ICAR Technical Series No 3 Not more than a third of a century ago, a comprehensive theory of systematic cross-breeding in farm animals was fully developed (Smith, 1974; Moav, 1966; Dickerson, 1969; Dickerson, 1973). Since then many experiments have been conducted to provide information about the effect of crossing breeds or strains within farm animal species. Based on these results, efficient i...

Global consumption of poultry products, especially poultry meat, has consistently increased over the years, and this trend is expected to continue. Much of the increase in global demand for poultry products will be in developing countries. Such growth in the poultry industry is having a profound effect on the demand for feed and raw materials. However, it is also becoming clear that the require...

Inflation-adjusted farm prices and farm-wholesale marketing margins for beef and pork have declined over several decades. For example, from 1970 to 1998, real slaughter steer and hog prices declined by 50% and 66%, respectively, while real beef and pork farm-wholesale (FW) marketing margins declined by 57% and 65%, respectively (Figures 1 and 2). These changes have been attributed to declining ...

Microbial contamination of poultry carcasses can be influenced by many factors during transport and slaughtering. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of four processing steps (plucking, evisceration, washing and chilling) on the total viable counts (TVC), counts of Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Listeria spp. incidence on broiler carcasses. A total of 160 broiler carcasses o...

This study aimed to discern the contribution of poultry farms to the contamination of the environment with ESBL-producing Escherichia coli and therewith, potentially to the spread of these bacteria to humans and other animals. ESBL-producing E. coli were detected at all investigated laying hen farms (n = 5) and broiler farms (n = 3) in 65% (46/71) and 81% (57/70) of poultry faeces samples, resp...

Present study was conducted to evaluate the quality traits of poultry eggs collected from various sources i.e. market, commercial farm and backyard farming, in Karachi. A total of 250 eggs were analyzed for external and internal qualities. A significant difference (p <0.05) was recorded in quality parameters except percent shell, shell thickness, egg width, egg weight, shape index and Haugh uni...

Nigeria was the first African country to report highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus outbreaks in February 2006 and has since been the most severely hit country in sub-Saharan Africa. A retrospective survey carried out towards the end of 2007, coupled with follow-up spatial analysis, support the notion that the H5N1 virus may have spread from rural areas of northern Nigeria near ...

Salmonella enterica serovar Virchow is highly prevalent in humans and farm animals in Israel. In addition to high rates of resistance to multiple antibiotics, this serovar exhibits a high incidence of resistance to nalidixic acid. More than 90% of Salmonella serovar Virchow isolates of human and poultry origin obtained from 1997 to 2004 were resistant to nalidixic acid (MIC > or = 128 microg/ml...