Laying hens may face a number of welfare problems including: acute and chronic pain caused by beak trimming; exaggerated fearfulness that may cause stress and suffocation; difficulties in locating resources, resulting potentially in emaciation and dehydration; frustration and boredom, caused by an environment that is barren; feather pecking; cannibalism; foot lesions; and bone fractures. In Eur...

Current vaccination strategies for commercial poultry using live attenuated and inactivated Newcastle disease (ND) vaccines have some limitation and difficulties, and new vaccines with distinct features are needed. Recently, in ovo vaccination technology is concerned as a safe, efficacious, and convenient method. Common ND vaccines used in chickens cannot be employed in ovo due to embryo toxici...

Generally, only a fraction of the mineral ingested by an animal is effectively absorbed, while most are bound to other components such as fibre and then excreted. In this study, faecal mineral composition differentials were used as indicators of mineral uptake by pullets supplemented varying levels of plantain ash in their daily rations for nine weeks. Plantain stalk and root base samples were ...

1. The effects of pulsatile and continuous intravenous administration of exogenous, pituitary-derived chicken growth hormone (p-cGH) on lipid metabolism and endocrine/metabolite levels of broiler-strain pullets were studied. 2. Eight-week-old pullets were administered p-cGH or vehicle over a 10 min period every 90 min for 7 days. 3. Pullets were also administered the same daily amount (123 micr...

In this study, immunization against chicken leptin receptor (cLEPR) extracellular domain (ECD) was applied to investigate leptin regulation and LEPR biofunction in growing chicken pullets. A recombinant protein (cLEPR ECD) based on the cLEPR complemenary DNA sequence corresponding to the 582nd to 796th amino acid residues of cLEPR mature peptide was prepared and used as antigen. Immunization ag...

Perches can enhance laying hen welfare, but their effectiveness might be age-dependent. We investigated early and late perch access effects on anxiety fear in pullets through attention bias (AB) tonic immobility (TI) tests. Pullets (n = 728) were raised with or without multi-level perches: CP (continuous access: 0–37 weeks), EP (early 0–17 LP (late 17–37 NP (no access). AB was conducted weeks 2...