The aim of the present study was to evaluate the transfer of maternal dietary fatty acids (FA) from the yolk to the developing offspring, with special emphasis on n-3 FA eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Six hundred forty Ross 308 breeders were housed from 6 to 58 wk of age in 16 pens resulting in 4 replicates per dietary treatment. They were fed 1 of 4 diets: a basal ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in production performance, use of nest box, and external appearance of 2 strains of laying hens kept in conventional and enriched cages. Lohmann Brown Classic (LB, n=532) and Lohmann LSL Classic (LW, n=532) hens were housed from 16 to 73 wk in either conventional cages or enriched cages. Enriched cages had a nesting area, scratch pad, per...

AIM Objective of this study was to investigate the effect of different levels of iodine supplementation on iodine content of eggs in laying hens. MATERIALS AND METHODS In the experiment, 135 laying hens (White Leghorn) of 55 weeks age were randomly distributed to 5 dietary treatments; each group contained 27 laying hens distributed in three replicates of 9 birds each. Diet T1 was control basa...

Both epidemiologic analyses and active disease surveillance confirm an ongoing strong association between human salmonellosis and the prevalence of Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Enteritidis in commercial egg flocks. The majority of human illnesses caused by this pathogen are attributed to the consumption of contaminated eggs. Animal welfare concerns have increasingly influence...

This article reports the first publicly available egg production costs compared across 3 hen-housing systems. We collected detailed data from 2 flock cycles from a commercial egg farm operating a conventional barn, an aviary, and an enriched colony system at the same location. The farm employed the same operational and accounting procedures for each housing system. Results provide clear evidenc...

In this paper, a mathematical model of a prey-predator system is proposed to resolve the paradox of enrichment in ecosystems. The model is based on the natural strategy that a predator takes, i.e, it produces resting eggs in harsh environment. Our result gives a criterion for a functional response, which ensures that entering dormancy stabilizes the population dynamics. It is also shown that th...