Dried leaves of oleander were orally given at a single dose of 500 mg/kg body weight to 20 clinically healthy male chickens. Clinical signs of toxicosis began to appear about 1 h after receiving the oleander and included hypersalivation, vomiting, diarrhea, deep depression, and sudden death. Also, hyperemia in the combs and wattles was obviously seen. Electrocardiograms (ECG) were repeatedly re...

A .—There is widespread interest in the roles that carotenoids play as yolk and shank pigments, antioxidants, and immune-system regulators in chickens, but nothing is known of such functions in the wild ancestors of chickens—the Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus). We manipulated carotenoid access in the diet of captive male and female Red Junglefowl to investigate its eff ects on the coloration of ...

The domestication process has altered the behaviour of the chicken in different ways. It is mainly the thresholds that have been affected more than the actual behaviour repertoire. The selection pressure in captivity can be either active or passive depending on the environment and the interference by human. An active selection on fear of human seems to change the behaviour according to the dome...

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Chicken Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) were analyzed to identify genes associated with myogenesis during embryonic development. A total of 6,184 ESTs were generated from three cDNA libraries constructed from whole embryos (Stage 26), somites associated with neural tube (Stage 15), and limb buds (Stages 21, 24 and 26). Clustering and assembly of 4,998 valid ESTs resulted in 2,329 unique sequence...

In a variety of circumstances animals can represent numerical values per se, although it is unclear how salient numbers are relative to non-numerical properties. The question is then: are numbers intrinsically distinguished or are they processed as a last resort only when no other properties differentiate stimuli? The last resort hypothesis is supported by findings pertaining to animal studies ...

Vision is the primary sensory modality of birds, and its importance is evident in the sophistication of their visual systems. Coloured oil droplets in the cone photoreceptors represent an adaptation in the avian retina, acting as long-pass colour filters. However, we currently lack understanding of how the optical properties and morphology of component structures (e.g. oil droplet, mitochondria...

By directional training, young domestic chickens have been shown to use a magnetic compass; the same method has now been used to analyse the functional characteristics and the physical principles underlying the chickens' magnetic compass. Tests in magnetic fields with different intensities revealed a functional window around the intensity of the local geomagnetic field, with this window extendi...