ruary-March; Experiment 2, April-May; and Experiment 3, June-July. Birds received a corn-soybean meal starter (0.68 kg/bird; 22% CP, 3087 kcal/kg ME), grower (1.36 kg/bird; 20% CP, 3131 kcal/kg ME), and finisher (c.a. 2.27 kg/bird; 17.5% CP, 3197 kcal/kg ME) to 42 days of age. Treatments were control (CON); Poultry Litter Treatment (PLT), Poultry Guard (PG) or 50:50 All-Clear:PLT (ACPLT) at 100...

Coccidiosis is an inherent risk in the commercial broiler industry and inflicts devastating economic losses to poultry operations. Probiotics may provide a potential alternative to the prophylactic use of anticoccidials in commercial production. This study evaluated the effects of probiotic applications (feed and water) on bird performance and resistance to a mixed Eimeria infection in commerci...

Two commercially available acidifying litter treatments, aluminum sulfate (alum) and sodium bisulfate, were tested to determine their effects on Campylobacter and Salmonella colonization frequencies and populations associated with broilers raised on treated pine litter. To produce contaminated litter, broiler chicks were inoculated with two bacterial cocktails (multistrain mixtures of campyloba...

Identification of the sources and methods of transmission of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in feedlot cattle may facilitate the development of on-farm control measures for this important food-borne pathogen. The prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 in fecal samples of commercial feedlot cattle in 20 feedlot pens between April and September 2000 was determined throughout the finishing feeding period prior t...

The recent multistate outbreak of a multidrug-resistant (MDR) Salmonella Heidelberg strain from commercial poultry production highlights the need to better understand the reservoirs of these zoonotic pathogens within the commercial poultry production and processing environment. As part of a larger study looking at temporal changes in microbial communities within the major water tanks within a c...

BACKGROUND Avian H7N9 virus emerged in China in February 2013 and has since spread widely among China's poultry, causing numerous human infections. OBJECTIVES To compare World Health Organization (WHO) and US commercial influenza assays in detecting avian H7N9 virus in poultry cloacal specimens. STUDY DESIGN Between April 6 and July 15, 2013, 261 cloacal swabs were collected from commercial...

A reduction in Campylobacter spp. has been associated with use of commercial antimicrobial technologies during the processing of broiler chickens. This review is focused on commercial interventions that have received approval by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for use on raw poultry in the United States. Most of these interventions are currently...

Since 2003, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) due to H5N1 virus has been reported from both domestic poultry and wild birds in 60 countries resulting in the direct death or slaughter of over 250,000,000 birds. The potential exists for HPAI to spread to Australia via migratory shorebirds returning from Asia with the most likely pathway of introduction into commercial poultry flocks involv...

Poultry vaccines are widely applied to prevent and control contagious poultry diseases. Their use in poultry production is aimed at avoiding or minimising the emergence of clinical disease at farm level, thus increasing production. Vaccines and vaccination programmes vary broadly in regard to several local factors (e.g. type of production, local pattern of disease, costs and potential losses) a...