Free-range chickens are sentinels for the presence of Toxoplasma gondii oocysts in the environment because they feed from ground. T. gondii infected chickens are also an important source of infection for cats that shed environmentally resistant oocysts after eating infected chicken tissues. We surveyed 50 free-range chickens from Oyo State, Nigeria for the presence of T. gondii antibodies using...

The main aim of this research was to estimate the genetic and phenotypic parameters for productive and reproductive traits of Esfahan native chickens. Traits included body weights at hatch (BW1), 8 weeks of age (BW8), 12 weeks of age (BW12), and at sexual maturity (WSM)], age at sex maturity (ASM), egg number (EN), average egg weight (AEW) in the first 12 weeks of production, and egg production...

Chicken is the most common poultry species and is important to human societies. Tibetan chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a breed endemic to China that is distributed mainly on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. However, its origin has not been well characterized. In the present study, we sequenced partial mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region of 239 and 283 samples from Tibetan and Sichuan indi...

Avian TB is a contagious, chronic disease which affects a wide range of birds and mammals. All avian species are susceptible to infection to some degree, however the domestic chicken and sparrows are considered to be extremely susceptible. Despite having a worldwide distribution, Avian Tuberculosis amongst commercial poultry farmers has declined considerably over the years due to advances in bi...

Artificial selection of White Plymouth Rock chickens for juvenile (day 56) body weight resulted in two divergent genetic lines: hypophagic low weight (LWS) chickens and hyperphagic obese high weight (HWS) chickens, with the latter more than 10-fold heavier than the former at selection age. A study was designed to investigate glucose regulation and pancreas physiology at selection age in LWS chi...

The horizontal transmission ability of fowl adenovirus (FAV) serotype 1 99ZH strain, isolated from chickens exhibiting gizzard erosion, was investigated. Twelve 13-day-old specific pathogen-free chickens were inoculated orally with 10(6) TCID(50)/0.05 ml of the strain. An in-pen contact group (chickens in the same pen with inoculated chickens), hedge contact group (chickens in a pen connected w...

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of ultraviolet (UV) light exposure and several cholecalciferol metabolites on the development of tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) and other parameters associated with vitamin D metabolism in chickens selected for high (HTD) and low (LTD) incidence of TD. In Experiment 1, exposure of chickens to UV light reduced the incidence and severity of...

Avian amyloid A (AA) amyloidosis is commonly observed in adult birds with chronic inflammation, such as that caused by bacterial infection. We previously described vaccine-associated AA amyloidosis in juvenile chickens. In this study, the prevalence of amyloid deposition was measured in mature healthy chickens that survived a previous outbreak of avian AA amyloidosis while they were juveniles. ...