The current studies were undertaken to assess the ability of humoral immune response in breeding hens and the protective immunity provided by administration of purified Salmonella gallinarum (SG) porins to the progeny. Two hundred and ten broiler breeder hens, 53 weeks old, were divided into three groups and subcutaneously immunized via multiple sites at 0 and 10 days with either: a) 10 μg SG p...

In the turkey industry, molting is traditionally achieved by reducing photoperiod and withdrawing feed and water for several days. Although it is the most effective method, this practice is discouraged in Canada and alternative strategies need to be established. Thyroid hormone levels naturally change during molt, and dietary thyroxine (T4) supplementation was previously shown to induce molt in...

This experiment was designed to investigate the effects of different levels copper–methionine chelates and alfalfa powder on egg yolk cholesterol content, quality, performance in laying hens. In this experiment, a total 100 hens (Nick Chick strain, from 109 117 weeks age) were arranged into five experimental treatments, consisting 2 dietary copper chelate (2x2) factorial completely randomized d...

This study was carried out to determine the effects of diets containing different amounts of poppy seed meal (PSM) and yeast culture (S. cerevisiae) on performance and egg quality parameters of laying hens. A total of 160 laying hens, 40 weeks old, were divided into four groups of 40 hens each, which were in turn subdivided into four subgroups of 10 hens’ experimental replicates. The animals in...

The metabolite 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 (25-OHD) can complement or replace vitamin D3 in poultry rations, and may influence broiler production and immune function traits. The effect of broiler breeder dietary 25-OHD on egg production, hatchability, and chick early innate immune function was studied. We hypothesized that maternal dietary 25-OHD would support normal broiler breeder production and a ...

Induced molting of laying hens is a practice used by commercial egg producers to increase the productive lifetime of their flock. However, the conventional method of inducing molt, which involves removal of feed, water, or both as well as a reduction in photoperiod to less than a natural day has drawn criticism due to animal welfare and food safety concerns. The objective of this study was to e...

Seventy Brown-Nick laying hens (39-wk old) were divided into 5 treatment groups of similar mean body weight and egg production, comprising 14 birds in each. The housed individual cages a completely randomized design 16:8 h light:dark photoperiod was employed. fed standard layer diets containing different levels lutein for 6 weeks. Treatment included control (without lutein), 100, 200, 400 800 p...