Each individual bird in a flock of birds updates its behavior based on the behaviors of its neighbors. Previous work has considered how a small set of algorithmically controlled influencing agents, or robot birds, can influence the flock to behave in a particular way — such as to avoid airports or wind farms. These robot birds are assumed to be seen by the flock as ordinary birds, and hence are...

Following experimental inoculation of 3-week-old turkeys with different titres (106, 104, 103, 102 and 101 egg infectious dose (EID50)) of A/ostrich/Italy/984/2000 H7N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV), the selected tissues and organs were examined for pathological changes. Tissue samples from different organs that obtained from dead and sacrificed birds were fixed in 10% neutral...

Antibodies to West Nile virus were detected in 94 of 1,784 Illinois birds during 2002. Captive and urban birds had higher seropositivity than did birds from natural areas, and northern and central Illinois birds' seropositivity was greater than that from birds from the southern sites. Adult and hatch-year exposure rates did not differ significantly.

Concern is growing about the impact of climate change on organisms but there's much uncertainty about its effects. A new European study of two bird species does not provide good news.

most highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (aiv) emerge after field passage of non-pathogenic aivs in birds. the outbreak of low-pathogenic h7n1 avian influenza virus in italy during 1999-2000 followed by outbreak of highly pathogenic h7n1 avian influenza virus is one example in this regard. this experiment has been designed to investigate the effect of pre-infection of birds with lpai on s...

This study compared the efficacy of continuous or pulsed-water medication with enrofloxacin, danofloxacin, and sarafloxacin in eight groups of 90 chicks each by using an infectious bronchitis virus-Escherichia coli model of colisepticemia. The model produced lesions of typical those occurring in birds with severe colisepticemia; for the infected, nonmedicated birds the mortality was 43.5% and t...

We report the development of epitope-blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for the rapid detection of serum antibodies to West Nile virus (WNV) in taxonomically diverse North American avian species. A panel of flavivirus-specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) was tested in blocking assays with serum samples from WNV-infected chickens and crows. Selected MAbs were further tested ag...

Olfactory receptors (ORs) govern a prime sensory function. Extant birds have distinct olfactory abilities, but the molecular mechanisms underlining diversification and specialization remain mostly unknown. We explored OR diversity in 48 phylogenetic and ecologically diverse birds and 2 reptiles (alligator and green sea turtle). OR subgenomes showed species- and lineage-specific variation relate...

The effects of body size and feed intake on N digestibility, pancreas and liver weight, and digestive enzyme activities in male broiler chicks were compared with those induced by dietary tannins. Four groups (SSM, ad lib., pair-fed and young) of sixteen birds each (2 weeks old) were used as experimental animals. They were fed on experimental diets for 4 weeks, except the young group which were ...

BACKGROUND Although there are about 520 species of birds in Iran, but only some of them have been checked for ectoparasites so far.The aim of this study was to check some more available species of the birds of Iran for lice. METHODS This study was performed between 2008-2010 in northern Iran. For this purpose we tried to check some of the wild bird species available and mostly not checked bef...