1 Dept. of Meat Science, Faculty of Food Science and Fisheries, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland 2 Center of Bioimmobilization and Innovative Packaging Materials, Faculty of Food Science and Fisheries, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland 3 Division of Sciences of Commoditives and Food Quality, Faculty of Food Science and Fisheries, West Pomerania...

The aim of this experiment was to study the relationship between feather pecking and ground pecking in laying hens and the effect of group size on feather pecking behaviour. Hisex White hens were kept in floor pens in group sizes of 15, 30, 60 and 120 birds, each with four replicates. Behavioural observations were performed at four different ages and focused on the number of feather pecks and a...

is no unambiguous evidence that plumicolous feather mites chew holes in feathers; such damage is usually caused by feather lice. Also, it has been reported that feather mites of the great-spotted woodpecker (Dryobates major) and the hoopoe (Upupa epops) avoid white spots on the feathers and instead aggregate on melanized areas 5. Thus, as we stressed in our review 3 , extrapolating from lice to...

Two novel feather-degrading fungi belonging to Chrysosporium and Microsporum genus were isolated from poultry waste in Goa, India. The fungi produced extra cellular keratinolytic enzyme in a feather meal broth using chicken feather as a sole of carbon and nitrogen source. Maximum enzyme activity was obtained within 96 h (150 U/ml and 90 U/ml for Chrysosporium and Microsporum respectively) of cu...


 Many differentially expressed genes associated with feather colour in quail embryos can be screened using RNA-seq technology. The aim of this study was to verify the accuracy RT-qPCR. transcriptome embryonic skin tissues quails were sequenced by Illumina HiSeq TM2000 sequencing platform. As a result, 2512 found. Among them, 950 up-regulated white-feather embryos, and 1562 down-regulated....

We investigated how exogenous and endogenous glucocorticoids affect feather replacement in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) after approximately 56% of flight feathers were removed. We hypothesized that corticosterone would retard feather regrowth and decrease feather quality. After feather regrowth began, birds were treated with exogenous corticosterone or sham implants, or endogenous cort...

The structure and properties of chicken feather barbs makes them unique fibers preferable for several applications. The presence of hollow honeycomb structures, their low density, high flexibility and possible structural interaction with other fibers when made into products such as textiles provides them unique properties unlike any other natural or synthetic fibers. No literature is available ...

Feather pecking in domestic fowl is a behavioral abnormality that consists of mild or injurious pecking at feathers of conspecifics. Previously, it was shown that chicks from a high feather-pecking (HFP) and low feather-pecking (LFP) line of laying hens already differ in their propensity to feather peck at 14 and 28 days of age. As a first step in investigating a possible relationship between t...

Potentially, pathogenic bacteria are one of the main infective agents against which a battery of chemical and physical barriers has evolved in animals. Among these are the secretions by the exocrine uropygial gland in birds. The antimicrobial properties of uropygial secretions may prevent colonization and growth of microorganisms on feathers, skin and eggshells. However, uropygial gland secreti...

It was previously suggested that the flight ability of feathered fossils could be hypothesized from the diameter of their feather rachises. Central to the idea is the unvalidated assumption that the strength of a primary flight feather (i.e. its material and structural properties) may be consistently calculated from the external diameter of the feather rachis, which is the only dimension that i...