The peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) is a candidate gene for meat quality traits because of its prominent role in muscle fiber type switching and determination. We investigated the effects of the PGC-1α gene on chicken skeletal muscle fiber type switching and on other meat quality traits. Single nucleotide polymorphisms were detected by PCR-SSCP and DNA sequ...

1. An experiment involving 60 male chickens reared in an organic production system was carried out in order to investigate carcase characteristics and qualitative meat traits of three slow-growing Italian local breeds of chicken (Ermellinata, Padovana and Pepoi). 2. Chicks were randomly selected at hatch, raised together under the same conditions, slaughtered at 190 d of age, dissected for carc...

There are many different species (chemical forms) of arsenic, some more toxic than others. Exposure to inorganic species has been associated with cancer and other adverse health effects in humans. “We wanted to measure the presence of each arsenic species and describe the elimination kinetics of roxarsone metabolites. Our findings can help guide human exposure assessments,” says senior author X...

An experiment with male layer-type chickens of the Lohmann Brown Classic breed was carried out at Institute Animal Science-Kostinbrod, Bulgaria, aiming to investigate effect age slaughter on meat quality. The birds were reared in a controlled microclimate, an initial stocking density 22 birds/m2. At five weeks age, fragmentation applied, decreasing number seven Chickens slaughtered and nine ave...

The Asian H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus causes a systemic disease with high mortality of poultry and is potentially zoonotic. In both chickens and ducks, the virus has been demonstrated to replicate in both cardiac and skeletal muscle cells. Experimentally, H5N1 HPAI virus has been transmitted to chickens through the consumption of raw infected meat. In this study, we inve...

Aflatoxicosis and Salmonella gallinarum exert their effects on the body weight and mortality of chickens without any interaction.

A total of 192 broiler chicks were used to evaluate the influence of dietary α-lipoic acid (ALA) on growth performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of broiler chickens with the purpose of developing a strategy to prevent the occurrence of pale, soft, and exudative (PSE) meat and to improve the meat quality of broilers. At 22 d of age, birds were allocated to 4 ALA treatments (0, 40...

Voluntary control of attention promotes intelligent, adaptive behaviors by enabling the selective processing of information that is most relevant for making decisions. Despite extensive research on attention in primates, the capacity for selective attention in nonprimate species has never been quantified. Here we demonstrate selective attention in chickens by applying protocols that have been u...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mushroom waste and probiotic levels on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality in broiler chickens. A 2 × 3 factorial arrangement with two levels of probiotic supplementation (0 and recommended rate) and three levels of mushroom waste inclusion (0%, 3%, and 6%) was used in a completely randomized design using male broi...