2. High ambient temperatures did not adversely affect egg weight, laying rate or output per bird (g egg per day per g body weight) of the acclimated hens.
3. Best productivity was attained during periods of exposure to 38 to 40° C in all breeds.
4. Rates of decrease from maximal productivity to productivity at 42 and 44 °G differed with breed. Productivity of Leghorn and Leghorn x Sinai crossbred decreased curvilinearly above 40 °C, while productivity of Sinai and Sinai ( Leghorn crossbred decreased at 42 °C and then stabilised.
5. When changes in egg weight and laying rate were examined on an individual basis (comparison between successive months), the differences between Sinai and the Leghorn were more pronounced.
6. The results support previous findings that the Sinai breed and its crosses are able to withstand extreme environmental temperatures, reflecting genetic adaptation to desert conditions. 相似文献
2. The Sinai produced significantly fewer, smaller eggs, resulting in lower egg mass output (g/bird d), than the Leghorn and the crossbreds.
3. Egg weight of both crossbreds was intermediate between Sinai and Leghorn but laying rate was closer to that of the Leghorn.
4. Differences in egg mass output apparent at 8 to 10 months of age decreased considerably with age.
5. These findings suggest that selection or crossbreeding of the Sinai might improve productive performance while maintaining improved eggshell quality. 相似文献
2. The aim of this study was to analyse the occurrence of histopathological lesions in internal organs from Leghorn (layer-type) capons and cockerels at different times of fattening.
3. Two hundred, one-day-old Leghorn cockerels were used in this experiment. At 8 weeks of age, the birds were randomly divided into a control group (100 uncastrated cockerels) and a second group consisting of 100 castrated birds. At 12, 16, 20, 24 and 28 weeks of age, six cockerels and six capons were slaughtered. Samples of all internal organs from six cockerels and six capons at each slaughter age were evaluated.
4. The main histopathological differences between capons and cockerels were related to the accumulation of adipose tissue, with higher values noted in capons, especially in the gizzard and the caecum submucosa and fatty degeneration in liver hepatocytes.
5. Additionally, differences were observed more often in cockerels than in capons with regard to depletion of lymphoid cells in lymphoid organs, including the thymus and bursa of Fabricius in 28-week-old birds and the spleen in 24-week-old birds.
6. These studies prove that caponisation causes the accumulation of fat in internal organs and changes the structure of lymphoid organs.
7. Age influences the occurrence of desirable lesions, such as the accumulation of adipose tissue within the examined organs, and older capons (24 and 28 weeks old) are better sources of high quality, potentially edible tissues. 相似文献
2. Seasonal temperature changes did not affect egg weight of any of the breeds or crosses, but laying rate of all was considerably reduced under heat wave conditions and that of Sinai and Sinai x Leghorn decreased during winter, probably due to the short photoperiod.
3. Egg production of the Leghorn was poor compared with that in normal conditions.
4. The Leghorn was the most vulnerable to heat stress, mortality was 24% during two heat waves.
5. The results suggest that the Sinai breed and its crosses are more resistant to the extreme conditions of the desert environment. This feature might be used in the future selection of heat tolerant breeds. 相似文献
2. Intake of the mash form of the cellulose‐diluted diets and associated body weights were less than those associated with the equivalent crumble diets which may have been due to decreased palatability of the former.
3. Broilers were unable to compensate for dietary dilution with cellulose by increasing food intake sufficiently to maintain nutrient intake with either mash or crumbled diets at any dilution.
4. At 100 g cellulose/kg for the mash diets and 100 and 200 g/kg for crumbled diets, Leghorns increased volume ingested by as much as 40% and maintained body‐weight gain and nutrient intake.
5. The results could be of value in designing feeding programmes for egg‐and meat‐type pullets. 相似文献
2. Egg weight was poor with the low fat basal diet but increased in relation to the amounts of maize oil (4 and 30 g/kg) included in the diet.
3. With a diet containing 30 g olive oil/kg, egg weight was similar to that obtained with the diet containing the same amount of maize oil.
4. Rearing the birds on diets containing low or moderate amounts of linoleic acid did not affect the response to fatty acid content of the layer's diet.
5. It is concluded that the requirement of the laying hen for linoleic add is not higher than 9 g/kg but that egg weight does respond to higher dietary amounts of readily absorbable fatty acids. 相似文献
2. Within each strain, no relationships were found in individual birds between the concentrations of the plasma hormones and subsequent egg production after 90, 180 and 270 d of laying.
3. Single measurements of plasma LH, thyroxine or prolactin before the onset of lay do not appear to be useful criteria for the selection of egg‐laying strains. 相似文献
2. The water content was highest in White Leghorn eggs, which were the heaviest.
3. Cholesterol content was similar in all eggs except for Dwarf Sussex in which it was less.
4. English Gamecock eggs contained a higher proportion of protein than those of the other breeds.
5. From the data presented, egg size, under similar conditions of feeding, does not determine the contents of components of the egg, but there are underlying genetic factors. 相似文献
2. The poults were free from contamination on arrival at the rearing house but were contaminated via the water supply from troughs which had been ineffectively fumigated.
3. Foodstuffs did not appear to be a source of contamination.
4. The spread of salmonellae in this turkey rearing enterprise was very similar to that in chicken rearing houses. 相似文献
2. A circadian system was postulated to control the restriction of ovulation to an 8‐h period of the day under conventional 14 h light: 10 h dark regimes.
3. The final phase of follicular maturation was postulated to commence after ovulation of the preceding ovum in the hierarchy.
4. Ovulation was postulated to occur when a mature follicle was present in the ovary during the appropriate phase of the circadian‐linked system.
5. The predicted times of oviposition were within the standard error of the observed times of oviposition under 21‐, 24‐ and 28‐h photoschedules.
6. It was concluded that this hypothesis for the control of the ovulatory cycle of the hen is consistent with current knowledge. 相似文献
2. The Sinai egg was smaller and its shell thicker and stronger than the Leghorn egg. All the differences were statistically significant.
3. Shell thickness and strength of Leghorn eggs were in accordance with values predicted on the basis of egg mass, while those of the Sinai and the two crosses were considerably higher than predicted.
4. The apparent differences in mean egg mass between Sinai and Leghorn breeds did not explain the differences in egg‐shell quality, neither did the shape index which was very similar among all breeds.
5. The findings suggest that the differences in egg‐shell properties are of a genetic origin.
6. The thick, strong and less permeable egg‐shell of the Sinai breed may reflect adaptations to its arid environmental origin and to incubation in the open.
7. These genetically‐determined egg‐shell characteristics might serve in a future selection for improved egg‐shell quality in poultry. 相似文献
2. A total of 5544 White Leghorn (WL) pullets (20 weeks of age) were housed in 4-bird colony cages and 22 adjacent cages constituted a replicate. Each diet was fed ad libitum to 7 replicates from 21 to 72 weeks of age. Production variables were recorded in 13 laying periods of 28 d each, and the data were pooled into three production phases, namely initial (21–32 weeks), peak (33–52 weeks) and post-peak (53–72 weeks).
3. No interaction was observed between ME and CP for egg production (EP), food intake (FI), food efficiency (FE), egg weight (EW), egg mass (EM) and body weight gain.
4. The EP, EW and EM during the initial phase of production were not affected by dietary ME concentrations, while the EW and EM improved with increasing concentrations of dietary CP from 150 to 165 g/kg.
5. During the peak production phase, improvements in EP (ME and CP), FI (ME), FE (ME, CP), EW (ME) and EM (ME, CP) were observed with increasing concentrations of energy and protein to 11.30 and 180 g/kg diet, respectively.
6. EP, EW and EM were unaffected by dietary variation in concentrations of ME and CP during post-peak production phase, but the FE improved and FI reduced with increasing dietary concentrations of these nutrients.
7. It is concluded that the optimum concentrations of ME for WL layers during the 21–32, 33–52 and 53–72 weeks of age are 11.30, 11.30 and 10.04 MJ/kg diet, respectively. The corresponding values for CP in diets are 180, 180 and 150 g/kg. 相似文献
2. A total of 20 one-day-old Leghorn chicks (slow-growing) and 20 broiler (Ross 508) chicks (fast-growing) were reared to 100 and 45 d, respectively.
3. A small percentage of GF was seen in pre rigor muscle samples even at 3 min post mortem in both genotypes and in all muscle types studied.
4. From 3 min to 24 h post mortem GF increased both in Leghorn and broiler chickens but to a different extent according to muscle type and genotype.
5. The highest GF 24 h post mortem value was found in the PM muscles belonging to the fast-growing broiler line.
6. It was concluded that every type of muscle can develop GF, but this phenomenon is more evident in the PM especially in animals selected for increased growth rate. 相似文献
2. Eight diets with graded concentrations (1.5–3.25 g/kg in increments of 0.25 g) of NPP were prepared. Each diet was fed to eight pen replicates containing 88 birds in each. Performance data was evaluated in three different phases (phase I-22–37 weeks, phase II-38–53 weeks and phase III-54–72 weeks). Optimum levels of NPP were determined by fitting a quadratic polynomial (QP) regression model.
3. Egg production (EP) was not affected (P = 0.059) by the concentration of NPP and interaction between NPP and diet phase was non-significant, indicating that the lowest concentration (1.5 g/kg diet) of NPP used in the study was adequate across the three phases. However, EP was influenced by phase (P < 0.001).
4. Optimum concentration of NPP for feed intake (FI) was estimated to be 1.5, 1.71 and 2.40 g/kg diet during phases I, II and III, respectively. FI per egg mass (EM) or feed efficiency (FE) responded quadratically with NPP and also differed significantly between phases. Optimum concentration of NPP for FE during phases I, II and III was 1.5, 2.56 and 2.32 g/kg diet, respectively.
5. Egg weight (EW), EM, shell weight and thickness were not affected by NPP concentration although all of these variables (except shell weight) were influenced by phases.
6. Breaking strength of tibia and Ca contents in tibia ash were not affected by the concentration of NPP, but bone ash and P contents in tibia ash were influenced (P < 0.001) by NPP. Predicted optimal concentrations of NPP for responses for tibia ash at 44 or 72 weeks, tibia ash P at 44 weeks and tibia ash P at 72 weeks were 1.55, 2.63 and 1.5 g/kg diet, respectively.
7. Based on the results, it was concluded that WL layers required 1.5 g, 2.63 g and 2.4 g, respectively/kg diet during phase I, II and III with the calculated daily intake of 137.3, 278.3 and 262 mg NPP/b/d. 相似文献
2. Salmonellae were not isolated from the empty, cleaned and fumigated houses and only on one occasion from the foodstuffs.
3. Salmonellae were isolated from the environment of the chicks and spasmodically from the litter, water troughs and dust.
4. The incidence of infection of the chicks did not influence the number of isolations of salmonellae from the environment of the birds during rearing.
5. Water in the water troughs rather than foodstuffs appeared to be the major oral route of infection or re‐infection of birds during rearing. 相似文献
2. The Leghorn egg was characterised by a thinner and weaker shell compared with the Sinai and the crossbreds, at all the experimental temperatures.
3. In contrast to other reports, high ambient temperatures for a long period had only mild effects on egg‐shell quality.
4. The results suggest that gradual acclimation to high ambient temperatures might improve the efficiency of the physiological mechanisms involved in the hen's response to heat. Consequently, the reproductive process adapts to the hot environmental conditions.
5. The results indicate that the Sinai breed might be used for future selection of a breed, highly resistant to extreme environmental conditions and with an improved shell quality. 相似文献
2. The body width of two strains of layer pullets (brown (BL) and white (WL) layer pullets) based on the measurement of distances in digital images was conducted on front-view digital photographs of BL and WL pullets taken at 8, 12 and 19 weeks of life.
3. Depending on live weight, age and body position, BL pullets measured an average body width between 10.70 ± 1.10 and 13.96 ± 1.11 cm. The width of WL pullets ranged from 10.30 ± 0.86 to 13.00 ± 1.14 cm.
4. Compared with WL, BL pullets occupied more horizontal space during rearing. Age influenced the body width of BL and WL pullets at the end of rearing. The tested body positions of the pullets did not affect the measured body width.
5. The biometric data obtained in this study are a useful basis for developing legal requirements for pullets, especially for defining minimum perch width and feeder space allowances. 相似文献
2. Addition of 10 g ascorbic acid/kg to the control diet (without excess tyrosine) produced no beneficial effects on performance. Excess dietary tyrosine caused depressions in all measures of performance.
3. Adding 0.1, 1, 10 or 20 g ascorbic acid/kg to the diet containing excess tyrosine tended to improve performance.
4. Subcutaneous injection of 50 mg ascorbic acid/bird d to chicks receiving excess tyrosine brought about a significant improvement in body‐weight gain.
5. The elevation of plasma free tyrosine caused by excess dietary tyrosine decreased as dietary ascorbic acid increased.
6. Ascorbic acid can alleviate, though not completely counteract, the adverse effect of excess dietary tyrosine. 相似文献
2. In 4 consecutive trials, 4752 hens were recorded for keel bone status. Evaluation of plumage condition was made for 1440 hens and bone breaking strength was recorded for 1200 hens. A total of 4962 eggs were analysed for internal and external egg quality traits. Analyses involved 30 small group compartments per trial.
3. The layer line had a much more pronounced influence on humerus breaking strength than on tibia breaking strength.
4. Plumage condition, particularly on the neck, was positively correlated with humerus breaking strength in both layer lines.
5. An average of 34% of LB and 23% of LSL hens showed keel bone deformities, with higher proportions of slight deformities.
6. Slight keel bone deformities, rather than moderate to severe, increased significantly during the laying period.
7. Stocking density had no influence on bone breaking strength, keel bone status and egg quality traits.
8. LB layers had a 1.4-fold higher humerus, but only a 1.06-fold higher tibia breaking strength compared to LSL layers.
9. Tibia breaking strength was significantly affected by the interaction of group size and layer line. LSL layers in small groups had lower tibia breaking strengths than those of the large groups. 相似文献