2. Breeder hens fed ad libitum and subjected to either conventional or intermittent lighting ingested respectively, 25 g and 14 to 17 g more than hens restricted to 115 g/d.
3. Body weight was greater in hens fed ad libitum irrespective of the lighting pattern and of the amount of food intake.
4. Persistency of egg production was impaired by intermittent lighting.
5. Ad libitum feeding reduced egg fertility. The decrease was larger in breeder hens on intermittent lighting.
6. Hatchability was increased in hens submitted to the symmetrical lighting pattern (0.5L:3.5d).
7. Egg and chick weights were higher in hens fed ad libitum.
8. Shell index and shell breaking strength increased in restricted hens on the intermittent lighting pattern (0.5L:3.5d) × 6.
9. The best performance was obtained in restricted hens on the conventional lighting pattern. 相似文献
2. Higher rates of fertility and hatchability of Japanese quail eggs were observed from parents of 10 to 19 weeks of age, with peak fertility and hatchability at 14 and 12 weeks of age, respectively.
3. Sex ratios of 1:2 to 1:5 gave comparable fertility and hatchability results.
4. The hatching performance of quail eggs from cage and deep litter reared breeders was comparable.
5. Fertility and hatchability were directly proportional to the egg weight.
6. Quail egg shell colour, tints and blotches were found to influence hatching performance.
7. Storing quail eggs at 16 ± 2°C and 75 ± 5% relative humidity for more than 4 d reduced hatchability.
8. Hatchability of eggs stored at room temperature was improved if they were sealed in polyethylene bags.
9. Provision of light during the first 14 d of incubation resulted in a photo‐acceleration of about 3.2 h. 相似文献
2. Hyperphagia, amounting to twice the intake of control birds early in the experiment, occurred on the repletion day.
3. Final body weight attained 80% of that of the controls.
4. Body fat concentration decreased at first but returned to that of controls after 3 weeks.
5. A consistent hyperlipaemia was observed after food deprivation or restoration.
6. There was a marked increase in the digestive enzymes found in the small intestine, but not in the pancreas during the repletion day.
7. These responses may be considered as mechanisms to reduce the physiological manifestations of starvation. 相似文献
2. The data conformed to a mixed model and adjustments were made for the fixed effects sex, hatch date and location. Adjustment improved the precision of the estimates by reducing the error variances significantly.
3. Rearing equal numbers of birds from each family at different locations made the interactions negligible.
4. Weight gain was greater if illumination intensity up to 35 d was less.
5. Females were not heavier on the 1st day but were heavier on the 14th and 35th days than males.
6. Variance components and genetic parameters were estimated. 相似文献
2. Rocking embryo cultures during the first half of incubation enhanced embryo growth.
3. Embryos explanted into ‘surrogate’ eggshells of either other individuals or other species have been successfully ‘hatched’.
4. A normal chorioallantois is formed in these surrogate eggshells. This enables a functional albumen sac to form and eggshell resorption to be achieved.
5. Embryos grown in ‘surrogate’ eggshells are slightly smaller than controls but otherwise normal.
6. The technique provides opportunities for genetic engineering experiments. 相似文献
2. Numbers of lymphocytes in the perinatal stages were very low with H:L ratios greater than 5.0.
3. Posthatching H:L ratios decreased in a quadratic manner from 1.76 at hatch to 0.39 on day 8. 相似文献
2. Because the traditional method of determination of droppings digestibility coefficients of nitrogen may lead to systematic errors in estimating the feeding value of foodstuffs, a method is proposed to determine the ileal digestibility coefficients. The ileal method is compared with the droppings method for a mixed food and for two foodstuffs: wheat and solvent‐extracted soyabean meal.
3. Birds selected for efficient food conversion showed distinctly higher digestibility coefficients for all nutrients than birds selected for high growth potential or birds from a commercial strain.
4. The influence of age on digestibility coefficients was not consistent.
5. Female birds showed digestibility coefficients which were, in general, 3% higher than those of male chickens.
6. Interactions between genotype and sex and between genotype and age for energy metabolisability were the only interactions observed for digestibility measurements.
7. The method of determination influenced the amino acid digestibility coefficients of the mixed food and the relative feeding values of wheat and soyabean meal.
8. It is important to use well defined animals (genotype, sex, age) in evaluating foodstuffs.
9. The preferred method for determination of digestibility coefficients of nitrogen and amino acids is based on ileal sampling, although the differences in amino acid digestibility coefficients were small between methods. 相似文献
2. Hens of the population with the high incidence of whitening appeared to be more fearful than hens of the population with the low incidence of whitening.
3. Brown colouration of the egg shell and the incidence and degree of shell whitening declined as the hens aged.
4. Brown colouration and egg shell whitening were most pronounced on the blunt ends of the eggs.
5. A large part of the variation in egg shell whitening was attributable to the individual (hen) component of variance.
6. Differences in egg shell whitening, between the two populations, were detectable throughout the 26 weeks of the experiment.
7. Oviposition intervals were similar for normal and coated eggs when birds were not exposed to disturbance.
8. Disturbance of hens increased oviposition intervals and the incidence and degree of shell whitening, to a similar extent, in both populations.
9. It is concluded that stress‐related egg retention is not the sole factor responsible for abnormal egg shell whitening. Shell whitening may occur as a consequence of the premature termination of shell pigmentation as well as a consequence of the retardation of oviposition which occurs when hens are disturbed. 相似文献
2. Replacing groundnut oil cake (GNC) by Niger oil cake (NC) on an isonitrogenous basis, did not affect egg production, egg weight or the amount of food required per dozen eggs.
3. The percentage retention of nitrogen from diets containing 30% GNC or 30% NC was similar.
4. The ME value of NC used was 3025 kcal/kg.
5. It is concluded that NC can replace GNC in layers’ diets. 相似文献
2. Hens subjected to 2L:4D:8L:10D lighting had lower body weights at end of lay and during most of the laying year, than the 17L:7D control birds.
3. Intermittently illuminated hens had similar absolute water, crude protein and ash contents to, but more water on a proportional basis than, controls.
4. Hens subjected to the 2L:4D:8L:10D lighting regimen had significantly less fat, in both absolute and proportional terms, than the controls.
5. There were no significant differences between the energy concentrations of the fat or fat‐free components of the two lighting groups.
6. There was no significant difference in the regression of fat content on body weight at end of lay for the intermittently and conventionally‐illuminated birds.
7. A prediction of the difference in daily energy requirement, based on egg output, body weight and mean daily body weight gain, very closely matched the actual difference in energy intake. This suggested that the more efficient food utilisation of intermittently‐illuminated hens could be explained by the lower body weight gain of these birds. 相似文献
2. Lighting affected growth pattern but had no effect on body weight at 118 d or overall food to gain ratio.
3. Both INC and DID lighting reduced overall mortality in comparison to CON light primarily because of a reduction in the incidence of skeletal disease and spontaneous cardiomyopathy. INC and DID lighting increased the incidence of cannibalism.
4. Turkeys given INC or DID lighting had a superior ability to walk in comparison to those birds given CON light.
5. INC and DID males stood, ate and drank more frequently, and sat less often than CON turkeys during behavioural observation.
6. There were no lighting effects on carcase composition except that INC and DID birds had heavier keel bones. The ultimate force per cm2 (stress) required to break femora was greater for turkeys given INC and DID lighting (P = 0.065).
7. Plasma testosterone concentrations at 117 d were 272.5, 115.2 and 29.5 pg/ml for turkeys given CON, INC and DID lighting, respectively (P= 0.072). Testosterone concentration was not related to growth rate. 相似文献
2. It was fed at 16 weeks of age to five separate groups (groups 2 to 6) each of 50 to 60 birds.
3. Group 2 was fed on a normal layers’ diet at 23 weeks of age, group 3 at 27 weeks, group 4 at 31 weeks, group 5 at 35 weeks and group 6 at 55 weeks while the control group (group 1) of similar size to groups 2 to 6 was subjected to a normal commercial treatment for laying stock.
4. In all the experimental groups the onset of sexual maturity occurred normally, but only one or two eggs were laid before laying ceased under the influence of the treatment.
5. Laying re‐started when the hens were fed on a normal diet and production rapidly rose to a high level.
6. Groups 1, 2 and 3 differed little in the total number of eggs produced up to 72 weeks of age.
7. In all experimental groups there were fewer very small, small and medium eggs than in the control group.
8. It is suggested that the use of a low‐calcium diet before the onset of lay may have advantages which could be exploited on a commercial scale. 相似文献
2. Photoperiod treatments consisted of computer simulations of day lengths which occur naturally in the spring and autumn of the year. Both photoperiod treatments were given to hens in the autumn and spring.
3. Data were collected for growth evaluations at 2‐ to 4‐week intervals to 16 weeks of age. No significant season × photoperiod interactions occurred.
4. The spring trial resulted in greater body weights and better food conversions (food/gain) than the autumn trial.
5. Simulated autumn daylengths resulted in greater body weights and improved food efficiency at 16 weeks of age compared with simulated spring daylengths.
6. The pattern of growth (period changes) was influenced by season, but not photoperiod.
7. Season and photoperiod both have important and independent influences on the growth of the turkey hen. 相似文献
2. Urea as a protein substitute does not enhance the value of conventional broiler diets.
3. Urea does not improve broiler diets that have been supplemented with fish meal or crystalline amino acids to satisfy requirements for all indispensable amino acids.
4. Urea is absorbed into the bloodstream, but is not assimilated into body proteins. 相似文献
2. More eggs were produced per hen housed from 30 to 70 weeks in the shallow cages; the difference approached significance.
3. The pattern of feeding activity over the day was significantly more U‐shaped in the shallow cages; this pattern accords more closely with physiological requirements.
4. Feather damage caused by pecking was slightly but significantly more severe in the deep cages at 70 weeks.
5. The proportion of cracked eggs (collected from 60 to 70 weeks) was significantly lower in the shallow cages.
6. The arrangement of the hens was such that within the shallow cages a higher proportion of birds was present in the front half.
7. It is suggested that some of the advantages conferred by the shallow cage may be related to the greater accessibility of the food trough. 相似文献
2. Fluorescent light showed the same positive correlation between light intensity and physical activity at all activity levels as was found previously for incandescent light.
3. Light‐dependent physical activity under fluorescent light was higher than under incandescent light at illuminances of 5 lux and above, indicating the fowl's ability to perceive qualitative light differences.
4. Total and activity‐related energy expenditure were positively associated with illuminance; resting energy expenditure was not influenced.
5. Total, resting and activity‐related energy expenditure were not statistically significantly different between light sources.
6. The results are discussed in relationship to Teichmuller's concept of adequate lighting and the characteristics of the fowl's visual system. 相似文献
2. The response in shell thickness to ahemeral lighting was more rapid (2.2 d) than for egg weight (4.2 d).
3. Differences between genotypes were evident in both the speed and magnitude of response.
4. Overall, egg weight and shell thickness on the 28‐h cycle were 7% and 8% greater than on 24 h.
5. The allometric increase indicates that the increase in shell weight was on average 14% more than the increase in egg weight. 相似文献
2. An Individual Poultry Weighing System (IPWS) was developed to record time, duration, location and body weight of visits of individual hens to 4 weighing scales.
3. The number of hens that visited the weighing scales per 3 h period varied from less than 10 during the dark‐period to more than 60 during the light‐period.
4. The average number of visits per individual hen was 1–4 and the average number of successful weighings per hen was 0–6 during the light‐period.
5. Body weight showed a diurnal rhythm: the difference between the maximum body weight at night and the minimum body weight in the morning was 63 g.
6. The location of the scales influenced number of visits, number of weighings, mean body weight, flock‐uniformity and duration of visits.
7. Body weight per 3 h period did not differ between hens which were individually recognised and those which were not.
8. Flock‐uniformity was 2–6% higher during the light‐period if it was based on weighings of identified hen visits.
9. The average duration of the visits to the scales in the middle of the feeding tier during the light‐period was 63 s.
10. Of all the hens that visited the scales during a 24 h period, 54% visited them only once.
11. Automatic weighing systems without individual hen recognition can deliver reliable management information on mean body weight and flock‐uniformity in aviary systems if the weighing scales are located on the feeding tier in the middle of the house and if they are used during the light‐period. 相似文献
2. No significant differences were found between genetic groups in hatchability.
3. Groups containing the fast‐hatching line genotypes were significantly smaller in egg weight than those not containing this line.
4. Significant differences in hatching time existed between male lines and between female lines within pure and cross‐line parent types while no differences were observed between the female parent types and no interactions of male by female lines occurred.
5. It was concluded that inbreeding in the pure lines (10%) did not affect any of the variables measured.
6. The results on hatching time support the conclusion that little genetic variance other than additive variance is involved for this trait. 相似文献
2. Changes in plasma cholesterol were equivocal, though there was perhaps a trend towards hypercholesteraemia.
3. Birds became hypoglycaemic within an hour but were hyper‐glycaemic between 2 and 4 h. At 24 h they were normoglycaemic.
4. Plasma corticosterone was increased markedly at 1 h but was decreased compared with the control at 2 h (P<0.01). Thereafter the concentration was in the normal range.
5. There was an enhanced hyperlipacidaemia in the treated birds after 1 h.
6. Adrenal cholesterol stores were decreased by 10% at 4 h but were unaffected at all other times.
7. Colonic temperature decreased by 1–6 °C after 2 h but was normal by4h.
8. It is concluded that propranolol has mild stressor activity which is lost within 24 h. 相似文献