Haemoglobins of chicks, yearlings and known-age sub-adults of the royal penguin were investigated by starch-gel electrophoresis at pH 8-6. Two haemoglobin components were observed in yearlings and sub-adults. These were assumed to be the haemoglobins of adults. Another three haemoglobin components were observed in 3-week-old chicks. In seven out of eight fledging chicks, these chick haemoglobin...

The cytoplasmic serine/threonine ribosomal protein S6 kinase (S6K1) plays a critical role in controlling protein translation. There is evidence that amino acids regulate S6K1 and protein synthesis in avian species, but the effect of dietary protein level on the activation of S6K1 in neonatal chicks is unknown. Therefore, the aim of the present experiment was to investigate the effect of differe...

Exposure of chicks to a high ambient temperature (HT) has previously been shown to increase neuropeptide Y (NPY) mRNA expression in the brain. Furthermore, it was found that NPY has anti-stress functions in heat-exposed fasted chicks. The aim of the study was to reveal the role of central administration of NPY on thermotolerance ability and the induction of heat-shock protein (HSP) and NPY sub-...

Biological predispositions influence approach and avoid responses from the time of birth or hatching. Neonates of species that require parental care (e.g. human babies and chicks of the domestic fowl) are attracted by stimuli associated with animate social partners, such as face-like configurations, biological motion and self-propulsion. The property of being filled is used as a cue of animacy ...

In the current study, commercial broiler breeder hens were mated with either commercial broiler breeder males (B/B) or artificially inseminated with semen from Leghorn cockerels (B/L). Embryos and chicks from each mating were used to study the effects of paternal genotype on breast muscle myosin expression without the confounding effects of differences in egg size and embryo development due to ...

Purpose. To test whether the interanimal variability in susceptibility to visually induced myopia is genetically determined. Methods. Monocular deprivation of sharp vision (DSV) was induced in outbred White Leghorn chicks aged 4 days. After 4 days' DSV, myopia susceptibility was quantified by the relative changes in axial length and refraction. Chicks in the extreme tails of the distribution of...

Nutritional and environmental conditions influence broiler flock performance. Besides these factors, other less-well-understood factors, such as incubating egg characteristics, affect the embryonic life of chicks. This study demonstrated that egg storage depressed egg albumen Haugh units (HU) and chick quality; these effects of storage were greater in egg and chicks from old breeders. Absolute ...

Effect of light stress at various time intervals on broiler chicks was studied during JanuaryFebruary, 2010 by rearing a total of 400, one-day-old Hubbard X Hubbard experimental chicks at Department of Microbiology, University of Veterinary and Animal sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. It was observed that light stressed birds had showed non-significant (P>0.05) difference on blood cells population ex...

Procellariiform seabirds (the petrels, albatrosses and shearwaters) are recognized for their acute sense of smell. These pelagic seabirds forage over thousands of miles of ocean to find patchily distributed prey resources. Over the past decade, much headway has been made in unravelling the variety of olfactory foraging strategies that Antarctic species employ, and it is becoming clearer that ol...

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of peripheral insulin treatment on appetite in chicks. Six-d-age chicks with ad libitum feeding or fasting for 3 h before injection received a subcutaneous injection of 0, 1, 3, 5, 10, or 20 IU of insulin or vehicle (saline). The results showed peripheral insulin treatment (1 to 20 IU) did not alter significantly the feed intake in chicks un...