of spermatozoa embedded in the perivitelline layer of oviductal eggs after a single insemination of 200 x 10(6) spermatozoa. The SST of hens inseminated within one week before the expected onset of egg production were fille...

Ovarian cancer is a deadly disease often diagnosed late in development when there is little chance for a successful recovery. Although ovarian cancer is a rare occurrence in most animals, the domestic hen has been shown to spontaneously develop the disease with an age-related incidence. Two strains of hens derived from a similar genetic background and maintained at Cornell University have been ...

this experiment conducted to evaluate the effect of different methods of force molting on performance, egg quality of laying hens with one hundred eighty of 52-wk old hy-line layer in completely randomized design with six treatments, five replicates for 90 days. treatments include 1 - feed withdrawal (fw), 2 - 50 percent alfalfa meal: 50 percent layer ration, 3 - 75 percent alfalfa meal: 25 per...

in this experiment 144 hy-line (w36) laying hens, 65 to 77 weeks of age were separated into 4 treatments with 3 replicates (12 birds per replicate) in a completely randomized design experiment. the grass clipping wastes incorporated into a complete formulated layer diet, consisting on a corn and soybean based diet, were 0, 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5% in 1 to 4 experimental groups. the results showed that...