Low Incubation Temperature During Late Incubation and Early Feeding Affect Broiler Resilience to Necrotic Enteritis in Later Life.

Resilient animals can cope with environmental disturbances in life with minimal loss of function. Resilience can be enhanced by optimizing early-life conditions. In poultry, eggshell temperature () during incubation and early feeding are two early-life conditions that are found to alter neonatal chick quality as well as immune response in later life.

Effects of lighting schedule during incubation of broiler chicken embryos on leg bone development at hatch and related physiological characteristics.

Providing a broiler chicken embryo with a lighting schedule during incubation may stimulate leg bone development. Bone development may be stimulated through melatonin, a hormone released in darkness that stimulates bone development, or increased activity in embryos exposed to a light-dark rhythm. Aim was to investigate lighting conditions during incubation and leg bone development in broiler embryos, and to reveal the involved mechanisms.

Light-dark rhythms during incubation of broiler chicken embryos and their effects on embryonic and post hatch leg bone development.

There are indications that lighting schedules applied during incubation can affect leg health at hatching and during rearing. The current experiment studied effects of lighting schedule: continuous light (24L), 12 hours of light, followed by 12 hours of darkness (12L:12D), or continuous darkness (24D) throughout incubation of broiler chicken eggs on the development and strength of leg bones, and the role of selected hormones in bone development. In the tibiatarsus and femur, growth and ossification during incubation and size and microstructure at day (D)0, D21, and D35 post hatching were measured.

Incubation lighting schedules and their interaction with matched or mismatched post hatch lighting schedules: Effects on broiler bone development and leg health at slaughter age.

The incidence of leg pathologies in broiler chickens with a developmental origin may be decreased by stimulating embryonic bone development through lighting schedules during incubation, but this may depend on post hatch lighting conditions. Aim was to investigate how lighting schedules during incubation and their interactions with matched or mismatched lighting schedules post hatch affected bone development and leg health at slaughter age. In a 3×2 factorial designed experiment, eggs were incubated under continuous cool white LED light (Inc), 16h of light, 8h of darkness (Inc), or continuous darkness (Inc) from set till hatch.

Lighting schedule and dimming period in early life: consequences for broiler chicken leg bone development.

Prolonged (>20 h) light periods during grow-out of broiler chickens have been shown to increase the occurrence of skeletal abnormalities, but the effects of early life light-dark schedules are not well known. The present experiment investigated the effect of lighting schedule and light-dark transition during the first days of a broiler chicken's life on leg bone development. In 2 experiments, Ross-308 broiler chicks (n = 2,500 per experiment) were subjected to 1 of 5 treatments for 4 d: 24L; 2L:1D lighting schedule with either an abrupt or gradual light-dark transition ("dimming"); and a 2L:6D lighting schedule with an abrupt transition or dimming.