Dietary inclusion of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolite improved reproductive performance but did not affect intestinal permeability in two chicken meat breeder lines.

Gastrointestinal dysbiosis is a disturbance in mucosal homeostasis, producing low-grade chronic intestinal inflammation and impaired intestinal barrier function. It is induced by several factors, including nutrition and stress, which are both significant factors when considering current broiler breeder practices. A great grandparent (GGP) chicken meat line was identified displaying clinical signs characteristic of potential dysbiosis, including wet droppings and litter, in addition to reduced reproductive performance when compared to a consistently high performing line.

Effect of in ovo creatine monohydrate on hatchability, post-hatch performance, breast muscle yield and fiber size in chicks from young breeder flocks.

Younger broiler breeder flocks produce smaller eggs containing smaller yolks, with potentially lower energy reserves for the developing chick. Creatine is a naturally occurring energy source and is abundant in metabolically active tissues; providing this to chicks in ovo should provide additional energy to improve hatchability and post-hatch growth. Thus, post-hatch performance of male and female chicks hatched from younger breeder flocks supplemented with creatine monohydrate (CrM) in ovo was investigated.

Layers, broiler chickens and their F1 cross develop distinctly different caecal microbial communities when hatched and reared together.

Aim: To compare the caecal microbiota of layer, broiler, and intermediate F1 layer × broiler cross birds with the hypothesis that significant differences in caecal microbial composition would persist between the three groups when host and environmental interactions were minimized.

Methods And Results: Caecal contents were characterized using 16S rRNA for males of broiler (n = 12), layer (n = 12) and F1 layer × broiler cross (n = 9) birds that were hatched and reared under the same conditions. The microbial community structure differed significantly between the three groups of birds at phylum, genus and OTU levels, with clear separation of the groups observed.

Effects of Different Papua New Guinea Sweetpotato Varieties on Performance and Level of Enteric Pathogens in Chickens.

In the last decade, research has targeted the evaluation of local feed ingredients for use in monogastric diets to alleviate the high cost of production of livestock at smallholder levels in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The PNG smallholder poultry production system involves many families who rear multiple batches of meat birds every year. This study was conducted to evaluate the levels of enteric pathogens in the caeca of broilers fed with sweetpotato diets with varying levels of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP).

Correlations between intestinal innate immune genes and cecal microbiota highlight potential for probiotic development for immune modulation in poultry.

Immune function is influenced by the diversity and stability of the intestinal microbiota. A likely trade-off of immune function for growth has been demonstrated in heavier breeds of poultry that have been genetically selected for growth and feed efficiency traits. We investigated the expression of selected innate immune genes and genes encoding products involved in intestinal barrier function to determine whether function changes could be consistently linked to the phenotypic expression of feed conversion ratio (FCR), a common measure of performance within poultry broiler flocks.

Effect of restricted feed intake in broiler breeder hens on their stress levels and the growth and immunology of their offspring.

The prenatal environment has been shown to have significant effects on the lifelong health of offspring in humans and other species. Such effects have not been studied extensively in avian species but could prove important, especially in the case of severe feed restriction imposed on broiler breeder hens to prevent obesity and reduce rate of lay. Feed restriction can potentially affect not only nutrient supply to the embryo but stress hormone levels within the hen.

Transcriptional analysis of liver from chickens with fast (meat bird), moderate (F1 layer x meat bird cross) and low (layer bird) growth potential.

Background: Divergent selection for meat and egg production in poultry has resulted in strains of birds differing widely in traits related to these products. Modern strains of meat birds can reach live weights of 2 kg in 35 d, while layer strains are now capable of producing more than 300 eggs per annum but grow slowly. In this study, RNA-Seq was used to investigate hepatic gene expression between three groups of birds with large differences in growth potential; meat bird, layer strain as well as an F1 layer x meat bird.

Evaluation of fatty acid metabolism and innate immunity interactions between commercial broiler, F1 layer × broiler cross and commercial layer strains selected for different growth potentials.

Background: The broiler industry has undergone intense genetic selection over the past 50 yr. resulting in improvements for growth and feed efficiency, however, significant variation remains for performance and growth traits. Production improvements have been coupled with unfavourable metabolic consequences, including immunological trade-offs for growth, and excess fat deposition.

Evaluation of a foam dressing for acute and chronic wound exudate management.

This article discusses the use of a foam dressing for exudate management in both chronic and acute wounds, such as surgical wounds, pressure ulcers, diabetic ulcers, trauma wounds, and leg ulcers. The primary objective of the study was to observe patients' wound progression in terms of wound size and the condition of the wound bed, when using this foam dressing as either a primary or secondary dressing. The outcome of the evaluation demonstrated that ActivHeal Foam Contact dressing effectively managed exudate.

Use of yeast cell wall extract as a tool to reduce the impact of necrotic enteritis in broilers.

The use of a yeast cell wall extract derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Actigen(®)) has been proposed as an alternative to in-feed antibiotics. This experiment was conducted to investigate the efficacy of yeast cell extract as an alternative to zinc bacitracin or salinomycin using a necrotic enteritis challenge model. A feeding study was conducted using 480-day-old male Ross 308 chicks assigned to 48 floor pens.

Mucin gene mRNA levels in broilers challenged with eimeria and/or Clostridium perfringens.

The effects of Eimeria (EM) and Clostridium perfringens (CP) challenges on the mRNA levels of genes involved in mucin (Muc) synthesis (Muc2, Muc5ac, Muc13, and trefoil family factor-2 [TFF2]), inflammation (tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF-alpha] and interleukin-18 [IL-18]), and metabolic processes (cluster of differentiation [CD]36) in the jejunum of broilers were investigated. Two parallel experiments involving 1) EM challenge and 2) EM and CP challenges were conducted. The first experiment was a 2 X 2 study with 12 birds per treatment (N = 48) involving fishmeal substitution (25%) in the diet (FM) and EM challenge.

Effects of a Lactobacillus reuteri BR11 mutant deficient in the cystine-transport system in a rat model of inflammatory bowel disease.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract associated with altered composition of the gut microbiota. Lactobacillus reuteri BR11 (BR11) has recently been reported to reduce the severity of experimental IBD because of its probiotic properties possibly attributed to a mechanism of thiol production via its unique cysteine/cystine-transport system.

Aim: We compared BR11 and a BR11 mutant deficient in the cystine-uptake system (PNG201), for their capacity to reduce the severity of experimental colitis.

A small-scale, low-cost isolation system for the incubation and rearing of low bacterial load chicks as a model to study microbial-intestinal interactions.

A small-scale, economical isolator system was adapted to hatch and raise chicks in a bacteria-free environment as a means to observe bacterial interactions with the intestinal mucosa during early development. The design and construction of flexible plastic isolators for incubation and brooding are described along with methodologies for preparation of eggs for entry into the isolators, incubation and hatching. Two trials were conducted, the first in August 2005 and the second in March 2006.