Regulation of agricultural pests managing their natural enemies represents an alternative to chemical pesticides. We assessed the potential of insectivorous birds as pest regulators in woody crops located in central Spain. A total of 417 nest boxes installed in five field study sites (one vineyard, two fruit orchards, and two olive groves) were monitored for use and breeding of insectivorous bi...

this experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of zinc on the performance and humoral immunity response in broiler chickens with 250 ross broiler chickens with five experimental treatments consisted of five replicates in a completely randomized design. treatments were diets containing: basal diet (control) and basal diet plus 40, 80, 120 and 160 mg zn/kg. results of t...

General locomotor activity (GLA) in poultry has attracted attention, as it negatively influences production costs (energy expenditure and feed consumption) and welfare parameters (bone strength, litter quality, feather pecking and cannibalism). Laying hen lines diverging in the average level of spontaneous locomotor activity in the home pen were developed by genetic selection using the founder ...

A 42-d trial was conducted to compare the effects of probiotic, prebiotic and synbiotic supplements on growth performance, morphology of the jejunum, serum lipid profile and antibody response of broiler chickens. A total of 400 one-d-old male broiler chicks were randomly divided into four treatment groups of four replicates (25 birds per replicate) and fed corn-soybean meal diets. The dietary t...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the heamato-biochemical, relative organ weight and bacteria count of broiler chicken given different levels of Luffa aegyptiaca leaf extract (LUF). A total of 250 day old Ross 308 broiler chicks of mixed sex were divided into five treatments, each group was further divided into five replicates each of ten (10) birds in a completely randomized design. ...

AIMS This study evaluated the relationship between Campylobacter susceptibility and enteric fluoroquinolone concentrations in chickens treated with different doses of enrofloxacin. METHODS AND RESULTS All chickens were challenged with seven fluoroquinolone sensitive Campylobacter jejuni (6.6 x 10(6) CFU per bird) at 2 weeks posthatch. At 26 days of age chickens were treated with 0 (n = 29 bir...

Supplementation with vitamin D3 was previously shown to protect Escherichia coli challenged birds that underwent two dexamethasone (DEX) treatments at 5 and 12 wk of age in an experimental model of turkey osteomyelitis complex (TOC). The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of dietary supplementation with 10 microg of 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D)/ kg feed or 99 microg o...

This study was carried out to assess the effect of clinoptilolite coated with silver nanoparticles on meat quality attributes of broiler chickens during frozen storage. A total of 375 one-day-old broiler chicks were assigned in a completely randomized design to 1 of 5 experimental groups including: basal diet, basal diet supplemented with 1% clinoptilolite and basal diet supplemented with 1% cl...