Domestic broiler chickens rapidly accumulate fat and are naturally hyperglycemic and insulin resistant, making them an attractive model for studies of human obesity. We previously demonstrated that short-term (5 h) fasting rapidly upregulates pathways of fatty acid oxidation in broiler chickens and proposed that activation of these pathways may promote leanness. The objective of the current stu...

A small survey was undertaken of commercially reared free-range chickens in Western Australia using serology and molecular detection. Eighteen out of 20 serum samples showed antibody responses with titers of 1:64 in 5 chickens and ≥ 1:128 in 13 chickens. DNA extracted from 22 out of 50 tissue samples, 10 brains and 12 spleens, were positive by nested PCR, and sequencing at the B1 locus on DNA f...

Five groups of broiler chickens were raised on feed containing varying substitutions of single cell protein from preprocessed waste activated sludge (pWAS) in varying compositions of 0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25, and 100:0 pWAS: fishmeal by mass. Forty chickens per batch were evaluated for growth rate, mortality rate, and feed conversion efficiency (ηє). The initial mass gain rate, mortality rate...

This study aimed to assess the effect of the number of straw bales (SBs) provided on the behaviour and leg health of commercial broiler chickens. Houses containing ~23 000 broiler chickens were assigned to one of two treatments: (1) access to 30 SBs per house, '30SB' or (2) access to 45 SB per house, '45SB'. This equated to bale densities of 1 bale/44 m2 and 1 bale/29 m2 of floor space within h...

Little is known of the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in commercially raised chickens. In the present study, the prevalence of T. gondii in 96 free-range chickens (Gallus domesticus) from a commercial farm in Israel was assessed. Blood, heart, and brain from each chicken were examined for T. gondii infection. Antibodies to T. gondii, assayed with the modified agglutination test (MAT > or = 1:5...

Avian influenza (AI) vaccines are a viable emergency tool for use in a comprehensive strategy for dealing with high-pathogenicity AI in developed countries. However, the available doses of inactivated AI vaccine are limited to national vaccine banks and inventory stocks of some commercial biologics manufacturers. To determine if the available vaccine doses could be stretched by using reduced va...

Unlike traditional virus isolation and sequencing approaches, sequence-independent amplification based viral metagenomics technique allows one to discover unexpected or novel viruses efficiently while bypassing culturing step. Here we report the discovery of the first Sicinivirus isolate (designated as strain JSY) of picornaviruses from commercial layer chickens in mainland China by using a vir...

Coccidiosis vaccines and anticoccidial drugs are commonly used to control Eimeria infection during commercial poultry production. The present study was conducted to compare the relative effectiveness of these two disease control strategies in broiler chickens in an experimental research facility. Birds were orally vaccinated with a live, attenuated vaccine (Inovocox), or were provided with in-f...