Individual variation in prelaying behaviour and the incidence of floor eggs

1. Floor eggs are a problem in non‐cage systems for laying hens, as they require secondary egg collecting. Failure to lay in a well‐defined nest site may also be a welfare problem for the hens, but only if their nesting motivation has been thwarted.

2. We investigated the relationships between a hen's prelaying behaviour and its tendency to lay on the floor by recording the behaviour of 20 hens housed individually in wire cages with single littered nest boxes.

3. Most floor eggs (80%) were laid by the same 6 hens. These 6 “floor‐layers” performed more nest seeking behaviour, less nest‐building behaviour and less sitting prior to oviposition than the 14 hens that consistently laid in nest boxes.

4. The incidence of floor eggs declined with age. Both nest and floor laying hens performed less nest seeking behaviour with age. Floor layers, however, increased their performance of nesting behaviour, whilst nest layers performed less nesting behaviour with age.

5. Floor laying hens behaved as if they found the nest box less attractive than nest‐laying hens; perhaps because they had lower nesting motivation, or perhaps because their nesting motivation was as high, but they less readily perceived the nest box as an appropriate nest site.     

Effects of ambient temperature on broiler mineral balance partitioned into urinary and faecal loss

1. Two experiments were conducted on control (intact) and colostomised 4 to 7 week old broilers to evaluate the influence of 24°C, diurnally cycling 24 to 35°C and chronic 35°C ambient temperatures on broiler mineral balance, urinary and faecal mineral excretion and urinary osmolar characteristics.

2. In the first experiment, colostomy had no significant effect on mineral balance. However, broilers exposed to high cycling ambient temperature reduced their retention of phosphorus, potassium, sodium, magnesium, sulphur, manganese, copper and zinc compared with birds housed at 24°C.

3. Despite the minimal effect of high ambient temperature on urine production, minerals excreted disproportionately excreted in urine included potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and sulphur while copper and magnesium were lost primarily via the faeces.

4. In the second experiment, exposure to 35°C increased urine output from 50.7 ml/12 h per kg of body weight at 24°C to 101.3 ml/12 h per kg of body weight and was associated with an increased urine:water ratio and reduced urine osmolal‐ity.

5. Reduced urinary chloride and higher potassium, phosphorus, sulphur, sodium, magnesium, calcium and manganese excretion was observed for broilers housed in under high ambient temperatures compared to 24°C.

6. These studies suggest that high ambient temperatures adversely influence mineral metabolism and, furthermore, that the route of excretion varies with the specific mineral and the environmental temperature exposure.     

Influence of temperature during growth on responses of hens to high or low temperatures during lay

1. Commercial pullets were grown at cool (10°‐20°C) or hot (25°‐35°C) temperatures to similar bodyweights at 18 weeks of age. Between 18 and 50 weeks the birds were either kept at the same temperatures as during growth or transferred to the alternate temperature.

2. Birds kept at the cool temperatures throughout life ate most food and gave the best production during lay. Minimum food intake and poorest performance were obtained with birds kept at the hot temperatures throughout life.

3. Performance in the hot environment during lay was improved by rearing birds in the cool environment, the response being related to an increased food intake. Food intake in the cool environment during lay was reduced, with only minor effects on performance, in birds which had been reared in the hot environment.

4. The results of the present study show that production responses during lay are affected by the temperatures experienced by hens during both growth and lay.     

The diagnosis of Neospora abortions in cattle

An indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT) and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for specific anti-Neospora antibodies in bovine sera and foetal fluids were compared with histological examination results on aborted foetal material. The agreement between serological and histological examination results was poor, while the two serological tests showed a high degree of agreement. Serological testing of diagnostic serum samples and foetal fluids suggests that the prevalence of anti-Neospora antibodies in cattle which recently aborted is around 40%, in line with previous estimates of the number of abortions in dairy cattle caused by Neospora sp. A sero-epidemiological approach to the diagnosis of Neospora abortions in cattle may be suggested from these data.     

Poultry science: The next 20 years?

1. The theme of the lecture is that research in poultry science has moved too far in the direction of molecular biology and away from studies with whole animals. This has happened partly because exciting prospects are opening up in the field of gene manipulation but mainly because of the use of inappropriate referees to evaluate research proposals.

2. Agricultural research is defined as work intended to benefit agriculture and directed towards those problems which seem capable of solution. Science research is something else. Too much of the money allocated for agricultural and biotechnology research is being spent on science research. The system of rewarding agricultural scientists needs to be adjusted away from counting papers published.

3. Some examples are given of problems in poultry science which seem likely to be soluble by gene manipulation. These include “essential” amino acid synthesis within the chicken, improvement of shell strength, the prevention of many diseases, but probably not the improvement of quantitative traits or of behavioural adaptation to intensive husbandry.

4. Examples are also given of problems likely to require empirical solutions, such as the benefits of acclimatisation or the long‐term response to a lighting programme. Here the need is to develop better theories to guide modelling activities.

5. The author concludes that there is much research that can and should be done in poultry science in the next 20 years but calls for a recognition that some problems cannot be solved by a “fundamental” approach but will need experiments with whole animals coupled with model‐building activities.     

Sensitivity of populations ofBotrytis cinerea to triazoles,benomyl and vinclozolin

Sensitivity of field isolates (121) ofBotrytis cinerea from France (1992), Germany (1979–1992), Israel (1990) and the Netherlands (1970–1989) to the triazoles tebuconazole and triadimenol, the benzimidazole benomyl and the dicarboximide vinclozolin were tested in radial growth experiments. Resistance to benomyl (in 21 to 100% of isolates tested) and vinclozolin (in 25 to 71% of isolates tested) was common in most countries. EC₅₀s (concentrations of fungicides inhibiting radial mycelial growth ofB. cinerea on B5-agar by 50%) for tebuconazole and triadimenol ranged between 0.01–1.64 and 0.4–32.6g ml^–1, respectively, and were log-normally distributed. The variation factor (ratio between EC₅₀s of the least and most sensitive isolate tested) amounts 164 and 82 for tebuconazole and triadimenol, respectively. These values are comparable to those for azole fungicides applied in control of other pathogens. Hence, variation in sensitivity to triazoles can probably not explain limited field performance of triazoles towardsB. cinerea. Isolates from south west Germany (1992) were significantly less sensitive to tebuconazole than isolates collected earlier in Germany, Israel and the Netherlands. Such less sensitive populations may contribute to the limited field performance of DMI fungicides towardsB. cinerea. The sensitivity of isolates from south west Germany to tebuconazole was similar to that of DMI-resistant mutants generated in the laboratory. These mutants displayed stable resistance with Q-values (ratio between EC₅₀ of resistant mutant and wild type isolate) between 5 and 20. Sensitivity of field isolates and laboratory mutants to tebuconazole and triadimenol was correlated.     

A model to study the effect of certification of planting material on the occurrence of leek rust

Based on a simple model, the possible effects of certification of planting material on the occurrence of leek rust in a region can be derived from information on the proportion of infected fields (v) and the proportion of newly planted fields with infected planting material (i) in that region. Ifv i, certification of planting material will be highly effective.     

Quantitative capillary reversed passive latex agglutination test for C-reactive protein (CRP) in the dog

A capillary reversed passive latex agglutination test (capillary RPLA) was developed which allows quantification of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) within approximately 15 min. The logarithmic regression line (calibration curve) obtained after measuring each CRP concentration three times in twofold dilutions of a standard canine serum containing 222 g/ml of CRP was y=6.394+0.030x (r=0.995). Capillary RPLA permitted quantification of CRP in the range 6.9–222 g/ml. The coefficients of variation ranged from 10.28% to 12.40%. The recovery rates (percentage recovery) of CRP by capillary RPLA were within the range 87% to 106%. On measuring the CRP concentrations in sera from 78 dogs by capillary RPLA, single radial immunodiffusion (SRID) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), close correlations were demonstrated between SRID and capillary RPLA (y=7.250+1.109x, r=0.978), between SRID and ELISA (y=3.042+1.059x, r=0.967), and between capillary RPLA and ELISA (y=1.778+0.929x, r=0.962). Capillary RPLA may be considered useful as a routine biochemical technique for measurement of serum CRP concentration in the dog.Abbreviations CRP C-reactive protein - ELISA enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay - RPLA reversed passive latex agglutination test - SRID single radial immunodiffusion     

Extreme eosinophilia with disseminated eosinophilic granulomatous disease in a horse

Extreme eosinophilia with disseminated eosinophilic granulomatous disease is described in a 4-year-old Arabian mare. Clinical signs included weight loss, coughing, jugular distention, and ventral edema. Cutaneous lesions were not observed. Eosinophilic inflammation was observed in cytologic specimens from the respiratory tract, body cavities, and lymph nodes. At necropsy, a 20-cm diameter intrathoracic mass was observed. Smaller nodules were present in the lymph nodes, liver, spleen, adrenal glands, pancreas, and skeletal muscle. Histologically, these masses and nodules were characterized by infiltrates of eosinophils, macrophages, and multinucleated giant cells, reactive fibroplasia; and multifocal eosinophilic coagula. Microscopically, mild eosinophilic infiltrates were observed in sections of stomach, small intestine, colon, and pleura; however, gross lesions were not observed in these tissues at necropsy. The etiology of the extreme eosinophilia and disseminated eosinophilic granulomatous disease in this horse was not determined.