Poultry Science

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The highly contagious, immunosuppressive, and cancer-causing Marek's disease virus (MDV) infects chickens. The financial costs of Marek's disease (MD) are significant for the chicken industry. In this study, a total of 180 samples from chicken farms suspected to be MDV-infected were collected. The chickens were sampled during the period between the months of October 2016 and February 2018 at Dakahlia and Damietta Governorates, Egypt. A total of 36 pooled samples were created. The prepared samples were inoculated into embryonated chicken eggs (ECEs)...

Dietary supplementation with bioactive substances that can regulate lipid metabolism is an effective approach for reducing excessive fat deposition in chickens. Genistein (GEN) has the potential to alleviate fat deposition; however, the underlying mechanism of GEN's fat-reduction action in chickens remains unclear. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the underlying mechanism of GEN on the reduction of fat deposition from a novel perspective: intercellular transmission of adipokine between adipocytes and hepatocytes...

Gliotoxin (GT) belongs to the epipolythiodioxopiperazine (ETP) family, which is considered a crucial virulence determinant among the secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus fumigatus. The metabolites are commonly found in food and feed, contributing to the invasion and immune escape of Aspergillus fumigatus, thereby posing a significant threat to the health of livestock, poultry, and humans. Heterophil extracellular traps (HETs), a novel form of innate immune defense, have been documented in the chicken's innate immune systems for capturing and eliminating invading microbes...

Salmonella is considered one of the most common foodborne pathogens worldwide. The annual number of hospitalizations and deaths related to zoonotic salmonellosis, which is transmitted from animals to humans and infects poultry and meat, is expected to be significant. Hence, the primary aims of this research were to isolate and characterize Salmonella species obtained from an integrated poultry company and identify some virulence, and antimicrobial resistance, with a specific concern about colistin resistance genes...

Granular cell apoptosis is a key factor leading to follicular atresia and decreased laying rate in aged laying hens. Endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) induced cell apoptosis is a new type of apoptosis pathway. Previous studies have shown that the ERS pathway is involved in the regulation of follicular development and atresia, and can be regulated by mTOR. Melatonin (MEL) can protect the normal development of follicles, but the precise mechanism by which MEL regulates follicular development is not yet clear...

Residual feed intake (RFI) is a crucial parameter for assessing the feeding efficiency of poultry. Minimizing RFI can enhance feed utilization and reduce costs. In this study, 315 healthy female ducks were individually housed in cages. Growth performance was monitored during the high laying period, from 290 to 325 d of age. The cecal transcriptome and microbiome of 12 ducks with high RFI and 12 with low residual feed intake (LRFI) were analyzed. Regarding growth performance, the LRFI group exhibited significantly lower RFI, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and feed intake (Fi) compared to the HRFI group (p < 0...

Atrazine (ATR) is widely used worldwide as a commercial herbicide, Diaminochlorotriazine (DACT) is the main metabolite of ATR in the organism. Both of them disrupt the production of steroids and induce abnormal reproductive development. The granulosa cells (GCs) are important for growth and reproduction of animals. However, the toxicity of ATR on the GCs of birds is not well clarified. To evaluate the effect of the environmental pollutant ATR on bird GCs. The quail GCs were allotted into 7 groups, C (The medium of M199), A20 (20 µM ATR), A100 (100 µM ATR), A250 (250 µM ATR), D20 (20 µM DACT), D100 (100 µM DACT) and D200 (200 µM DACT)...

Microalgae have potentially beneficial effects on animal health and nutritional value when added to feed. Crucial hereby is that intracellular bio-active molecules are released in the intestinal tract. Digestibility of Chlorella vulgaris and its impact on total digestibility of broiler feed is a first step in assessing its characteristics as feed supplement. Different methods could be used to increase the digestibility of the algae. Among other, pulsed electric field (PEF) and freezing to disrupt autotrophic (A) and heterotrophic (H) Chlorella vulgaris cells was assessed to increase their availability followed by in-vivo trials...

Since 2012, there has been a noticeable upward trend in the global incidence of inclusion body hepatitis (IBH) cases, leading to substantial economic losses in the poultry industry. In response to this trend, the current study aimed to investigate the phylogenetic information, genetic mutations, and pathogenicity of the highly pathogenic fowl adenovirus (FAdV) strain HN1472, which was isolated from liver samples obtained from a laying flock affected by IBH. This investigation was carried out using 1-day-old specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens...

We investigated the effects of supplementing low protein diets with methionine (Met) or threonine (Thr) during a mixed Eimeria (consisting of E. acervulina, E. maxima and E. tenella) challenge in broilers. All birds were fed the same starter diet (d1-9) and finisher diet (d28-35) which met Cobb 500 nutrient specifications. Birds were allocated to 1 of 4 dietary treatments from d9 to 28: a standard protein diet (19% CP); a low protein diet (16% CP); or the low protein diet supplemented with Met or Thr at 50% above recommendations...

Plant extracts are increasingly recognized as potential prophylactic agents in poultry production due to their diverse bioactive properties. This study investigated the phytochemical and biological properties of Libidibia ferrea (L. ferrea), a plant species native to the Caatinga region of northeastern Brazil. The aim of this study was to identify secondary metabolites and to demonstrate the antimicrobial, antioxidant and protective effects of the plant extract. Three extracts were produced: EHMV, a hydroalcoholic extract from the maceration of pods, and EEMC and EEMV ethanolic extracts from the maceration of peels and pods, respectively, from L...

Many characteristics of artificial light have been evaluated; however, light-flicker frequency (F) has not been assessed extensively in poultry. Pullets (1,344 per strain [S]; Lohmann Brown-Lite [LB] and LSL-Lite [LW]) were placed into 8 light-tight rooms, containing 6 floor pens (15 pen replicates per F × S for 30 and 250 Hz; 18 pen replicates per F x S for 90 Hz), and assigned 1 of 3 F treatments (30, 90, 250 Hz). The experiment took place over 2 trials (blocks). To evaluate long-term effects of F during rearing, birds were followed through the hen phase...

To improve the thermal gel properties of egg yolk, the effect of several valence metal ions (K+ , Ca2+ , Mg2+ and Fe3+ ) with different concentrations (0-0.72%) on the rheological, gel, and structural properties of egg yolk were investigated. Results showed that monovalent and divalent ions were beneficial to the formation of uniform and dense gel network, especially with the addition of 0.72% magnesium ion, which further improved gel hardness, water holding capacity (WHC) and viscoelastic properties, the properties of egg yolk gel increased with the increase of the concentration of mono-bivalent metal ions...

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Gram-negative bacteria initially induces liver inflammation with proinflammatory cytokines expressions. However, the underlying hepatoprotective mechanism of quercetin on LPS-induced hepatic inflammation remains unclear. Specific pathogen-free chicken embryos (n = 120) were allocated control vehicle, PBS with or without ethanol vehicle, LPS (125 ng/egg) with or without quercetin treatment (10, 20, or 40 nmol/egg, respectively), quercetin groups (10, 20, or 40 nmol/egg). Fifteen-day-old embryonated eggs were inoculated abovementioned solutions via the allantoic cavity...

The effects of the administration of the opioid agonist, morphine, on plasma and tissue concentrations of Met-enkephalin were determined in 14 wk old female chickens. In addition, effects of morphine on proenkephalin (PENK) expression were examined. Plasma concentrations of Met-enkephalin were reduced 10 minutes after morphine administration. Plasma concentrations of peptides that contain Met-enkephalin motifs were decreased 30 minutes after morphine administration. Tissue concentrations of Met-enkephalin tended to be depressed following morphine administration...

Welfare problems in broiler chickens are associated with accelerated growth in high density and barren environments. Encouraging broiler movement yields benefits by increasing locomotion, foraging, and environmental exploration. Robot sensors with autonomous navigation capabilities developed to collect husbandry information could collaterally induce movement of birds while traversing the chicken houses. This study examines the short-time dynamic of changes in broiler spatial distribution within the robot's zone of influence throughout the growing cycle...

Meat production performance is the most important economic trait in broilers, and skeletal muscle, as the largest organ in animals, is directly related to meat production during embryonic and postnatal growth and development. N6-Methyladenosine (m6 A) is a chemical modification occurs on RNA adenosine that has been reported to participate in a variety of biological processes in all species. However, there are still few reports on the regulatory role of muscle growth and development in poultry after birth. This study aims to reveal the distribution of m6 A modification sites in chicken pectoralis major muscle after birth and find out the regulatory relationship between m6 A and muscle development...

The effect of goose meat sous-vide (SV) cooking at 6 combinations of temperature (60°C, 80°C) and time (4, 6, 12h) on selected functional properties was investigated. The study conducted an assessment of cooking loss (CL), moisture content, pH, longitudinal (LS), and transverse (TS) shrinkage, shear force (SF), texture profile analysis (TPA), color parameters (L*, a*, b*, C, h°), ΔE and carried out sensory evaluation. A total of 168 breast muscles (BM with and without skin) from 17-wk-old "Polish oat geese" were utilized...

Untargeted metabolomic profiling, by ambient mass spectrometry and chemometric tools, has made a dramatic impact on human disease detection. In a similar vein, this study attempted the translation of this clinical human disease experience to farmed poultry for precise veterinary diagnosis. As a proof of principle, in this diagnostic/prognostic study, direct analysis in real-time high resolution mass spectrometry (DART-HRMS) was used in an untargeted manner to analyze fresh tissues (abdominal fat, leg skin, liver, and leg muscle) of pigmented and non-pigmented broilers to investigate the causes of lack of pigmentation in an industrial poultry farm...