eu poultry meat production and consumption poultry lighting intestinal barrier function
TRANSCRIPT
EU poultry meat production and consumption
Poultry lighting
Intestinal barrier function
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The new feedersof the «Gió» range,specifically developed for great poultry farms, thanks to the easiness in the regulation of the feed and to the absence of grill (that avoid chicks perching) have many advantages:
they are easy to use and their cleaning is extremely easy and fast too, leading to an overall reduction in labour costs.
CODAF Poultry Equipment Manufacturers • Via Cavour, 74/76 • 25010 Isorella (Brescia), ITALY Tel. +39 030 9958156 • Fax: +39 030 9952810 • [email protected] • www.codaf.net
EDITORIALThe explosive situation in North Africa draws in not only Europe but all industrialized nations and creates a new opportunity towards facilitating the processing of evolution in those countries that lack progress. We, the industrialized nations, have in the last 20 to 30 years concentrated our atten-tions on the principles of globalism, welfare matters, and in finding new sources of energy. We have sought to synergize our efforts towards becoming ever more com-petitive in order to gain new market share while often ignoring social factors in favour of economy of scale.In almost all of Africa, and in other parts of the world, for centuries we have witnessed dramatic human situations. From the time of colonization onwards in many countries, notwithstanding independence, living conditions have become worse. We have been unable to create a state of economic independence and a minimum sense of well being and human dignity and as such eliminate the desire to flee from such misery. Often this desire to flee means putting one’s life in the hands of unscrupulous pirates and yet again the ' Mare Nostrum ' is seen as the route to better life.In recent years we have talked more and more about having better respect for our en-vironment, treating our livestock better, improving product control and traceability and restricting the use of GM products etc.Are we sure all these goals are achievable and that they will benefit humanity?Currently world population is above 7 billion and in the next 20-30 years is forecast to reach 10 billion. Areas dedicated to cereal production continue to diminish due to increased urbanization, road construction etc. while, at the same time, deforestation further impoverishes the poorer countries.Projects such as those that aim to produce energy through the transformation of cere-als are absurd when one considers how much vegetable protein is needed to feed the world's population.The time has come to face critical situations with a different spirit of collaboration and to cease thinking solely of profit margins. Speculative actions negate collective good and benefit only a few. An example of this can be seen in the current situation related to grain markets where trading conditions throughout the whole sector, from producer to consumer, are driven by speculative behaviour.This scenario is further affected by the continuing pressure placed on food producers by supermarket chains, who continue to demand better quality products but at lower prices.The time has surely come to seriously discuss the options open to us and to consider the future we will create for the next generation. International economic politics must include the need to find a matrix of conduct that all will adhere to otherwise, there is no future for us all unless we have a fairer distribution of wealth.
Processed chicken feet have become a $500 million market - and that’s why Meyn developed the Automatic Feet Selection System. It provides a fully automated process complete with camera and product sensing equipment, and now complemented by an automatic ejection machine. Grading and sorting takes place in real time, and animal welfare data is captured to comply with local regulations.
MEYN FOOD PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY B.V.P.O. Box 16, 1510 AA Oostzaan, The NetherlandsT: +31 (0)20 2045 000 | E: [email protected]
Innovating the future
Another innovation by Meyn
SUMMARY
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WORLD WIDE NEWS ........................................................................... 4
COMPANY NEWS ................................................................................. 8
COMPANY PROFILESANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP, a story of success and commitmentto the worldwide egg industry .......................................................................... 14
REPORTAGEReducing antibiotics without harming profitability is an actual possibility ............... 18
MARKETINGPatterns of EU poultry meat production and consumption. A 2016 status report .... 20
TECHNICAL COLUMNBábolna Tetra continues to improve their layers to face future challanges.............. 24
Managing bird behaviour in organic production systems ..................................... 26
DOSSIERUpdate on Waters of the US (WOTUS) Regulatory Policy .................................... 30
MANAGEMENTPoultry Lighting ............................................................................................. 34
Partially slotted flooring systems for market toms - What are the possibilities? ...... 38
NUTRITIONMicrobiota studies in poultry: the black hole of complexity .................................. 42
Vitamin D in laying hens: how high is high enough? ............................................ 46
Intestinal barrier function. A case to be studied in reduced protein diets ............... 50
VETERINARY SCIENCEInfectious Bursal Disease antibody levels and viral load in commercial broiler chickens .......................................................................... 54
PROCESSINGInnovative methods for a multidisciplinary risk managementin poultry slaughterhouses ....................................................................................... 58
MARKET GUIDE ..................................................................................60
UPCOMING EVENTS .........................................................................63
INTERNET GUIDE ...............................................................................64
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WORLD WIDE NEWS
VIV MEA was launched in 2016 as a biennial hub dedicated to serving animal protein providers from the Middle East and Afri-ca to Iran and the countries of the Indian sub-continent.
In 2018 the international feed-to-food trade show VIV MEA re-turns to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, between 5th-7th February.
Visitors can expect an even richer experience at this second edition that expanded into an extra hall at the Abu Dhabi na-tional exhibition center (ADNEC) to accommodate more stands of more exhibitors.
Into an extra hall
Looking back to that first edition, VIV MEA 2016 exceeded ex-pectations by receiving an audited total of 6,243 visits by peo-ple from 109 countries to see the exhibits of 279 companies at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. Where the show in 2016 occupied three ADNEC halls, VIV MEA 2018 has spread into a fourth hall to meet the high demand for stand-space.
A provisional exhibitor list compiled in October has already con-tained the names of animal protein industry suppliers and or-ganizations from no fewer than 42 countries. Notably, the glob-al players in feed, equipment, genetics and animal health are
joined this time by nearly 30 companies that have their head-quarters in the Middle East, including six from the UAE. Provi-sionally, there will be about 40 exhibitors from The Netherlands and over 20 from Italy. Other places with high numbers include France, Spain and China, each contributing 17 exhibitors, while Turkey supplies 15 and both Belgium and India provide 12.
Enriched content and international scope
Also at ADNEC at show time in February 2018 there will be a full programme of conferences arranged by VIV worldwide in association with numerous industry organizations, covering all animal protein sectors except pork. “We are determined that the 2018 edition of VIV MEA in Abu Dhabi will build on the great start achieved by the event in 2016 by again bringing a very international platform for business at ADNEC. In fact, we are forecasting an increase to 8,000 for the number of visits in Feb-ruary, which would mean 28% more than last time. With the pur-pose of bringing the top people in the industry to Abu Dhabi, at the heart of the Middle-East/North Africa (MENA) region, we as the organizers have been developing tailor-made programmes to welcome targeted delegations from key countries regionally such as Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia, as well as Morocco, Iran and Egypt”, Renate Wiendels, VIV MEA show manager, said.
In preparation of this second edition of VIV MEA 2018, the show website has been refreshed in style and content;www.vivmea.nl has been made responsive on all mobile devic-es in addition to its accessibility through PC computers and laptops.
VIV MEA comes back in 2018with an enriched second edition
Venue Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre Khaleej Al Arabi Street Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates
Dates 5 - 7 February, 2018 Opening hours 10.00 - 18.00 hrs
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- january 2018 - 5
WORLD WIDE NEWS
Biosecurity information sheets for rural poultry farmers in Europe
ERPA, the European Rural Poultry Association, produced two biosecurity information sheets for rural poultry farmers in Europe. This work was presented to the European Commission in 2017, and the EC supported this initiative.
In a context where all poultry farms must apply strict biose-curity measures in order to protect themselves from several health threats such as Avian Influenza, ERPA, the European Rural Poultry Association, has issued two biosecurity informa-tion sheets for rural poultry farmers in Europe.
These sheets represents the result of a work carried out by ERPA in 2017, which first consisted of comparing the biose-curity regulations of several Member states to protect against AI, then defining homogenous biosecurity measures for all the rural poultry farmers in Europe.
Simple to understand, these information sheets remind the basic principles to be respected in a poultry farm: protection of the rearing areas and management of interventions, mana-
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The ShowCo members* welcome you at VIV MEA in Abu Dhabi U.A.E. from February 5-7, 2018. There is no better chance to see the complete range of newest innovations and services for the Poultry Industry.
ShowCo is an initiative for the introduction of an optimized concept for trade fairs in the global poultry industry. More than 50 leading companies in the poultry sector are member and support the objectives of ShowCo.The aim is to bring the relevant exhibitions to a high quality level in good cooperation with trade fair organizations and on the basis of ShowCo’s Global Exhibition Plan.
ShowCo AssociationMarter Revier 14, 5431 KD Cuijk The NetherlandsT. +31 485 314891 M.+31 653437923E. [email protected]
www.showco.org
ShowCo at VIV MEA 2018
*not all members present
Climate for Growth
Adv.Showco-Eng VIV MEA 167x119.indd 1 22-11-17 16:59
gement of the production units independently from each other,
separation of palmipeds/gallinaceans, protocol of use of the
changing room, application of waiting periods, and protection
of animal feed, water and poultry in case of Avian Influenza in
wild birds.
ERPA relies on its members, but also on all the stakeholders
in the poultry production sector and European institutions, to
make known and use these sheets which are now available in
4 languages: English, French, Spanish and Italian, and can be
translated into other languages. Free of right, they are displa-
yed on the website www.erpa-ruralpoultry.eu and available on
request at [email protected].
6 - world wide news -
WORLD WIDE NEWS
Poultry Africa 2017 Expo and Leadership Confer-ence for Sub-Saharan Africa was held over two days at the Convention Centre of Rwanda’s cap-ital city, Kigali. For visitors and exhibitors alike, it
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proved to be a happy and dynamic fusion of commercial contacts and knowledge transfer within an extremely valuable platform in terms of the quality of companies and individuals present.Poultry Africa 2017 was noteworthy for the considerable support it re-ceived from departments and agencies of the Rwandan government. At the Official Opening on October 4, VIV worldwide manager Ruwan Berculo and show manager Diána Tóth were joined on the podium by Mr. Jean Claude Kayisinga, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agricul-ture and Animal Resources of Rwanda.Dr. Mrs. Gerardine Mukeshimana, Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, paid a long visit in the afternoon of the second day, stopping at many of the stands to talk to the exhibitors and also attend-ing two sessions of the Leadership Conference taking place that day.The premium trade fair received high praise from all visitors. Its stands for 75 exhibiting companies and organisations were strongly represent-ative of poultry-oriented enterprises in East Africa as well as containing the displays of global names in equipment, feeds and services for poul-try production and processing worldwide.Technical seminars and the Leadership Conference sessions were well-visited on both days. A feature of the Leadership Conference espe-cially welcomed by participants was its mixture of guest lecturers from inside and outside of Africa. As one example, on the same day as opening remarks by American Avian Influenza expert David Suarez there was a WVPA session on poul-try welfare chaired by Nigel Horrox and Nduta Mbuthia of International Poultry Production in which speakers included Anthony Nsoh Akunzule from the Ghana Poultry Network and Kenyan poultry veterinarian Victor Yamo.
Poultry Africa debuting with high ratingVisitors to the first-ever Poultry Africa in Rwanda have recognised its high value to the leaders of Africa’s poultry businesses by awarding it eight points out of a possible 10 in a poll taken at the time of the October 2017 event.
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AZA INTERNATIONAL S.r.l. - www.azainternational.it Via Roma 29, 24030 Medolago (BG) Italy - Phone +39 035 901240 - [email protected]
• Broilers• Breeders• Cocks
• Pullets• Layers• Turkeys
• Quails• Ducks
THE MOST INNOVATIVE RANGE FOR POULTRY FEEDING :
AZA INTERNATIONAL has been working in the zootechnical sector for more than 50 years assuring high reliability and quality products at competitive prices.
I WANTAZA!
BREEDAZA
Linear trough feeder for breeders suitable for 300 meters long systems with one single motor and loading point throughout the circuit.
Immediate and homogeneous feed distribution throughout the entire circuit.
Easy cleaning and no residual feed inside the trough.
Adjustable anti-cock grid.
Linear trough feeder for layers and pullets.
Manufactured from sturdy light plastic material for easy winching.
The pullets’ version is equipped with a convenient midway drop designed for one day old chicks.
Cage version also available.
FOR LAYERS AND PULLETS
FOR BROILER BREEDERS
The innovative rationing system
Pullets’ version
QUALITY MADE IN ITALY
NEW!
8 - company news -
COMPANY NEWS
Water is the most precious and sometimes limited available nutrient for all living creatures. In poultry houses leaking drink-ing nipples may cause serious wet litter problems, affecting the in-house climate conditions and consequently flock health and performance. The resulting losses can be dramatic. Impex, one of the largest nipple makers in the world understands this issue and is determined to help the livestock industry offering leakage free drinking nipples. A brand new factory near Frank-furt, in Germany, was therefore built where drinking nipples for the pig and poultry industry are produced. The recently inau-gurated top notch production facility in Aulenhausen replaced
the old Neher factory, which burned down in April 2014. With an investment of more than 20 million euros, Impex has now one of the most modern and sustainable drinker production plants in the world. It produces here more than 30 million pig and poultry drinkers annually.
Precision technology
With the commissioning of the new plant, Impex is determined to continue delivering high-quality products that meet the three pillars the company represents; Innovation, Service and
New Impex plant to ensure high qualityand leakage free drinkersWater is the most precious nutrient for all living creatures. Its spilling is a loss and may cause serious problems. Therefore, the Dutch nipple maker Impex puts a lot of effort into the production of high quality leakage free drinkers for livestock. With the inauguration of a new factory the company expects to be ready for a sustainable future.
The new Impex-Neher factory in Aulenhausen produces more than 30 million drinkers per year
Architect Hamm (2e left) hand over the symbolic key of the new complex to Neher plantmanager Dieter Oesterling (2e right) and the owners Willem (l.) and Richard Wentzel (r.)
Quality. The new factory was added to the existing production department, an ultramodern testing and research centre. Im-pex director Richard Wentzel expressed all his proud for this new goal. In the new facility, among other things, products are carefully monitored with high precision measuring equipment,
for example roughness, roundness, flatness, angularity and thickness of the steel parts. Every single nipple part is turned, drilled and measured up to a 0.005mm precision. To improve water flow, all metal parts are cleaned from remaining drilling oil before moving them to the assembling line. This section of the plant consists of precision machines (robots) to assure that no parts will be damaged when bringing together all different nipple sections. Since no leakage is accepted, every single nipple is put on trial three times to check on air tightness. On top sustainability testing of essential products is carried out to ensure many years of uninterrupted and leak-free use of the nipples.
“In the new facility, among other things, products are carefully monitored with high precision measuring equipment, for example roughness, roundness, flatness, angularity
and thickness of the steel parts”
- january 2018 - 9
COMPANY NEWS
Innovative drinking technology
Impex Barneveld BV Harselaarseweg 129 | P.O. Box 20 | 3770 AA Barneveld | HollandT +31 (0)342 416641 | F +31 (0)342 412826 | [email protected] | www.impex.nl
Follow us on
Visit us at VIV MEAStand 05.E029
Modern machines and technologies are elementary to produce high quality products
“The opening of the factory in Aulenhausen has a special significance for this village of 250 souls only. Landrat Manfred Michel
and Mayor Manfred Heep of Weilmünster expressed great gratitude for the decision
of the Impex owners, the Wentzel family, to rebuild the factory in that village”
Social responsibility
The opening of the factory in Aulenhausen has a special sig-nificance for this village of 250 souls only. Landrat Manfred Michel and Mayor Manfred Heep of Weilmünster expressed great gratitude for the decision of the Impex owners, the Went-zel family, to rebuild the factory in that village. “A departure would have caused great damage to the village life”, said May-or Heep. He thanked Richard and his father Willem Wentzel, for their social responsibility in giving the village a future and being attractive for young families. Next to the plant, the Went- zel family granted also a boules (Petanque)-court, which was
given the name ‘Willem Wentzel Platz’ on village’s initiative.The factory employs around 60 employees. Most of them re-ceived an intensive training after getting out of the old factory to become acquainted with the newest multi-spindle machines and measuring equipment, so that they were well trained for their new work. This made them even more committed to sat-isfy the high demands of Impex’ clients.
For more information please contact:Email: [email protected] or Tel: +31 (0)342 41 66 41Website: www.impex.nl
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COMPANY NEWS
This complex can be considered one of the most modern of its kind in Europe, and is absolutely unique in the Baltic States. It was built in accordance to the latest breeding standards, and is equipped with the most modern technological developments such as computer controlled automatic feeding with daily tube winching, the Matrix male feeding system and automatic sep-arate flushing of the drinking lines. The complex with its 5 houses, central feed store, administrative unit and central egg collection area provides place for 60.000 broiler breeders. To show appreciation for the trust KG-Group gave in VDL Agro-tech as partner, a huge chicken to be placed at the entrance of the complex was donated. Link of Short promo video and Short description of Project (EN version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blMVl3MizDA
KG-Group, Lithuania chooses VDL AgrotechOn the 7th of September 2017, Kaisiadoriu Paukstynas - member of Kauno Grudai Group - Lithuania - celebrated the inauguration of their new broiler breeder complex in Kaisiadorys.
For information contact:Email: [email protected]: vdlagrotech.com
COMPANY NEWS
With 10 incubators built to exacting pharmaceutical stan-dards, the new facility will have a total incubation capacity of more than 2.5 million eggs and is expected to be operational in 2019.
Sanofi Pasteur produces more than 1 billion doses of vacci-ne each year and previously expanded its Swiftwater vaccine production capabilities with NatureForm equipment in 2006.
Successful project management, validation capabilities and the ability to meet the stringent demands of human vaccine production were key factors in the company’s decision to work with NatureForm Hatchery Technologies again for this new ex-pansion.
SmartPro™ NF incubation allows for precise, zonal tempera-ture control, which delivers more viable embryos and there-
fore a greater vaccine yield. All incubators will be integrated with Sanofi Pasteur’s internal management software. Security badge scanners for access, specialized cooling coils, custom inlet and exhaust with filtration are just some of the specialized features that will be incorporated to ensure the equipment can be validated in this Biosecurity Level 2+ vaccine production facility.
Steve Warren, President of NatureForm Hatchery Technolo-gies, comments, “We are extremely proud of our participation in this very important project. In 2016, Sanofi Pasteur ena-bled the vaccination of 200 million people against influenza worldwide and, together with our partner Pas Reform, we are honoured to be entrusted with such a significant component of their global vaccine production program.”
The week-long event was held in late October at Shanghai and Chuzhou in eastern China. Organizers expect the school to become an annual event aimed at sharing knowledge be-tween the two companies. David Johnson, agriculture director of Cargill Meats Canada, said that Cobb had been selected as Cargill’s preferred supplier earlier this year.
“This school aims to bring all the Cargill operations together in the same room so we can all learn from Cobb and, equally importantly, learn from each other’s experiences,” he said. “We thank Cobb for organizing the school and sharing with us their expertise in poultry production.”
“This event helps benchmark performance from these different Cargill regions,” said Pelayo Casanovas, general manager for Cobb Asia Pacific. “It shows the potential performance of the Cobb500 in different parts of the world and highlights the key factors and management practices that make specific opera-tions so successful.”
Nearly 20 topics were discussed, including genetic selection, water quality, pullet management, hatchery egg handling, ven-
Cobb partners with Cargill for first China Tech SchoolA variety of open forums and field sessions brought together operations employees from Cargill’s five regions across the world at the first Cobb-sponsored technical school in China.
tilation and antibiotic-free broiler programs. Participants also were able to go inside Cargill China operations to see first-hand the issues learned about in the classroom.
Cargill has 155,000 employees in 70 countries involved in food, agriculture, nutrition and risk management. Cargill op-erates poultry businesses in Canada, United Kingdom, Philip-pines, Thailand and Central America.
- january 2018 - 11
Sanofi Pasteur contracts NatureFormfor new flu vaccine facility in Pennsylvania
Sanofi Pasteur, the world’s largest dedicated producer of human vaccines, is to build a state-of-the-art new vaccine production facility with SmartPro™ NF incubation systems at its campus in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania.
12 - company news -
COMPANY NEWS
Roxell, the leading manufacturer in automatic feeding, drinking, heating and ventilation sys-tems for poultry and pigs, is introducing two new types of feed bins, specifically for EU coun-tries. The new types of feed bins comply with European standard EN 1090 for the manufac-ture of metal structures.
The new bins break down into two groups. For EU countries, the existing Roxell feed bin se-ries, standard and static (static corresponded to wind zone 4 in Germany), will be replaced by:
1. EC3 feed bin series 26 m/s for areas with an average wind speed of maximum 26 m/s - this type covers the majority of the EU.
2. EC3 feed bin series 30 m/s for areas with an average wind speed of maximum 30 m/s.
The existing standard feed bin series will remain available for non-EU countries.
The distinguishing features of the new EC3 feed bin series, 26 m/s and 30 m/s, include more robust legs and supports, compliance with the Eurocode 3 standards for strength and stability, and the use of certified raw materials from cer-tified suppliers.
Focus on innovation and quality
The introduction of the 26m/s and 30 m/s EC3 feed bin series illustrates the sustainable path that Roxell will follow by focusing on innovation and quality.
Roxell builds new type of feed bins for EU market as per EN 1090
These product improvements resulted in Roxell being awarded the EN 1090 certificate of con-formity. This certification involved an audit of the entire bin production process at Roxell. The audit was carried out by Kiwa, an independent certification body, and confirmed that Roxell’s production process and personnel training are carefully documented and controlled. As a re-sult, Roxell effortlessly obtained the ‘Certificate of Conformity of Factory Production Control 0620-CPR-93574/01’.
www.roxell.com
After an audit of the bin production process, Roxell was awarded the EN 1090 certificate of conformity
Starting from November 2017, Giordano Poul-try Plast is launching a brand new model within its animal transport coop range: the Piedmont Open (see it in the photo).
Based on the need of different markets to have a cage ensuring better bird transport conditions, with reduced risk and incidence of injuries and bone fractures during loading and unloading operations, the Piedmont Open was developed by Giordano Poultry Plast’s R&D department with the purpose of achieving significant reduc-tions in stress and time needed to carry out usu-al transport operations.
This version optimally integrates Giordano’s transport coops, already recognized as the world widest!
For further information, please visit the company’s website at: www.poultryplast.com
GIORDANO POULTRY PLAST SPA: new coop PIEDMONT OPEN
- january 2018 - 13
COMPANY NEWS
So Many Reasons...
Simply the best broiler in the world
C O B B - V A N T R E S S . C O M
14 - company profile -
COMPANY PROFILE
SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP, a story of successand commitment to the worldwide egg industry
The SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP has been supplying complete solutions for the egg processing industry for more than 60 years. The origins go back to the 1960s with the cre-ation of SANOVO ENGINEERING. With the addition of RAME-HART and STAALKAT, the SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP was established in 2006.
In recent years, more specialized divisions such as SANOVO VAX with in-ovo vaccination for the broiler industry and SANO-VO PROCESS SOLUTIONS, distributing a range of products from DSM to the egg processing industry, enriched the big SA-NOVO family.
Specializing and expanding over the years
Today, the SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP is a successful and global leading company specializing in various areas, such as egg processing technology, egg grading, packing, equip-ment for the vaccine industry, enzymes for enhanced function-
al egg products, powder processing and more recently, the in-ovo vaccination technology and drying of valuable protein sources.
The SANOVO egg processing machines are worldwide famous as they allow for an easy and completely automated egg break-ing, pasteurization, hard-boiling, drying, robotic automation, grading and packing processes with maximum yield and su-perior output quality. In addition, the company has specialized in the industrial food processing sector, where their SANOVO PROCESS SOLUTIONS program can indeed standardize or improve the functional properties of egg products, thereby increasing their value. A brand-new area is recently looking specifically at proteins and how to make them into products that can be used, such as blood, soybeans etc., through the powdering. The company has even dedicated a facility to make spray drying tests of various customer applications so that customers can see how they turns out in the end before making an order.
Passion, drive, advanced technology, social and ethical responsibility are the core elements of a company which has constantly been expanding over the years and is actively engaged in social, human and environmental projects.
The headquarters of SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP at Datavej in Odense, Denmark
- january 2018 - 15
The advanced in-ovo vaccination equipment has proven to be a help to hatcheries to cost-effectively improve flock health in today’s commercial and highly competitive poultry industry.
RAME-HART’s machinery is specifically designed for inocula-tion and harvesting procedures within the pharmaceutical and veterinary industries, with a portfolio of high technology and precision-engineered solutions to ensure safer and enhanced production.
An internationally focused company
Headquartered in Odense, Denmark, in their brand-new fa-cilities, the company operates internationally with production centers in Denmark, The Netherlands, Italy, and the United States. At the Odense head-office, the company employs 120 people and more than 400 all over the world. Their marketing network operates with numerous sales and service offices and agents spread throughout the world, ensuring a precise distri-bution of products combined with high-quality customer ser-vice and technological back up. They have sales and service entities in Denmark, Netherlands, Italy, Mexico, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Taiwan, Russia, Japan, China, and in Malaysia.
Service is a key factor for SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP and they take great pride in suppling their customers with ex-actly the service they need. The SANOVO Service Institute was set up to support customers with technical know-how to maximize machine performance and efficiency. Training of people is fundamental when using technology; this way, customers can get better performance and be sure that the equipment operates smoothly. Qualified and highly skilled instructors are available for training machine operators and maintenance staff. The training is done in Denmark and Neth-erlands where there are state-of-the-art training facilities ful-ly equipped with operating machines. Educational programs specifically tailored to SANOVO equipment are regularly de-veloped for customers.
The company has modern engineering departments in Den-mark, Italy and Netherlands, taking care of breakers, load-ers, spray dryers etc. in Denmark; pasteurization and robotic automation in Italy; and graders and packers in The Nether-lands. This represents their core activity and they continu-ously invest money to stay competitive and provide the most advanced technology. New products and innovations are continuously implemented and tested.
Amongst the most recent equipment, it is worthwhile men-tioning the SANOVO GraderPro, a completely new line of egg graders incorporating a long list of new technological develop-ments as well as improvements to existing techniques. Here, from in-feed up until each individual egg is placed in the carton, every single step in the grading process has been evaluated and improved or completely redesigned to create the most effi-cient grader to date. GraderPro includes graders for 400 to 800 cases/hour (288,000 eggs/hour). This represents the highest grading capacity ever seen in the market and, in combination
COMPANY PROFILE
OptiBreaker
High quality egg products with SANOVO equipment
SANOVO GraderPro - the world's largest egg grader with a capacity up to 800 cases/hour
16 - company profile -
with its small footprint, makes the SANOVO GraderPro the most efficient grader available.
To ensure that all eggs are treated as gently as possible, the SANOVO GraderPro has been designed to reduce the stress placed on the eggs. The speed of the main chain/track has been reduced by as much as 25% compared to other man-ufacturers, thus achieving a higher grading efficiency. The grader has been developed and designed for easier cleaning, saving time and reducing water consumption since more water can be reused.
The machine uses fewer component parts but also, in case of a breakdown, most vital components can be replaced quickly and easily.
Part of a dynamic and ethical GROUP
The SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP is part of THORNICO, a dynamic international group of companies. THORNICO is a private company owned by Mr Thor Stadil and Mr Christian Stadil, and comprises companies dealing in the food industry and other business areas, such as shipping, real estate, sports-wear, packaging, food ingredients and tech companies.
THORNICO’s companies are all connected with the aim to cre-ate progress and new opportunities for people and the world. The company focuses on a global holistic vision resulting in their Company Karma philosophy’s concept, “doing good whilst doing business”.
Through their CSR policy, the SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP has the ability to have an influence on the communities where they do business, in order to improve living standards as well as implementing environmental change.
COMPANY PROFILE
The importance of growing and doing business with responsibility
Being a large company at SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP, they are well aware of their social responsibilities. These in-clude employees, customers, suppliers and other relevant in-terested parties.
The company operates to minimize any impact on the envi-ronment and on water and energy resources. They align their social responsibility with the UN Global Compact whereby the company is committed to the ten universally accepted princi-ples of the UN Global Compact, which include three key focus areas - Human, Globe & Economy.
The Canaan Egg Farm project in Swaziland
The SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP is active in many hu-manitarian interventions, known as Karma Projects.
In 2017, the GROUP’s Karma Project was a donation of 30,000 USD to the IEF (International Egg Foundation), basing on the sales of GraderPro and other machines. The funds donated to the IEF help create a sustainable food supply and self-suffi-ciency in the SANOVO project countries, with benefits such as supporting egg production in order to provide high quality pro-tein for vulnerable children and local population. Communities also benefit from long term vocational training and educational opportunities to provide true sustainability for the future with local people becoming involved in the production and con-sumption of their own eggs.
One of the company’s most involving humanitarian projects, The Heart for Africa - Project Canaan Egg Farm in Swaziland, South Africa promoted by IEF, involved the SANOVO’s dona-tion of a complete egg boiling and cooling machine to a local farm. The company’s employees and the suppliers as well, all participated to this project, which became a sort of joined ac-tion, so that everybody felt connected with the donation.
The machine was specially designed by a team of SANOVO’s engineers to adapt the technology to the local conditions, and the whole operation was supported by solar energy.
Service and training on location or in SANOVO's Service Institues in the Netherlands and Denmark
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18 - reportage -
REPORTAGE
An integrated approach to reduce the need for antibiotics
Besides the changes in legislation that restrict the use of an-tibiotics around the world, there is also a surging demand for antibiotic-free produced meat from customers.
The good news is that the feed industry is working to devel-op solutions to help animal producers address the anticipated changes ahead. During the ABC Challenge Asia conference on 17 October, Dr. Emma Teirlynck from Trouw Nutrition present-ed on this topic. In her presentation, “Role of functional feed additives in antibiotic reduction strategies”, the poultry expert remarked that reducing antibiotics in broiler production is a
global trend and a necessity.
The main concern, as expected, is related to the potential drop in animal performance and, therefore, in profitability. Teirlynck brightened the audience when explaining that it is possible to reduce the need for antibiotics while maintaining - or even im-proving - profitability. The key, she stressed, is implementing an integrated feed-farm-health approach.
Optimising the complete production chain
The antibiotic reduction strategies, which Dr. Teirlynck ex-posed in her presentation, focus on the optimisation of the total production chain. It is fundamental, she explained, to integrate feed, farm, and health management into a customer specific solution that addresses the particular challenge the producer is facing. “To reduce the need for antibiotics, we have to take into account, for example, raw material manage-ment, feed safety, biosecurity and hygiene, water quality and
health management, among other topics. Only by optimising all these aspects, we can see actual results and succeed in reducing antibiotics use while maintaining or improving prof-itability,” the expert expressed. “It is impossible to do this alone”.
Gut health challenges are an important threat to animal per-formance and can be managed with feed additives. The com-bination of different products can improve poultry gut health significantly, preserving or enhancing productivity. While some additives work to support digestion and the natural barrier
against Gram-negative bacteria, others improve the microbi-al balance throughout the small intestine, boosting gut barrier integrity.
Success measured by results
To conclude, Dr. Teirlynck presented a business case that ex-poses the success of this approach. An antibiotic reduction programme was applied in a poultry integration in Israel that was able to reach the goal of producing without antibiotics and ionophores. The number of flocks raised without anti-biotics went from 89.1% to 98.8%, and while achieving this even improved the feed conversion ratio by 3% compared to when they still used antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) and ionophores. The commercial success of this customer, she said, portrays the efficiency of the approach and proves that reducing antibiotics without harming profitability is an actual possibility.
Reducing antibioticswithout harming profitabilityis an actual possibility
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“An antibiotic reduction programme was applied in a poultry integration in Israel which was able to reach the goal of producing without antibiotics and ionophores”
Ten million people are at risk due to antibiotic resistance, ensures the “Antimicrobial Resistance Review” published by the United Kingdom government in 2014. Of all the antibiotics used worldwide, a great part is used for livestock production. These data might explain the growing need for animal producers to find strategies that support them in reducing antibiotic use.
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20 - marketing -
MARKETING
Hans-Wilhelm WindhorstThe author is Prof.
Emeritus and Scientific Director of the Science and Information Centre
Sustainable Poultry Production (WING),
University of Vechta, Germany
Patterns of EU poultry meatproduction and consumption A 2016 status report
As production increased faster than consump-tion between 2012 and 2016, the surplus grew by almost 130,000 t or 27.3%.
Poultry meat production at country level
In a next step, the leading countries in poultry meat, broiler meat and turkey meat production will be documented.
Table 3 shows the high regional concentration in poultry meat production. The ten leading countries share 88.5% in the overall production volume. Poland is in an unchallenged top po-sition with a share of 16.8%. The dynamics in this country is remarkable. Between 2010 and 2016, the production volume grew from 1.59 mill. t to 2.49 mill. t or by 56.7%. In 2012 it sur-
Production and consumption
Between 2012 and 2016, EU poultry meat pro-duction increased by almost 1.8 mill. t or 13.8% (Table 1). To this growth, broiler meat contribut-ed 1.9 mill. t. The absolute growth of this meat type was higher than the increase of total poul-try meat because the production of other poul-try meat types decreased. Turkey meat produc-tion grew by 128,000 t or 6.5% while duck meat remained on a more or less constant level.
The dominating role of broiler meat is docu-mented in Figure 1.
In Table 2 the development of production and consumption in the analysed time period is doc-umented. The data for production differ from those in Table 1 because of another data source.
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Poultry meat has been the fastest growing agricultural commodity over the past decades. This is mainly a result of the high absolute and relative growth rates of broiler meat. Even though the production volume of this meat type has grown much faster in Asia, North and South America than in Europe, production and consumption in the EU has increased steadily. In this paper, a status report on the situation of poultry meat production and consumption will be presented.
21- january 2018 -
MARKETING
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Figure 1 - EU poultry meat production in 2016 by meat type (Source: EU Commission)
Table 1 - The development of EU poultry meat production between 2012 and 2016 by meat type; data in 1,000 t (Source: MEG 2017)
Meat type 2012 2014 2016 Change (%)
Broiler meatTurkey meatDuck meatOthers
10,0781,981
509450
10,8051,944
532446
11,9642,109
510225
+ 18.7+ 6.5+ 0.2
- 50.0
Total 13,018 13,727 14,808 + 13.8
Table 2 - The development of EU poultry meat productionand consumption between 2012 and 2016; data in 1,000 t (Source: EU Committee 2017)
Year Production Consumption Surplus
20122013201420152016
12,69412,78313,21613,77514,383
12,22912,28212,75113,28413,792
465501510491592
Increase (%) 13.3 12.8 27.3
Table 3 - The ten leading EU member countries in poultry meat production (2016); data in 1,000 t slaughter weight (Source: MEG 2017)
Country Production Share (%)
PolandFranceGermanyUn. KingdomSpainItalyNetherlandsHungaryRomaniaPortugal
2,4861,8281,7761,6661,5251,3871,115616362342
16.812.312.011.310.39.47.54.22.42.3
10 countries 13,103 88.5
Total 14,808 100.0
Broiler meat
Turkey meat
Duck meat
Others
Total: 14,4 mill. t
22 - marketing -
MARKETING
passed France as the leading country and has since then fastened its position. The gap between these two countries has widened continuously and Poland ranked in second place behind the Neth-erlands in poultry meat exports as will be shown later.
It was already mentioned that broiler meat shared 81% in EU poul-try meat production in 2016. In Table 4 the ten leading countries are listed.
A comparison of Tables 3 and 4 reveals some changes in the rank-ing of the countries. Poland ranks in first place, but the United Kingdom surpassed France and Germany. Spain also surpassed France and the Netherlands ranked before Italy. Romania substi-tuted Portugal in tenth place. The regional concentration in broiler meat production is also very high, the four leading countries con-tributed 49.9% to the EU broiler meat production in 2016.
The regional concentration in turkey meat production is even high-er than in broiler meat. Over 70% of the overall production volume is contributed by the four leading countries (Table 5). The gap be-tween the production in Germany and France has widened over the past years.
Between 2010 and 2016, turkey meat in Poland increased from 276,000 t to 368,000 t or by 33.3%. This dynamic is a result of considerable foreign investments. Poland has become one of the major turkey meat exporting countries and is a strong competitor in the attractive German market.
Table 4 - The ten leading EU member countries in broiler meat production (2016); data in 1,000 t slaughter weight; data in 1,000 t (Source: MEG 2017)
Country Production Share (%)
PolandUn. KingdomGermanySpainFranceNetherlandsItaly HungaryBelgiumRomania
1,9761,4711,2851,2541,1341,096
980390362350
16.512.310.710.49.59.18.23.33.02.9
10 countries 10,298 *85.9
Total 11,984 100.0
* Sum does not add because of rounding
Table 5 - The seven leading EU member countries in turkey meat production (2016); data in 1,000 t slaughter weight; data in 1,000 t (Source: MEG 2017)
Country Production Share (%)
GermanyFrancePolandItalySpainUn. KingdomHungary
40937336833020316898
19.417.717.415.69.68.04.6
7 countries 1,949 *92.4
Total 2,109 100.0
* Sum does not add because of rounding
23- january 2018 -
MARKETING
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BELTS and ROPES for AVICULTURAL USE
“Between 2012 and 2016, EU poultry meat production increased by almost 1.8 mill. t or 13.8%. To this growth, broiler meat contributed 1.9 mill. t. Turkey meat production grew by 128,000 t or 6.5% while duck meat remained on a more or less constant level”
Between 2010 and 2016, the per capita consumption of poultry meat in the EU increased from 20.5 kg to 22.7 kg. In 2016, it ranked in second place behind pig meat with a consumption of 41.2 kg. After several years of a stagnating or even decreasing consumption, beef and veal have stabilized at 15.8 kg.
The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook for the time period from 2017 to 2026 projects a growth of only 0.5 kg in the per capita consumption of poultry meat. This considerably deviates from the dynamics in the past 7 years.
In some EU member countries with an already high per cap-ita consumption a further growth may not be possible, but in countries with a comparatively low consumption poultry meat will gain in importance.
References and additional literature
Committee for the Common Organisation of the Agricultural Markets
(Ed.): EU Market Situation for Poultry. Brussels, August 24th, 2017.
https://circabc.europa.eu/sd/a/cdd4ea97-73c6-4dce-9b01-
ec4fdf4027f9/24.08.2017-Poultry.pptfinal.pdf
MEG-Marktbilanz: Eier und Geflügel 2016. Stuttgart 2016.
MEG-Marktbilanz: Eier und Geflügel 2017. Stuttgart 2017.
Windhorst, H.-W.: Spatial shifts in global chicken meat production be-
tween 1993 and 2013. In: Zootecnica International 38 (2016), Nr. 11,
S. 14-21.
Windhorst, H.-W.: The projected development of global meat produc-
tion until 2024. Part 1: Poultry meat: Poultry continues with triumphant
success. In: Fleischwirtschaft International 31 (2016), Nr. 3, S. 30-34.
2424
The key to this continuous development is close communication with their customers. Updates on the latest management recommendations are frequently presented during popular training schools and internal conferences.
Cooperation with Scientific Institutes
The aims of the Bábolna TETRA layer breeding company have not changed much throughout the last decade and remains that of finding a balance between welfare and economical pro-duction while increasing its share of the glob-al market by predicting future trends within the sector. New challenges need to be approached utilizing effective R&D in cooperation with Sci-entific Institutes. The effect of climate changes
on animal husbandry, innovation on precision feeding and housing techniques, as well as breeding for heat tolerance in layers and colour-ed broilers, are all hot topics for TETRA over the coming years.
New challenges
The most important traits requiring attention re-main those relating to production performance, egg quality and viability. The increased genetic potential of the birds, resulting from newly ap-plied selection strategies, must be transferable to and replicated in the field. The company also continues to invest in the international testing of their brown egg layers.
One of the latest research topics is the concern
Bábolna TETRA have invested heavily in infrastructure over the past five years, with the updating of existing housing and the building of new breeding farms, to ensure that the company can supply the highest quality of breeders and hatching eggs.
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TECHNICAL COLUMN
Bábolna Tetra continue to improve their layers to face future challenges
2525
regarding heat stress tolerance, which is highly relevant in countries with hot climates. Resilience to this heat stress is deemed a positive trait. Whether it is a layer or a coloured broil-er, Bábolna Tetra is on the way to introducing new products within the next few years that are selected for heat tolerance.
Recent studies have shown that certain genotypes produce eggs with more favourable composition (i.e. with higher dry matter content) which is of interest to the egg processing in-dustry. These genotypes have not only higher dry matter, but also higher fat content due to the higher ratio of yolk in their eggs. This topic is now being further investigated by Bábolna TETRA with a university partner over the next 3 years.
Presently, test flocks are involved in a large feed trial, with the aim of monitoring the effect of feeding specially manufactured
“Bábolna Tetra’s foremost interest is to support and to collaborate with their valued customers from the transportation of the day-old chicks to the farm right through to
the end of the production cycle”
layer feeds with super high fat content. The checking of egg quality for various traits is important for the industrial egg pro-cessing sector and therefore further investigation of dry matter and egg yolk weight is an important factor on the list of pro-jects of Bábolna Tetra layer breeding programme.
Gene preservation is also an important topic for all breeding companies. Freezing semen from the most valuable males is one option and this could be introduced to elite programmes. Cryopreservation of semen in the later stages of production is known to be difficult due to the decline in sperm viability and the higher ratio of abnormal sperm cells. It is however possible to achieve using the right technique.
Bábolna TETRA is working with a Biotechnology team and is determined to find the best protocol for gaining success with frozen and thawed semen collected from males over 60 weeks of age. Preliminary results on artificially inseminated flocks are showing that timing, type of container and method of freezing have the strongest impact on fertility results in the latter weeks of production.
Regarding flocks housed in alternative systems it is accepted that hens need to be genetically selected to adapt to these conditions. Gathering selection data from birds housed in cag-es is not a suitable modelling exercise when their off spring are being housed in a cage free environment. To create the required and correct testing environments Bábolna Tetra has therefore upgraded their company test farms and also created a chain of partner farms across the globe to collect data. These global farms are approved by experts from our sales and ge-netics team and given constant support and technical backup.
Such a programme is another example of the company’s foremost interest which is to support and to collaborate with their valued customers from the transportation of the day-old chicks to the farm right through to the end of the production cycle.
Bábolna TETRA believes that all its efforts will guarantee the competitiveness and increased popularity of their hybrids across the globe.
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TECHNICAL COLUMN
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John BrunnquellPhD Candidate Avian
Ethology President, Egg Innovations
Managing bird behaviour in organic production systems
Update on proposed organic rule
Range management is still key regarding bird behaviour, no matter the status of the current-ly contemplated new organic standards. At this point of the presentation, will update the audi-ence as to what the rule is and the requirements that go along with it. The Author will also discuss the timeline and phase in period, as well as items that have been codified.
Indigenous behaviours of a chicken
Chickens have five native behaviours: perch, scratch, forage, dust bathe, and socialize. The Author will breakdown each specific behaviour in regards to the ideal situation for a chicken and its importance.
Perching
Chickens have a desire to roost and jump and perch when given the opportunity. This behav-iour can be encouraged by building perches for them, especially ones that that are round and 1-1.25” in diameter. Perch connections should be covered to avoid foot abrasion and be made of material that does not splinter. A major bene-fit of perching is the general creation of activity. More activity allows more oxygen to flow through the blood, builds stronger legs, and shows less keel bone damage in the bird. This is a similar concept to humans exercising more to promote overall greater health and strength. A secondary benefit of perching is the opportunity for reces-sive birds to more easily avoid dominant bird ag-gression in a flock, and provide them with safe
This topic is presented on by John Brunnquell, the founder and current president of Egg Innovations, which is the largest exclusive producer of free range and pasture eggs in the United States. Mr. Brunnquell is also currently a PhD student at the University of Kentucky, studying Avian Ethology and specifically chicken behaviour. His company currently sees over one million birds on range on a daily basis.
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TECHNICAL COLUMN
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spaces to protect themselves.
Perching is a habit that can begin being imprinted in pullet barns. Bird behaviour begins developing at four days of age. In general, the more similar a pullet facility to a layer facility, the smoother the transition of good behaviours will be within birds. It is recommended that whenever possible,
pullet barns include layer barn like fea-tures to help the chickens more smoothly adopt upon a transition.
Scratching
The second behaviour native to chickens is scratching. A major benefit of scratch-ing is to encourage claw ware and claw maintenance, like cats using a scratching post or humans trimming their fingernails. Scratching allows chickens claws to stay maintained and not overly long or man-gled. Similar to perching, scratching also provides an option of general physical ac-
tivity for the birds to stimulate health.
Proper litter management is an essential piece of the scratching behaviour, that should not go neglected. Litter is used to absorb ammonia and many different sub-strates are viable, although wood shav-ings are most ideal. The material should be loose and friable, while always having
some visible and fresh (no build-up of ma-nure and feathers) material.
It is important to remember that this litter is only to be used as a scratch area and not a nest area, and in Author’s opinion the litter should be 0.5”-2” inches in depth to discourage floor eggs.
Foraging
Foraging involves activities such as ground pecking, scratching and locomo-tor activities that might result in the acqui-sition of food or water. It is important to know the difference between foraging and
“One of the best things a manager can do to keep a chicken acclimated to an ever environment is to purposefully
change their routine and environment daily, and continue to do new things that do not create fear”
- january 2018 -
TECHNICAL COLUMN
ORIGINAL
POULTRY EQUIPMENT
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pasturing. Chickens are not ruminants, and while they will like-ly ingest some green vegetation, their primary objective is to root around for curious things they can find in the soil, such as insects, etc. It is also important to consider that chickens are aggressive foragers and range management is important from an environmental perspective as well. They have the ability to damage a significant amount of the vegetation, which can cause land erosion.
What looks good to a human in a range will look ugly to a chick-en. The last thing you want is open hay or grass fields that are routinely mowed to a low level, as you may do in a typical yard or pasture. Instead, chickens prefer tall vegetation and shade, such as trees, shrubs, man-made structures or objects placed in the pasture. Birds are happy to travel far and range up to a quarter mile, so objects of curiosity placed far away from the main housing barn are highly encouraged. You should avoid putting any feed in the pasture however, as this can easily at-tract predators and wild animals.
The main thing to keep in mind when considering range is how to handle a bird’s natural curiosity. A chicken is awake for an average of 16 hours per day and only needs two of those for
regular activity such as nesting, eating, etc. They will thrive the highest in an environment that considers the other 14 hours of downtime that need to be filled. This can be done in any multitude of ways and on a commercial scale, suggest filling the range with anything new, different or innovative – such as old farm equipment, downed trees, or other small things to perch on.
Dust bathingDust bathing is an important natural habit of chickens that is lost by not allowing birds outside. The purpose of dust bathing for birds is to both cool the body temperature, as well as to spread oil across the feathers, similar to the concept of preening. As far as the dust bathing area on range, you will want to make sure to have the ideal substrate of either sand or other lighter soils. Well used ranges will typically have very little vegetation near the building, making this the perfect area for this activity.
Chickens are very social animals, making socialization the final key behaviour to consider among flock management. As stated before, behaviour imprinting begins at four days old, and the closer the pullet barn environment is to the layer barn, the ear-lier the birds can adapt healthy behaviours. Pecking orders are
“In general, the more similar a pullet facility to a layer facility, the smoother the transition of good behaviours will be within birds. It is recommended that whenever
possible, pullet barns include layer barn like features to help the chickens more smoothly adopt upon a transition”
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often disrupted in larger populations, and there is typically an inverse correlation between the size of the population and the strength of the pecking order.
Feather picking and feather pecking
A displaced behaviour that can be mitigated with proper social-ization techniques is feather picking. Feather picking is different from feather pecking.
Feather pecking is a natural social behaviour of birds, that is light and a form of preening. Feather picking however is an aggressive behaviour where feathers are literally picked out of an affected bird by other birds in the flock. This is displaced behaviour, meaning that some other need of the bird is not being met, such as a nutritional need (methionine deficiency) or management need (crowded environment). In some manner, the aggressive bird is attempting to compensate behaviourally for a different issue.
Chickens have emotions. Fear is the most negative emotion a chicken can have, and when it is in the fear stage it will stop everything. This includes eating, growing, exercise, and all other natural activities. One of the best things a manager can do to keep a chicken acclimated to an ever environment is to purposefully change their routine and environment daily, and continue to do new things that do not create fear. This can be as simple as wearing a different colored shirt every day they are in the barns, knocking on the door before entering and creating other noise while doing chores, or approaching them from dif-ferent directions each day.
Benefits of embracing ethology
There are many benefits to managers embracing the science of ethology and the results that come along with it. The concept of allostasis is one that is often lost, but just as important as good management, nutrition, or genetics. Allostasis says that a low level of stress on a chicken is a good and important thing to strive for, similar to humans going to a gym or having other habits they use to destress. We now know that chickens have emotions such as fear, and ethology is very much a science. To have optimal performance we need to incorporate this field of science into overall flock management just as often as the others.
As with humans, when we keep all our health systems in check, such as our circulatory system, respiratory system, etc. we are more likely to have lower sickness and death rates. This is also true of animals and why it’s important to consider all their systems, including behaviour. Monitoring all areas will also see increased productivity and generally avoid displaced behav-iours, leading to happy birds and a happy manager.
References are available on requestFrom the Proceedings of the 2017 MPF Convention
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TECHNICAL COLUMN
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Paul J. Bredwell III, P.E.Vice President
of Environmental Programs U.S. Poultry
and Egg Association
Update on Waters of the US (WOTUS) Regulatory Policy
At last count, the EPA and Corps of Engineers received roughly one million comments on the proposed rule. While there is little doubt the proposed rule will affect agriculture, concern for the rules over-reach is shared by numerous stakeholders. Majorities of the states, thirty-four to be exact, oppose the rule and almost half of the states urge EPA and the Corps of Engineers (Corps) to withdraw the rule completely. Like-wise, the rule has met with serious resistance from a bipartisan contingent of Congress.
In late January of 2015, EPA and the Corps with-
drew the interpretive rule after numerous agri-culture groups voiced concern over how the rule would affect the implementation of conservation practices developed by the Natural Conserva-tion Resources Service (NRCS). Although the agencies claimed the rule was meant only to clarify what normal farming activities are exempt from the CWA, they failed to recognize the rule might require the NRCS to enforce the CWA on behalf of the EPA and Corps if these practices were not installed and managed in strict accord-ance with NRCS standards.
A quick search on the internet reveals the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed roughly 2,800 new regulations since 2009 when the current administration took office. While most regulations have likely met with some level of disapproval, it is probably fair to say that the proposed rule defining the scope of waters protected under the Clean Water Act (CWA), has been the most widely criticized rule proposed by the agency since the current administration assumed control over the executive branch.
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While EPA and the Corps have always asserted broad jurisdic-tional authority over most waters and drainage features, the CWA and the current definition of “waters of the US” simply does not support their declaration. Decisions delivered by a majority of the Supreme Court Justices pointed this out in two cases - Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County vs. Army Corps of Engineers and Rapanos v United States where the agencies jurisdictional authority was denied over remote wa-ters because they could not legitimize a tie to waters that were clearly covered in the CWA.
The issue in Rapanos v United States revolved around the Corps determination that various areas, sometimes saturated, within a 54-acre tract of land being developed were “waters of the United States.” This determination obligated the develop-er to obtain a permit prior to placing fill dirt. After hearing the Rapanos case, three Justices, Scalia, Thomas and Alito con-cluded, “the waters of the United States” includes only those relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water. Their decision specifically pointed out “water of the United States do not include channels that carry water inter-mittently, or ephemerally or channels that periodically provide drainage after a rainfall event.”
While Justice Kennedy concurred with the opinion of Justices, Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts he addressed the need to establish a “significant nexus” when determining if a water or a wetland would fall under the jurisdiction of the CWA. Kennedy explained this “significant nexus” is obtained “if the wetlands, either alone or in combination with similarly situated lands in the region, significantly affects the chemical, physical, and bi-ological integrity of other covered waters more readily under-stood as ‘navigable’”.
Although one might suggest Kennedy is advocating the use
of this standard broadly, he explains that when the wetland’s effects on water quality are “speculative” they fall outside the area typically covered by the term “navigable waters.” Further-more, Kennedy explains, “Absent more specific regulations, the Corps must establish a significant nexus on a case-by-case basis when seeking to regulate wetlands based on adjacency to non-navigable tributaries, in order to avoid unreasonable ap-plications of the Act”.
Despite Kennedy’s guidance that a case-by-case determination is warranted, EPA and the Corps rationalize the use of this stand-ard is appropriate for every creek, ditch or drainage feature. In fact, the agencies explain in the preamble of the proposed rule, “…it is reasonable to utilize the same standard for tributaries.”
Referencing a study only recently approved by EPA’s Science Advisory Board titled “Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Review and Synthesis of the Scien-tific Evidence”, EPA and Corps conclude that all tributaries, as defined in the proposed rule, perform the functions outlined by Justice Kennedy and therefore qualify them to be considered, as a category, “waters of the United States.”
The Report purports to establish a scientific basis concluding that isolated, rarely existing “waters” are connected to more traditional navigable waters, and, therefore subject to CWA ju-risdiction. In essence, this is an attempt to establish a statutory nexus for asserting all-encompassing jurisdictional authority over a very broad range of categories of waters and geograph-ic features. EPA and the Corps are claiming that areas where water is present, as infrequently as once every few years, should be subject to CWA permit requirements because the water could potentially be connected to navigable water. Such a claim stretches CWA jurisdiction beyond statutory authority and practical implementation.
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While the processes and inter-relationships identified in the Report provide mechanisms to establish potential chemical, biological and physical ties between waters, the idea of a uni-versally applicable mechanism for every water or drainage feature that exists on the landscape lacks any degree of scien-tific robustness. Without the connectivity report, the agencies face a hurdle that prevents them from asserting jurisdictional authority over limitless water sources and landscape features. Applying the vague concept of connectivity universally to all areas that may drain water infrequently or retain insubstantial amounts water is plainly speculative and ignores the supreme courts acknowledgement that jurisdictional determinations on a case-by-case basis are necessary to avoid regulatory over- reach.
Coupled with a report that infers expansive mechanisms to claim connectivity, the rule establishes a number of new defini-tions to further expand the number of features that will fall un-
der CWA jurisdiction. Unfortunately, for landowners, especially farmers and ranchers, the proposed rule’s definition of tributary embodies almost every conceivable type of water and drain-age feature. This includes ephemeral streams that are small swales or natural ditches that are dry most of the time and carry flow infrequently. No consideration for the frequency, volume or duration of flow will be given when the agencies claim jurisdic-tion over the countless topographical features that fall into this category. Coupling the terms “adjacent” and “neighbouring” with a broad definition of “tributary” will bring riparian areas and floodplains under their jurisdiction as well.
While the EPA and Corps begin by defining a “tributary” as a drainage feature that has a bed, bank and an ordinary high wa-ter mark (OHWM), the agencies quickly expand the definition to include other geographical features that fall outside the stated parameters. Citing instances where in “some regions of the country where there is a very low gradient, the banks of a tribu-tary may be very low or may even disappear at times,” EPA and the Corps use ambiguity to claim jurisdictional authority over features that often do not resemble a stream brook or creek.
The uncertainty and potential liability associated with imple-mentation of the rule is further aggravated by the EPA and the Corps determination that “[a] water that otherwise qualifies as a tributary under the proposed definition does not lose its status as a tributary if, for any length, there are one or more man-made breaks (such as bridges, culverts, pipes, or dams), or one or more natural breaks (such as debris piles, boulder fields, or a
stream segment that flows underground) so long as a bed and banks and an ordinary high water mark can be identified up-stream of the break.” 79 Fed. Reg. at 22202. This determination prompts some practical, but critical questions for implemen-tation of the rule. For example, how far will a farmer have to look “upstream” to ensure he is not liable for applying fertilizer or pesticide into an area that may lack a bed, a bank, and an OHWM, yet is still considered jurisdictional water? The agencies have specifically indicated that “[I]n many inter-mittent and ephemeral tributaries, including dry-land systems in the arid and semi-arid west, OHWM indicators can be dis-continuous within an individual tributary due to the variability in hydrologic and climatic influences.” 79 Fed. Reg. at 22202.
Consequently, how does a farmer gauge his liability for CWA violations of $37,500 per day per occurrence and the risk of a citizen lawsuit when the discernible features required for a wa-ter to be a “tributary” do not exist in a specific location?
Where the jurisdictional authority that the agencies assert through the broad and ambiguous definition of “tributary” is not enough, the proposed rule claims even more authority over a new category of waters and drainage features labelled “adja-cent waters.” The agencies capture jurisdictional authority over a multitude of small streams, no matter how remote, by man-dating through conjecture that the ecological functions provid-ed by adjacent waters are biologically connected to adjacent navigable waters and tributaries.
New definitions for “neighbouring waters,” “riparian areas,” and “floodplain” expand the agency’s CWA jurisdiction even fur-ther. Prior to the proposed rule, “adjacent waters” have been considered wetlands that actually abut navigable waters be-cause there is a significant nexus between the wetlands and the jurisdictional water. Under the proposed rule, non-wetlands can be considered jurisdictional waters of the U.S. The term, “neighbouring,” includes waters located in the riparian areas or floodplains of a major navigable water or tributary or water with a shallow subsurface hydrologic connection. This could include nearly all waters within the geographic area of a floodplain.
Additionally, the definitions of “riparian area” and “floodplain” rely on ambiguous and undefined concepts. For example, “ri-parian area” is defined as “an area bordering a water where surface or subsurface hydrology directly influence the ecologi-cal processes and plant and animal community structure in that area.” While this definition is vague and broad (particularly as it relates to ecological processes, communities and structures),
“While the processes and inter-relationships identified in the Report provide mechanisms to establish potential chemical, biological and physical ties between
waters, the idea of a universally applicable mechanism for every water or drainage feature that exists on the landscape lacks any degree of scientific robustness”
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there is no clarification in the proposed rule on how far a ripar-ian area extends away from the water body.
“Floodplain” is defined as an area that has been inundated by actual waters or was formed by sediment deposition from ac-tual water. However, the proposed rule does not specify wheth-er it is the 10-year, 50-year, 100-year or 500-year floodplain. Using “best professional judgment” to answer this on a case-by-case basis (as is suggested in the proposed rule) provides no meaningful guidance as to what areas are to be included as a floodplain for purposes of designating waters of the U.S. subject to CWA jurisdiction.
Accordingly, “adjacent waters” in the proposed rule is a vague and overly broad concept that could include an area as vast as the 500-year floodplain of the Ohio River valley. Landowners in these areas or any area within miles of a navigable water or tributary could never be sure if activities on their land would trigger federal water permit requirements covered by the CWA.
To complete their CWA jurisdictional expansion, EPA and the Corps identify the mechanisms to regulate “other waters” un-der the CWA. Specifically, the term, “other waters,” includes “[o]n a case- specific basis” waters that “in combination with other similarly situated waters” have a “significant nexus” with navigable waters, tributaries and adjacent waters.
The term, “significant nexus,” means a water, alone or in com-bination with other similarly situated waters, that “significant-ly affects the chemical, physical, or biological integrity” of a navigable water. EPA and the Corps therefore, could consid-er the cumulative impacts of multiple waters to determine the jurisdictional status of a particular area that has, or had, the presence of some water at some time. Accordingly, under the proposed rule it is difficult, if not impossible for landowners to assess the jurisdictional status of an area without undertaking
a comprehensive, complex, and costly watershed study.
While the proposed rule indicates ditches are exempt, the ex-emption applies only under two narrow conditions. To be ex-empt, a ditch must be excavated wholly in an upland, drain only an upland and have less than perennial flow. Further, a ditch is exempt if it does not contribute flow, either directly to water, through another water or to a water traditionally defined as a “water of the US.” The exemption would not apply if a ditch flows into another ditch or ephemeral stream that eventu-ally flows into a “waters of the US.”
Despite EPA’s claim that the proposed rule does nothing more than clarify the scope of ‘‘waters of the United States’’ protect-ed under the Act, many consider it to be a huge land grab that would give the agencies limitless control over how a landowner uses their property. EPA and the Corps have assured the public the proposed rule would have no substantive regulatory impact and would actually reduce the areas that are subject to CWA jurisdiction. Yet maps developed by EPA and the U.S. Geo-logical Survey identify 8.1 million miles of rivers and streams that would be subject to CWA jurisdiction under the revised definition of “waters of the U.S.” proposed by this rule. This represents a significant increase of more than 130 percent over the 2009 estimate of 3.5 million miles subject to CWA jurisdic-tion that EPA provided in a previous report to Congress. Fur-thermore, some states have reported an even greater increase of areas that would be subject to CWA jurisdiction under the proposed definition of waters of the U.S. This increase is a di-rect result of the expanded definition that includes ephemeral streams and the land areas that are adjacent to them as “wa-ters of the U.S.” subject to CWA jurisdiction.
From the Proceedings of the 2017 MPF Convention
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Lighting is a major expense for poultry farms, as it adds up to 50% of the annual energy consumption. LEDs can reduce the energy usage as they consume 76%-83% less energy than comparable incandescent or halogen bulbs. Since LEDs are a relatively new and developing technology, it is important to research prior to purchasing LED bulbs. Switching to LEDs can result in overall increased revenue because of the lower energy costs.
Light stimulation is fundamental for the starting of many phys-iological processes. The type of light also influences birds’ be-havior, such as feeding activity and consequently growing rate and all the other conditions.
Birds’ light perception
Animals receive information about the light in their environ-ment both through their eyes and other sensors in their bodies.
In animals, the information the brain receives about light is de-pendent on the photoreceptors in the eye absorbing the light.
If a specific photoreceptor is not found in the animal for a cer-tain wavelength of light, the animal will not perceive the light even though it is present in the environment. Understanding this concept is important when assessing a lighting program; it has indeed to be considered not the color of light in an ani-mal’s environment as much as the animal’s ability to perceive that color. The same is for lighting intensity.
The ability to be stimulated by different intensities of light in the environment depends on the number of animal’s photore-ceptors. This makes the difference on the level of light that the animal can perceive. Therefore, a farmer can not use meas-urements of the human perception of light in an environment to establish appropriate lighting programs, but he should use select photometers designed to give measurements reflecting the animal’s perception of light in the environment.
The “extra retinal” light stimulation is a way of perceiving light the poultry have and this way can feel light in the environment through bodily structures other than their eyes. These are known as “extra-retinal” photoreceptors.The pineal gland placed on
Poultry LightingWith LED technologies, farmers can today vary the color, intensity and photoperiod of the lighting in bird houses and barns for a better poultry production. While incandescent, fluorescent or high-pressure sodium lamps have fixed intensity and fixed color and the only controllable variable is the length of daily light exposure, LEDs allow the manipulation of two more characteristics increasing productivity and improving animal welfare.
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top of the bird brain represents one of these extra reti-nal photoreceptors. Poultry have also deep brain pho-toreceptors collocated at the base of the brain.
Extra-retinal light perception stimulates the brain and consequently can trigger physiological responses af-fecting the animal’s behavior. Research has shown that the color of light can have many different effects on behavior, growth and reproduction in poultry.
Birds sense light through their eyes and through these photosensitive cells in the brain. Since long wavelengths of light (towards red end of the spec-trum) penetrate the skin and skull more efficiently than short wavelengths, growth and behavior are linked to retinal photoreception (and shorter wave-lengths) whereas the reproduction has been linked to extra-retinal photoreceptors.
From these observations it has been reported that blue light has a calming effect on birds, however, red
has been used to reduce cannibalism and feather peck-ing. It has also been shown that blue-green light stim-ulates growth in chickens while orange-red stimulates reproduction. Birds have pigmented oil droplets on their cone cells that correspond to peak sensitivities of 415 nm, violet; 460 nm, blue; 510 nm, green; and 560 nm, yellow for young birds with a peak at 580 nm, orange for adults. It has been demonstrated that the lens of birds is transparent to light in the UVA range (320-400 nm). However, they probably see brightness of color different from humans. These facts are important to remember when selecting a light source for illuminating poultry.
The lighting industry uses four methods to describe light color but only one really applies to selecting light-ing for poultry, chromaticity. Chromaticity is the meas-ure of a light source’s warmth (warm light) or coolness (cool light) expressed in degrees Kelvin. The scale runs from 2000 to 7000K. Chromaticity values of 4000K and higher are considered cool (mostly blue light), those around 3500K or 3600K are called “balanced” or “neu-tral” and those of about 3000K or lower are considered warm (more red light).
A color temperature designation is truly accurate only for an incandescent lamp because it produces a con-tinuous spectrum. Fluorescent and HID (high-intensity discharge; high pressure (HP) Sodium, Low pressure
“Light stimulation is fundamental for the starting of many physiological processes. The type of light also influences birds’ behaviour, such as feeding activity and consequently
growing rate and all the other conditions”
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sodium and Metal Halide lamps) lamps are said to have a “cor-related” (apparent) color temperature and are thus always de-scribed using the term correlated color temperature.
Some recent research using LED lighting programs has emerged and LED lighting is now being utilized by the poultry industry. It must be remembered that LED lighting is a new technology, having developed into widespread commercial applications over the past 10 years.
Choosing LEDs for your poultry house
LEDs are a type of solid-state lighting as they emit their light from a solid semi-conductor chip or diode (usually made from silicone). This allows LEDs to have some very specific quali-ties that make them different from other lighting technologies, since they are not producing light from a filament (as incan-descent light) or an excited gas in a vacuum tube (a compact fluorescent light).
Here are some features of LED lights:
LEDs can be produced in a variety of coloursLEDs allow bulb manufacturers to produce light in specific
Kelvin range for targeted uses. The colour of light produced by the bulb can be changed by altering the number and type of individual light-emitting diodes, which are used in the bulb.
LEDs are a type of directional lightingSince LEDs produce light from a chip, the light radiates from one point and lenses are added to focus the light into the de-sired beam pattern. Lighting layout and equipment selection is critical to achieve the desired light levels and coverage at bird level. LEDs can produce light that is spot specific or in a side-to-side or end-to-end orientation.
LEDs are instant on/off lightingLED lighting does not require any warm-up time as fluorescent and compact fluorescent lighting do. LEDs come on at full brightness with no warm-up period. Even as the temperature drops, LEDs remain instant on/off lighting.
LEDs do not radiate heatUnlike traditional light bulbs, LEDs do not release or radiate heat, instead they conduct heat. As a result they must be man-ufactured with a heat sink. The fins act to increase the surface area and disperse the heat away from the diodes and to the outside of the bulb. These heat sinks can be anything from large fins to smaller dimples, smooth sides or even fans, all of which allow the excess heat to be displaced.
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LEDs can withstand a rougher handling as compared to other lightingDue to the lack of a filament, LEDs are able to withstand rougher handling and vibration, but dropping them is still quite hazardous to the bulb’s life.
LEDs are cold-loving lightingUnlike other lighting types, LEDs are cold loving and well suited to being out in colder areas. As the temperature drops from 24°C to -59°C, the luminous efficacy of the bulbs increases, and the light output from the bulbs can increase by 20%.
LEDs are dimmableSome LEDs are dimmable, and that func-tion adds cost to the manufacturing process. Standard dimmers previously used for oth-er lighting types often do not work with LED lighting. This results in flicker, flashes, jumps, dead travel and a change in colour temper-ature when trying to dim lights to low levels. Install new LED dimmers made specifically for LED lights and the lighting application. Check with the dimmer (driver) or bulb manufacturer for compatibility. LED systems can now be re-motely controlled for dimming, colour turning and operation run times.
Choosing the correct LED There are many different types of LED bulbs, and it is important to find the bulb that is best suited for use in a poultry facility. Verify with the manufacturer if the bulb has been tested or used in a poultry facility. In poultry facilities, it is important to be able to dim the lights to control the light level in the barn during dif-ferent growth stages and to ensure a smooth transition from dark to light and back to dark in order to keep the birds calm. Ensure that the bulb is the correct colour for your environment and birds.As seen, LEDs, like other lighting types, are available in a variety of different colours. Red-orange light is supposed to increase re-productive efficiency while blue-green light is supposed to be better for growth.
Taken from: The science of Poultry Lighting by Juliette L. Delabbio PHD - Director of Bio-logical Research and Development Once Innovations Inc. and Lighting for Poultry with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) by S. Clarke, P. Eng., and D. Ward, P. Eng., Ontario Ministry of Agricultural, Food, and Rural Affairs.
“Animals receive information about the light in their environment both through their eyes and other sensors in their bodies. These structures are called extra retinal
photoreceptors. In animals, the information the brain receives about light is dependent on the photoreceptors in the eye absorbing the light”
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MANAGEMENT
Sally Noll, Extension Poultry Specialist
Animal Science Department, University of
Minnesota, USA
Kevin Janni, Extension Engineer
Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering
Dept., University of Minnesota, USA
Partially slotted flooring systems for market toms - What are the possibilities?Avian influenza virus is stable longer in moist and cool conditions. Depending on seasonal and production conditions barn air and litter (bedding) moisture can create moist microenvironments where avian influenza virus can survive. Wet litter in turkey grower barns leads to leg problems and mortality in turkeys. Wet litter contributes to increased ammonia levels which combined with decreased ventilation and can lead to weight gain depression, damage to lung tissue, increased susceptibility to disease, and increased carcass condemnations during processing.
Strategies for drying barns and litter include adding heat to the barn to evaporate litter mois-ture, tilling litter and/or adding more dry bedding. All of these practices are costly. Costs include energy costs for adding heat, tilling capital and operating costs, and bedding costs. Sharing till-ing equipment between barns and hauling and distributing new bedding increase the risk of in-fluenza introductions.
Another strategy for improving litter conditions that is expected to reduce avian influenza virus survivability is to use slotted flooring (SF). Re-search conducted 20 years ago at the University of Minnesota found that using SF to replace a
portion of the bedded floor area resulted in dri-er litter where litter was used and reduced the amount of heat needed to remove moisture from the litter.
Slotted flooring had two negative impacts. Tur-keys raised on partial SF developed more breast blisters, resulting in poor carcass quality and breast meat losses during processing. SF also led to drier and dustier conditions if the venti-lating system was not managed properly to ac-count for the reduced amount of moisture that needed to be removed by air exchange.
In retrospect it seems that the type of slotted flooring and the amount of floor space allocat-
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MANAGEMENT
ed to slotted flooring needs to be adjusted. Newer SF materi-als are now available that may alleviate the effects on carcass quality. Research is needed to exam different slotted flooring materials to determine their suitability as a partial replacement for bedding without negatively impacting performance and carcass quality. Modern controllers and a better understanding of the minimum ventilating needs are expected to help barn managers to better manage dust levels.
Slotted flooring represents a major change in turkey flooring, manure handling and ventilation. A systems approach will be needed to assess SF materials, layouts, manure handling and ventilation options that will enhance turkey production and bi-osecurity practices.
Partially slotted flooring turkey grower barn concepts and advantages
Turkeys and broilers are typically floor-raised on litter. Slotted flooring is used extensively in the broiler/layer breeder portion of the poultry industry and in the swine industry. Experiences from the chicken breeder and swine industries may help antic-ipate how partially SF could be used in turkey production. The ideas presented are intended to begin discussions about how slotted flooring might be used in turkey grower barns.
Research conducted 20 years ago put slotted flooring under the feeders and waterers to collect faeces defecated around feeders and waterers and to collect spilled water. This con-cept was based on the observations that the wettest litter was around feeders and waters and that removing a major portion of the manure and spilled water would keep the remaining litter drier. The slotted flooring covered 21% to 34% of the floor area in the two studies. The litter moisture content in pens with par-tially SF was consistently lower than the pens with litter only. The partially SF moisture ranged from 10 to 60% lower than the litter from litter only pens.
In cold weather ventilating systems for animals housed in me-chanically and naturally ventilated barns are sized based on the amount of air exchanged needed to remove moisture and
manage both litter moisture and barn humidity. By collecting and removing the faeces and spilled water in liquid form with the slotted flooring reduces the need to evaporate the wa-ter and remove the moisture through the ventilating air. With partially slotted flooring the minimum ventilating rate can be reduced because less moisture needs to be removed by ven-tilation. In one study the ventilating rate in the partially slotted floor rooms were 78 to 86% lower than the ventilating rates in the litter only rooms.
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Most new caged-layer barns collect and remove manure multiple times a week using belts. By removing manure from the barn before microbial activity can convert urea into ammonia reduces ammonia emissions from the manure in the barn. Ammonia levels measured in the partially slotted floor rooms with turkeys were consistently less than the levels in the litter only rooms even at the lower ventilating rates.
Partially slotted flooring saves energy because the minimum ventilating rate can be reduced and bird and supplemental heat energy is not needed to evaporate moisture in the litter from faeces and spilled water to main-tain litter moisture conditions. In one study with turkeys raised on partially slotted floors the energy use was decreased by 42% and 62%.
Results from the partially slotted flooring studies indicated lower incidenc-es of leg problems and faster growth rates. Drier litter, separating the birds from more of their faeces and lower ammonia levels are believed to be contributing factors to these performance indicators. Separating turkeys from more of their faeces is expected to reduce disease challenges too.
Partially slotted flooring turkey grower barn challenges
There are known challenges that need to be overcome and questions that need to be answered before partially SF will be widely adopted. One challenge is that turkeys raised on partially slotted flooring develop more breast blisters and buttons that result in downgrading during processing. Similar problems were found with broilers raised on wire flooring.
Research conducted to date has not determined what causes the breast blisters but it is thought that the turkeys may roost on the edge of the slotted flooring or the flooring itself and that this behaviour leads to breast buttons and blisters. Research is needed to test flooring materials and different installations to determine what causes the breast blisters and which flooring systems might reduce breast blister incidence.
Research is also needed to assess alternative SF designs and materials to find those that allow faeces to pass easily, remain relatively clean, do not plug with feathers, provide good footing for both birds and workers, and provides structural support of people and equipment that must cross the SF.
Partially slotted flooring also represents a significant investment in new manure handling
equipment and a need for equipment to handle both litter and the manure slurry from under the slats. Layer barns use manure belts under the cages to collect and remove manure multiple times a week. Manure scrapers are another option for removing manure from a barn.
Partially slotted flooring will require removing manure multiple times per week and new manure handling equipment and storage facilities. Turkey manure without bedding is reportedly 75% water. Manures with solids contents between 10 and 16% can be handled as a semi-solid which means it can be moved with a piston pump, auger or other equipment used to move solid manure. With manure removed multiple times a week the manure must be stored until it can be land applied at appropriate rates based on the farms nutrient management plan. The new manure handling equipment and manure storage facilities will represent an additional cap-ital and operating investment.
The new manure handling and storage system will result in different nu-trient levels in the manure for land application and nutrient management
planning. Nutrient management plans for turkey operations are based on the nutrients levels in litter based manure. With partially SF systems the manure characteristics and nutrient levels may be different.
New ventilation systems and guidelines will need to be developed because rates will be able to be low-ered because less moisture needs to be removed by air exchange during cold weather. Excess air ex-change will waste heat and lead to dusty conditions.
Current slotted flooring research (preliminary observations)
More research and analysis is needed to develop recommendations for partially slotted flooring sys-tems for raising turkeys that get the best return from enhanced air quality and lower energy costs while reducing the potential for breast blisters and dis-ease and the additional capital costs and operation-al changes needed.
To build on past research in this area, a pilot study was recently conducted at the UMore Park Turkey Research Unit (Rosemount, MN) to compare five dif-ferent flooring materials with a conventional bedded system.
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The five flooring materials were:- Double L Classic Red Rooster 0.75x2.5” rectangular
45% 18x32”; - SW Ag Plastics Dura-Slat 1.1x1.1” square 24x48”STO; - SW Ag Plastics Dura-Slat 1.1”x1.1” square 24x48”ST; - Tenderfoot 0.875x2.18” rectangular; - and Tenderfoot 1” squares. Each treatment was allocated to two replicate pens with 50 toms per pen. Turkeys (male, Hybrid Converter) were moved to the study facility containing flooring at 5 weeks of age and performance followed to 18 weeks of age. Floor-ing occupied 25% of the pen floor. A small pit under the flooring area collected waste which was removed weekly. The remaining area of the pen floor contained fresh wood shavings as did the conventionally bedded pens.
Performance, litter condition, behaviour and health related measurements were monitored throughout the study. Not all data has been completely summarized. No differences among treatments were detected for 18 wk body weight, feed efficiency (5 to 18 wks of age), liveability, or breast blis-ter/button scores at 18wks of age. Scores for breast blisters and buttons were quite variable though from pen to pen. For the flooring treatments, the proportion of turkeys with the more severe breast scores ranged from 2.3 to 8.6% while the turkeys reared on conventional litter floor averaged 6.6 % severe blisters. Processing plant data indicated similar performance among treatments for breast trim.
Conclusion
Collection and periodic removal of excreta from the barn (separating the bird from its excreta) has numerous benefits including reduced litter moisture, reduced energy usage as a result of less moisture to remove, and reduced contact with excreta that may be contaminated with pathogens. Less bedding usage and litter care may result. With mar-ket-type poultry – turkeys and broiler chickens, leg issues and carcass deformities can occur if floor surface is not ap-propriate. The preliminary results of this pilot study indicate that a partially slotted flooring system maybe a suitable al-ternative to conventional bedded system.
Acknowledgments
Funding provided by State of Minnesota and support of USDA. Technical assistance (University of Minnesota) - Jeanine Brannon, Gary Backes, John Fox, Gabriella Furo, Brian Hetchler, Fred Hrbek, Elizabeth Theis and Scott Welch. Jennie-O Turkey Store (Faribault Plant) – processing data collection.
References are available on requestPrepared for the 2017 Midwest Poultry Federation
Convention
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NUTRITION
R.J. Moore1, D. Stanley2
and R.J. Hughes3
1 School of Science, RMIT University, Bundoora,
Victoria, Australia
2 School of Medical and Applied Sciences, and Institute for Future
Farming Systems, Central Queensland
University, Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia
3 Pig and Poultry Production Institute, South
Australian Research and Development Institute,
and School of Animal and veterinary Sciences, The
University of Adelaide, Roseworthy, South
Australia
Gut health is an important issue when considering how to get the best productivity from a flock. The microbial populations that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of birds play an important role in the establishment and maintenance of a healthy gut.
Microbiota studies in poultry:the black hole of complexity
For a number of years we have been studying the composition of the gut microbiota looking for correlations between its structure and the growth performance of broiler birds. Our goal has been to understand how the microbiota in-fluences bird health and productivity and then go on to develop ways to manipulate the inter-actions to maximise performance and health and produce flocks with more even perfor-mance.
In-feed antimicrobial growth promoters have been one way that the host-microbiota interac-tion has been manipulated. However, in the fu-ture, with the need to provide alternatives to the
use of antibiotics within production animals, the manipulation of the host-microbiota is likely to rely more heavily on products such as prebiotics and probiotics. Here we review some of the high level findings and conclusions we have drawn from our extensive microbiota studies.
Complexity of the gastrointestinal microbiota
The explorations of the gut microbiota that we have undertaken have revealed a hitherto unex-pected level of complexity in the composition of the microbiota. It is only with the application
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of advanced methods of analysis that this complexity has been fully revealed. Traditional methods for analysis of the gut microbiota had relied on enumeration of various different classes of bacteria, by culturing on agar plates, using a varie-ty of different media compositions. These methods detected only a limited range of common bacteria. The culturing meth-ods have been largely superseded by molecular methods; first by gel based methods but more recently DNA sequence based methods. It is these powerful new methods, facilitated by the rapid advances in next generation DNA sequencing (NGS) technology, that we have applied to poultry samples to investigate the gut microbiota to an unprecedented level of detail. When molecular methods of microbiota analysis were first applied to gut samples it became clear that the diversity of bacterial types present within the gut was much broader than that commonly found by culturing methods. Whilst cul-turing had indicated that there might be a few hundred differ-ent types of bacteria the molecular methods now show that there are actually several thousand different types of bacteria in a typical GIT.
The apparent discrepancies between evaluations of the GIT microbiota by culturing and molecular methods results from the fact that many of the microbes resident in the gut cannot currently be cultured. There are two principal reasons pro-posed to explain why the culturing approach misses much of the complexity that is present within the microbiota; (i) we just don’t have the correct media to grow some bacteria on and (ii) some bacteria may only grow within a consortium of other bacteria and cannot be cultured in isolation.
A consequence of the discovery of greater complexity with-in the gut microbiota is that there are potentially many more types of bacteria that could potentially be harnessed for use as probiotics and competitive exclusion agents. Currently the spectrum of bacteria that have been tested for utility in such products is fairly narrow. If some of the culturing challeng-es can be addressed we may be able to access many more potential products that could be used to improve bird perfor-mance. Even within the well-studied Lactobacillus genus the molecular analysis techniques indicate that there are many uncharacterised species of Lactobacillus present that that could be a source of new products. Certain genera of bacte-ria, such as Lactobacillus, have been generally regarded as being beneficial to the host. However, the detailed microbio-ta characterization empowered by culture free methods has repeatedly shown that some members of this genus are of-ten correlated with poor growth performance in broiler birds. Conversely, some bacterial types, such as the clostridia, that have traditionally been considered to be “bad”, have some representatives that are actually strongly correlated with high level bird performance. It is clear that probiotic potential of a bacterial isolate cannot be accurately deduced simply by knowing what species it is; probiotic activity is a characteristic of a specific isolate.
Variability of the gastrointestinal tract microbiota
In addition to the overall complexity of the microbiota we have also found that there is a second level of complexity, which is of even more importance in considerations of how to har-ness microbiota manipulation for productivity improvements. The emerging story, that has been something of a surprise, is the high levels of variation in microbiota composition between flocks and even between birds in a single flock. Even though birds within a flock generally come from the same hatchery, the same parent stock, are housed together, have access to the same feed and water and environmental conditions and are coprophagic, we still find that they can have quite different microbiota. We have speculated that these differences indicate the importance of the initial microbial colonisation in the earli-est hours following hatch. The hatching of chicks takes place in the absence of adult birds and normal brooding and nest-ing behaviour typical of wild birds. Therefore, newly emerging chicks have no access to “normal” bird microbiota, apart from bacteria residing on or in egg shells if not thoroughly cleaned and fumigated prior to setting.
Colonisation is presumably driven by exposure to random sources of bacteria such as those that might be present on shells, in the transport boxes, transmitted from human han-dlers, present in the first feed they are given and in the initial receiving environment. The stochastic nature of this bacterial acquisition may mean that small variations in the composition of the initial bacterial inoculants may have permanent effects on life-long microbiota composition. The degree of variation in microbiota composition in bird-to-bird comparisons is certainly much greater between flocks than within a flock. Comparisons within a flock generally show variation in the abundance of dif-ferent species, genera, and families of bacteria whereas be-tween flocks there can, at times, be very significant differences in phylum abundance. Such large differences in composition are likely to have profound effects on how the host-microbiota meta-organism responds to diets, treatments and medications.
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Properties of a “good” microbiota
This significant level of variability represents the “black hole of complexity” in the title of this presentation. The finding of great variability between trials was, initially, a great impediment to our goal of identifying specific bacterial strains within the microbiota that were consistently correlated with good per-formance and hence may have potential for development as probiotics. If the GIT microbiota across trials is very different, then there is no prospect of identifying individual bacterial iso-lates present across all trials. Despite these complications it has been possible to draw some general conclusions regarding the composition of a favourable microbiota. High performance birds generally have more complex microbiotas compared to that seen in low performance birds. The bacterial types within the high performance birds tend to be more evenly distributed such that the microbial populations not dominated by one or a few types of bacteria.
Applying microbiota knowledge to understand gut health products
Within the published work that has investigated the efficacy of various prebiotic, probiotic and symbiotic products, including the wide array of phytogenics that have been assessed, there are often large differences in observed efficacy reported for a product from study to study. We postulate that the apparently different responses of birds to these products may be caused by large differences in the microbiotas of different flocks. It would
seem reasonable to expect such products, which rely, at least in some part, on their ability to interact with and modify the gut microbiota may have differential effects within radically different microbiotas. For example, consider the case of probiotics.
To be truly considered a probiotic a particular organism should have beneficial effects on the host when delivered as a live product. Such a live product potentially interacts with all the other live organisms within the microbiota. Within one particu-lar microbiota setting a probiotic may be able to live syner-gistically within the microbiota whereas a different microbiota may competitively exclude the probiotic strain or perhaps even actively kill it. This gives us a basis to understand why the re-producibility of many results with prebiotic and probiotic type products can be doubtful.
Development of a new generation of gut health products
More effective products to promote gut health can be devel-oped if the significant level of microbiota variability is taken into account. Much of the variability in GIT microbiota is estab-lished during the earliest phase of microbial colonisation of the gut. Therefore, we hypothesise that products aimed at the ini-tial establishment of the microbiota, using microbial/probiotic inoculants in the hatchery, are likely to be effective in producing flocks with a more uniform microbiota. That in turn is likely to result in a flock with more even performance.
New approaches need to be taken to the selection and assess-ment criteria that are applied when developing products that are likely to function by interacting with the mature microbiota. We need to be especially mindful of the need for products that can cope in different gut microbial environments and indeed should build in such assessments to the product development process. Current probiotic products available to the industry need to be used multiple times, sometimes on a daily basis, and even throughout life. This indicates that they have little ability to estab-lish themselves with the GIT microbiota. There may be opportu-nities to develop a new generation of probiotics that are better able to colonise, establish and grow within the GIT microbiota.
The particular need is to identify probiotic bacteria that display these properties in the face of the variable native microbiota that any probiotic product will inevitably encounter. There is likely to be a need to undertake more detailed in vivo selection and assessment processes to identify new probiotics. The in vitro tests, such as acid and bile resistance, adherence to cul-tured cells, aggregation ability, etc., that have traditionally been used as preliminary screening mechanisms for probiotic identi-fication are not well suited to addressing the obvious challenge of adaptation to the changing and variable environment that we now know occurs in the GIT.
References are available on requestFrom the Proceedings of the 2017 Australian Poultry Science Symposium
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46 - nutrition -
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M.E. Persia1, T. Wang2
and K.A. Livingston3
1 Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA
2 Iowa State University,IA, USA
3 North Carolina State University, NC, USA
Vitamin D in laying hens:how high is high enough?
To this end, few natural foods contain significant concentrations of vitamin D to meet the new rec-ommended dietary allowances, which necessitates fortification of the diet or specific foods with vitamin D to satisfy the current and future recommendations.
Therefore, it is important to find alternative foods to increase the daily intake of vitamin D in the diet to maintain high circulating concentrations of this vital nutrient.
In 2011, USDA surveyed table egg vitamin D content and updated the value to 40 IU/egg, reflecting the increased amount of vitamin D fed to laying hens for bone and shell quality. Although this repre-sents a tremendous increase in egg vitamin D content, raw data from the report indicated commercial content of vitamin D above 400 IU/egg showing the variation of egg vitamin D content due to dietary supplementation and the efficient transfer of lipid and lipid soluble molecules from the hen to the egg.
Hypothesis and project objective
Feeding increasing concentrations of supplemental vitamin D to laying hens will increase egg vitamin D concentrations. The objective of this proposed study was to identify the threshold of the supple-mental dietary vitamin D that corresponds to the peak vitamin D content of the egg. Although 40,000 IU/kg has been demonstrated to be safe when fed to laying hens, supplementation of laying hen diets with 400,000 IU/kg has been shown to cause negative health and performance effects. This study was designed to evaluate several doses below the safe dose of 40,000 and one above the safe dose, but still well below the known toxic dose of 400,000 IU/kg.
Materials and methods
Treatment design is outlined in Table 1. The experimental diets will be fed to three consecutive pens of three hens, each allowing eight replicate groups and 72 total hens for each treatment. Vitamin D3
In 2010, the Institute of Medicine in the United States reviewed current literature and changed the estimated average requirement of 400 IU/day to a recommended dietary Allowance (RDA) of 600-800 IU/day in the United States (IOM, 2010). This was completed under the assumption that due to skin cancer concerns, sun exposure was minimal.
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was selected as the form of dietary supplemental Vitamin D due to cost, transfer to egg and toxicity comparisons to other vitamin D metabolites.
The experimental diets were fed to laying hens starting at the onset of the egg laying cycle and continued for the duration of the cycle, approximately 18 to 54 weeks. Hen management followed UEP guidelines (UEP, 2002) and diets were formulated to breeder recommendations. The experimental diets were mixed every two weeks to minimize the exposure of supplemental vitamin D to degrada-tion due to feed storage. Feed was delivered daily and feed residual determined weekly. Feed intake and conversion (g eggs/g feed intake) was calculated. Hen mortality will be recorded daily.
Eggs were collected daily and production performance recorded. Eggs were saved from two consecutive days per week during the first four weeks (19-23); two consecutive days every two weeks for the next 10 weeks 23-33; and two con-secutive days every four weeks for the remaining duration of the experiment (32-58). The saved eggs were weighed to determine egg size and mass produced. Sixteen eggs per experimental treatment (two from each replicate group) were be broken and separated to determine shell, yolk and albumin weights. The egg yolks were pooled to determine total lipid, phospholipid, fatty acid composition and total unsaponifiable matters. Egg yolks were pooled to result in four replicate samples for Vitamin D determination by HPLC. The shells were used to determine shell thickness and Haugh units were measured and yolk color will be scored on a color fan. The remaining eggs were used to determine yolk physical and func-tional properties, including viscosity of raw yolk, and emulsification parameters.
At the conclusion of the experiment, all hens were visually inspected for keel bone integrity and soft tissue calcification to determine effects of long-term feeding of supplemental vitamin D on skeletal and soft tissue integrity. The right tibia was collected from three birds per replicate group to determine fat-free tibia bone ash as an indicator of general skeletal health and Ca and P status.
Statistics on the performance data and egg weights, egg component weights, Haugh units and yolk color scores were analyzed using ANOVA with repeated
Table 1 - Treatment design
Treatment Vitamin D3 Calculated IU/kg feed
1 Control (C) 2,200
2 C + 7,500 IU/kg diet 9,700
3 C + 15,000 IU/kg diet 17,200
4 C + 22,500 IU/kg diet 24,700
5 C + 100,000 IU/kg diet 102,200
Table 2 - Performance of laying hens fed 2,200, 9,700, 17,200, 24,700, and 102,200 IU D3/kg diet of dietary cholecalciferol1
Dietary cholecalciferol(IU D3/kg)
Hen-housed egg production (%)
Feed intake(g/h/d)
Egg mass(g/h/d)
Feed efficiency (g egg/kg feed)
2,200 92.6ab 98.6ab 50.7 528
9,700 93.1a 98.3ab 51.3 534
17,200 91.4b 97.8b 50.3 531
24,700 92.0ab 99.2a 51.6 537
102,200 92.3ab 98.6ab 51.2 538
Pooled SEM 0.48 0.37 0.53 6.8
1 Data are means of 8 groups of 9 laying hens from 19 to 58 wk of age. Adapted from Persia et al., 2013a-b Means within columns with no common superscript differ significantly (P < 0.05)
measurements. Performance data were ana-lyzed with new diet mixing every two weeks and egg data were analyzed when eggs were collected at either 1, 2 or 4 week in-tervals. There were no interactions over time so main effects are presented. If significance was detected (P < 0.05), Tukey’s honestly significant test was employed to separate treatment means. Egg quality characteris-tics and vitamin D content and transfer rates were analyzed using ANOVA.
Results and discussion
Observation of the performance data from 19 to 58 weeks suggests no difference among the various concentrations of sup-plemental vitamin D. Egg production over the 40-week period was between 91.4 and 93.1% hen housed, without any significant differences among the control fed birds and vitamin D supplemented birds, although there were some inconsistent differences among the vitamin D supplemented birds. Feed intake again showed no significant dif-ferences among the control feeds and the vitamin D supplemented feeds, with over all feed intake ranging from 91.8 to 99.2g per hen per day. There were no differences in daily egg mass or overall feed efficiency (g egg/kg feed intake). These data are in agree-ment with previous data that reported no dif-ferences in performance among control fed birds and birds supplemented with 5,000 to 15,000 IU/kg vitamin D. Egg weights were not significantly different among the treat-ments, but some egg component weights were significantly different (Table 3). As with total egg weight, albumen weights were not different among treatments, but egg yolk weight was significantly increased from the birds receiving 24,700 IU/kg in comparison to both the control (2,200 IU/kg) and the 102,200 IU/kg treatments. There were signif-icant differences among the shell weights of the 24,700 and 102,200 IU/kg supplement-ed hens, but none of the experimental treat-ments were different from the eggs of the control fed birds. These results are in gener-al agreement with Browning and Cowienson (2014) where up to 10,000 IU/kg vitamin D did not significantly alter egg weights, shell breaking strength, or yolk weights. Haugh units, a measurement of albumen protein quality was not significantly changed by vi-
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tamin D treatment, but yolk color was significantly increased with the 102,200 IU/kg vitamin D treatment (Table 3). Yolk color is the first response measured where the highest concentrations of vitamin D fed might have altered the response, but the question remains, is this modest, but significant difference in yolk color indic-ative of negative performance?
As with Haugh units, there were no significant differences among egg yolk mois-ture content, unsaponifiable matter, viscosity, and emulsification properties due to hen dietary vitamin D treatment (Table 4). The emulsion and emulsification data are supported in the literature as Mattila and co-workers (2003) did not show any differences in these measurements with whole eggs. At the end of the 40-week experiment, hen tibia bones were collected for fat-free ash determination. As with performance there we no effects of supplemental dietary vitamin D on fat-free tibia ash and all bones appeared normal and healthy.
The performance and egg quality data presented might suggest that up to 102,200 IU/kg of vitamin D is safe and efficient to feed to laying hens, but it is also important to consider general vitamin D metabolism and regulation before drawing conclusions.
The feeding of vitamin D to laying hens for 40 weeks resulted in a linear increase in egg yolk vitamin D content from the 9,700 to the 24,700 IU/kg feed fed birds (Fig-ure 1), validating previous data and expanding the range of response to almost 25,000 IU/kg. But looking at the transfer of vitamin D from the diet to the egg yolk for the 102,200 IU/kg treatment it is clear that more vitamin D is being transferred to the yolk at these high concentrations of dietary vitamin D than in any of the oth-
er treatments. This point is made abundantly clear when considering the vitamin D trans-fer rates of the five dietary treatments (Figure 2). The lowest rate was noted in the control eggs were approximately 5% transfer oc-curred, the 9,700 to 24,700 IU/kg treatments resulted in a significant increase in transfer rate, but at a controlled rate of 8 to 9%. Once the 102,200 IU/kg diets were fed, transfer rate was uncontrolled at approximately 25 to 30% transfer of vitamin D from the diet to the egg yolk. This break down of vitamin D metabolism does suggest at least the begin-ning stages of toxicity although performance over a 40-week experiment was not nega-tively altered.
These results add to our estimate of vita-min D toxicity data and help to better de-fine those rates in laying hens. Currently the highest concentration of vitamin D that has been fed without noticeable toxicity ef-fects has been 40,000 IU/kg feed (Morrisey et al.,1977), and the remaining research reports and data presented here all agree that concentrations under 40,000 IU/kg are not toxic to laying hens. There are few data points collected above this threshold, but Morrisey and co-workers (1977) did evalu-
Table 3 - Egg characteristics from laying hens fed 2,200, 9,700, 17,200, 24,700, and 102,200 IU D3/kg diet of dietary cholecalciferol1
Dietary Cholecalciferol (IU D3/kg)
EggWeight
(g)
AlbumenWeight
(g)
YolkWeight
(g)
ShellWeight
(g)
HaughUnit
YolkColor2
2,200 56.2 34.0 13.9bc 6.83ab 89.4 5.34b
9,700 56.2 34.1 14.0abc 6.78b 88.8 5.35b
17,200 56.3 34.0 14.1ab 6.86ab 88.4 5.27b
24,700 57.1 34.5 14.2a 6.91a 89.0 5.33b
102,200 56.3 34.5 13.8c 6.78b 89.7 5.51a
Pooled SEM 0.31 0.23 0.09 0.044 0.58 0.050
1 Data are means of eggs collected from 8 groups of 9 laying hens over 19 to 58 wk of age. Adapted from Persia et al. (2013)2 Roche yolk color score fan (DSM Nutritional Products, LLC, Parsippany, NJ)a-c Means within columns with no common superscript differ significantly (P < 0.05)
Table 4 - Moisture content, unsaponifiable matters, viscosity, and emulsification properties of egg yolks from hens fed various concentrations of dietary vitamin D1,2
DietaryCholecalciferol
(IU D3/kg)
Moisture(%)
Unsaponifiable matter
(% of yolk)
Viscosity(Pa s)
Emulsificationcapacity
(g oil/g yolk)
Emulsionstability
(%)
2,200 50.0±0.1 1.1±0.1 1.3±0.1 57.8±2.2 50.0±0.0
9,700 49.9±0.4 1.2±0.3 1.3±0.2 58.9±3.7 51.8±5.6
17,200 50.1±0.3 1.0±0.1 1.3±0.2 60.3±2.4 44.7±4.1
24,700 50.3±0.5 1.1±0.1 1.2±0.2 60.3±4.9 49.3±1.3
102,200 49.8±0.3 1.1±0.1 1.3±0.2 60.1±2.6 51.0±5.8
1 Values are means ± standard deviations. Adapted from Yao et al., 20132 The means of each parameter had no significant difference among the diets at p =0.05 (n=4)
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ate 400,000 IU/kg with vitamin D toxicity noted including cal-cification of soft tissue.
The current data would suggest that 102,200 is beginning to become toxic due to the failure of the model to control transfer of dietary vitamin D into the yolk of the egg. Therefore, at this time we can conclude that 40,000 IU vitamin D/kg feed or less is safe and tolerable for laying hens, but dietary concentrations above 100,000 are becoming toxic to the hens. The data pre-sented in this document are based on either short or long term feeding in adult animals and do not reflect that application of high vitamin D feeding over the pullet rearing phase limiting interoperation. It would be interesting to better understand the long term growth, performance and health effects of higher vi-tamin D feeding over the entire life cycle of the laying hen, not just the adult egg production phase.
References are available on requestPresented at the 2017 Australian Poultry Science Symposium
Figure 1 - The relationship of cholecalciferol content in yolk and dietary cholecalciferol level in the feed of diet 2 to 5. The linear equation applies to diet 2 to 4, not to diet 5. Adapted from Yao et al., 2013
Figure 2 - Effect of dietary cholecalciferol level on egg cholecalciferol transfer efficiency. The control (2,200 IU/kg of vitamin D) is lower than 9,700, 17,200 and 27,700 IU/kg vitamin D which are all lower than 102,200 IU/vitamin D (P < 0.05). Adapted from Yao et al., 2013
50 - nutrition -
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R. Barekatain1,2,S. Gilani2,3, S.M. Kitessa1
and R.J. Hughes1,2
1 South Australian Research and
Development Institute, Roseworthy Campus, Roseworthy, SA 5371,
Australia
2 School of Animal and Veterinary Science,
University of Adelaide, Roseworthy, SA 5371,
Australia
3 Poultry CRC, PO Box U242, University of New England, Armidale, NSW
2351, Australia
Intestinal barrier function A case to be studied in reduced protein dietsOptimum functionality of the epithelium of the intestine is important in controlling permeability in which amino acids may play a role. While there is evidence for such effect in other species, there is clear lack of data for poultry. In addition, much research has been done on low-protein, amino acid supplemented diets but there is little scientific evidence on their impact on intestinal health and function. The aim of a new project is to investigate the role of key amino acids along with reduction of dietary protein in intestinal function. This paper highlights the background and importance of the role of amino acids and needs for more research, particularly in the area of intestinal barrier function.
Maintaining intestinal health and growth remains a concern as demands increase to limit the use of antibiotics in poultry production. There is also an interest to feed meat chickens with lower pro-tein content diets using more synthetic amino acids to maintain productivity while reducing the environmental impact of poultry production. In
that situation, closer attention needs to be given to those amino acids that maintain the intestinal barrier, decrease the variability of nutrient utili-zation and absorption, and make the birds less vulnerable to a physiological stress while not compromising performance. Optimum function of the epithelium of the intestine is important in
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controlling permeability. Poorly digested diets, fasting, endo-toxins and several forms of stress have been shown to adverse-ly affect intestinal barrier function. In addition to their usual role in the synthesis of proteins, amino acids are regarded as key regulators of fluxes through several major metabolic pathways with additional roles in maintaining gut health. Threonine, argi-nine (Arg), and glutamine (Gln) are regarded as the three most critical amino acids involved in metabolism, function, integrity and health of the intestinal tract across different species. There are therapeutic roles documented for specific amino acids in-cluding Gln, glutamate (Glu), Arg, glycine (Gly), Lys, Thr, and sulphur amino acids in gut- related disorders and disease.
Intestinal barrier function
The small intestine serves as an organ for nutrient absorption. The mucosa of the small intestine has finger like projections known as the villi. A single layer of epithelial cells (enterocytes) covers these villi. The enterocytes are linked with each other through complex proteins known as adherens junctions (AJ), tight junctions (TJ) and desmosomes. Adherens junctions and desmosomes create the mechanical link between enterocytes e.g. Zonula Adherens. Tight junctions including Claudin, Oc-cludens and Jams play an important role in paracellular per-meability as reviewed by Groschwitz and Hogan (2009). These
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junctions not only have a fundamental role in absorbing nu-trients, but also prevent entry of microbes and toxins into the body. However, during stress or disease when these junctions are disrupted, the barrier function of the gut is compromised leading to increased intestinal permeability (IP).
Increased IP can lead to compromised health, bacterial and toxin translocation, lameness and compromised performance. Increased IP in chickens has not been studied in detail so far and needs further research. A few models have been studied in this regard e.g. dextran sodium sulphate and feed with-drawal for increasing IP. In addition to the limited knowledge of increased IP models in chickens, very little has been re-searched regarding the biomarkers to evaluate the changes in increased IP. Tight junctions mRNA expression and Ussing chamber have been used in the past, however, information re-garding the biomarkers to assess increased IP in live birds is limited. Gilani et al. (2016) have concluded in their review that two-sugar methods can effectively be used to evaluate the changes in IP in live chickens. These sugar methods include lactulose, rhamnose, mannitol and fluorescein isothiocyanate dextran (FITC-d). The modulation of IP through nutrition war-rants further research.
Key amino acids involved in intestinal function
Amino acids are involved in major metabolic pathways as regulators in addition to their normal roles as the building blocks of protein synthesis. Additional roles of amino acids in
gut function and integrity has been reviewed by Wang et al. (2009). In this regard, only a few major amino acids are men-tioned with specific focus on their role and their interactions on intestinal function.
There are also growing evidences that there are dietary re-quirements for non-essential amino acids (NEAA) including Gln to support optimum animal growth. Typical plant protein sources often do not contain adequate amount of NEAA. Glu-tamine has been traditionally considered as a NEAA being the most abundant amino acid in blood plasma. It is established, mainly in other species, that Gln is the main energy source facilitating proliferation of intestinal enterocytes and activat-ed lymphocytes. Several studies have confirmed that Gln is vital in maintaining the functional integrity of the gut as it plays a nourishing role for rapidly dividing intestinal epithelial cells, enterocytes and lymphocytes. This maintenance role is directly related to tight junctions, mucosal cell proliferation and differentiation. Glutamine is involved in mucin synthesis. N-acetylglucosamine is a glycoprotein, a component of the mucin that protects mucosal surfaces and its formation is wholly dependent on Gln. Glutamine may be considered a conditionally essential amino acid when animal suffers from stress, injury or malnutrition. Under such circumstances the requirement may exceed the capacity for endogenous syn-thesis required to maintain gut integrity and reduce inflamma-tion because during an immune response a marked increase in the uptake of plasma Gln by immunocytes occurs. Bene-
“Dietary protein and therefore balance of amino acids plays a major role in animal health and performance. There is an interest to feed birds with low protein diets to reduce cost, environmental impact and wet litter. However, this practice has often
resulted in impaired performance and unbalanced supply of amino acids”
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- january 2018 - 53
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ficial effects of Gln on growth performance and gut develop-ment in broiler chickens have been previously demonstrated. Nevertheless, its effectiveness in regards to enhancement of gut barrier function and more importantly its interaction with other nutrients with similar regulatory effects are still largely unknown for poultry.
Arginine has known roles in the urea cycle, in transport, stor-age, and excretion of nitrogen and eventually disposal of am-monia. Enterocytes can synthesize Arg from Gln and this is required to support optimum growth and intestinal function. Synthesis of nitric oxide (NO) is dependent on Arg as an es-sential substrate. Production of NO along with enterocyte mi-gration is crucial for restoration of epithelial continuity. Arg is known to preserve intestinal barrier integrity and reduce bac-terial translocation in mice. It has also been shown that Arg can attenuate inflammatory response in broiler chickens in response to lipopolysaccharide injection. Similar results have been reported for broilers subjected to a coccidial vaccine challenge.
From the arginine family of amino acids, Arg and Gln have some similar pivotal functions. It has been reported that die-tary supplementation with these two amino acids can improve porcine intestinal immunity and growth performance. It ap-pears that there is complementary mode of action. Gln and Arg have been shown to decrease gut permeability through regulation of TJ.
The role of Thr in synthesis of mucin and maintenance of intes-tinal function is well documented in literature. Deficiency of Thr impairs the mucosal integrity evidenced mainly by differences observed in intestinal morphology and mucin production. In regard to paracellular permeability, no data are available for poultry. However, research in piglets has shown that a mod-erate deficiency of Thr (30% reduction) increased paracellular permeability in the ileum assessed by Ussing chambers.
Dietary protein content
Dietary protein and therefore balance of amino acids plays a major role in animal health and performance. There is an interest to feed birds with low protein diets to reduce cost, environmental impact and wet litter. However, this practice has often resulted in impaired performance and unbalanced supply of amino acids. Supplementation of amino acids have been extensively researched in relation to the reduced pro-tein diets and the order of limiting amino acids are very much known. Glycine and serine have been shown to improve the bird performance fed low protein diets. In the concept of in-testinal gut health, the role of specific amino acids and their relationship together for intestinal integrity and development are still not fully understood when dietary protein is reduced. However, Chen et al. (2016) recently showed that reducing die-tary protein exacerbated the effect of aflatoxin in broiler perfor-mance and nutrient utilisation along with a numeric tendency
to increase intestinal permeability. These researchers found that increasing dietary protein to 26% completely restored the adverse effect of aflatoxin on bird performance.
Conclusion
There is a clear need to investigate the role of key amino acids including Gln, Arg and Thr for intestinal barrier function. Al-though some supporting evidence has emerged on positive ef-fects of some amino acids, such as Gln, Gly and serine, tradi-tionally regarded as non- essential, their inclusion in practical poultry diets may not be economically and practically feasible without reduction of the protein content of the diets; a practice that may potentially have some implications for the bird per-formance and intestinal function. A new project supported by RIRDC Chicken Meat in Australia aims to investigate the role of selected amino acids along with reduction of dietary protein for intestinal health with particular emphasis on intestinal bar-rier function and permeability.
Acknowledgment: The authors gratefully acknowledge the Rural Industry Research and Development Corporation, Chick-en Meat for project funding.
References are available on requestFrom the Proceedings of the 2017 Australian Poultry Science Symposium
54 - veterinary science -
VETERINARY SCIENCE
J.M.K.G.K. Jayasundara1, S.W. Walkden-Brown1,Me. Katz2, K.G.Renz1,
A.F.M.F. Islam1, J. Mcnally3 and P.W. Hunt3
1 Animal Science, School of Environmental and Rural
Science, University of New England, Armidale,
Australia
2 Molecular and Cellular Biology, School of Science and Technology, University of New England, Armidale,
Australia
3 CSIRO FD McMaster Laboratory, Armidale,
Australia
Infectious Bursal Disease antibody levels and viral load in commercial broiler chickens
Infectious bursal disease (IBD) disease is caused by infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) of the genus Avibirna-viridae and family Birna-viridae. IBDV is found worldwide and, depending on the virulence of the strain causes mortality in chickens three weeks or older and prolonged immunosuppression if birds are infected in early life.
IBDV was first reported in Australia in 1974 and has been the subject of considerable research conducted since then. All Australian strains are classified as IBDV classical or variant strains and are genetically different from overseas strains. Australian broiler chickens are protected by ma-ternal immunity provided by breeder vaccina-tion.
As part of studies on the in vivo characterization of Australian IBDV strains the Authors aimed to determine the effects of age at challenge (zero or 14 days) with IBDV Australian variant strain 02/95 in commercial broiler chickens on the per-
sistence of IBDV in the bursa of Fabricius (the main target organ of the virus), the shedding profile of IBDV in faeces, the serum profile of an-ti-IBDV antibodies and the detection of IBDV in litter and dust samples collected from infected groups.
Australian endemic IBDV serotype 1 variant strain 02/95 was quantified using qRT-PCR in bursal tissues of commercial broiler chickens inoculated orally at days zero and 14 of age and maintained to 28 days post infection (dpi). High levels of viral RNA were detected at 7, 14, 21 and 28 dpi in birds challenged at day 14 but only at
- january 2018 - 55
VETERINARY SCIENCE
21and 28 dpi in birds challenged at day zero. Challenge at both ages induced a significant antibody response relative to un-challenged controls. Virus was detected in faeces prior to day 7 and again at 28 dpi in both challenge groups, but not during the intervening period. IBDV was also successfully quantified by qRT-PCR in poultry dust and litter from the infected groups.
Materials and methods
The experiment was conducted in two chicken isolation sheds located at the University of New England. The experiment uti-lized a 2 x 2 factorial design with two levels of IBDV challenge (IBDV infection and uninfected control) and two ages of infec-tion (days zero and 14). Two batches of 30 Ross broiler chick-ens (Baiada Poultry, Tamworth, and NSW) 14 days apart in age were used, with half the birds in each group challenged with IBDV and half not challenged.
Challenged groups were orally infected with IBDV serotype 1, variant, Victorian- origin, Australian field strain 02/95 at a dose of 105 CID50/chick in 0.2 ml of PBS on the same day while negative controls were dosed sterile PBS. Infected and control groups were kept in separate sheds with the two age groups separated by a partition within each shed.
Six birds from each treatment group were colour marked for a longitudinal study. Faecal samples from those colour marked birds were collected at 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 21 and 28 post infection (dpi). Blood samples were collected from the marked birds at 7, 14, 21 and 28 dpi for the detection of anti-body (Ab) against IBDV in sera using ELISA (ProFlock® Synbi-otics San Diego, USA).
At 7, 14, 21 and 28 dpi three unmarked birds from each treat-ment group were sacrificed to collect bursa.
Dust samples were collected in settle plates from each group for quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reac-tion (qRT-PCR) quantification of IBDV at 7, 14, 21 dpi and litter samples at 7 and 14 dpi. Collected bursa, faeces and environ-mental samples were stored at -80°C.
Extraction of viral RNA from tissues and dust was done using the Bioline Isolate II RNA Mini Kit (Bioline Aust Pty Ltd, Alex-andria, Australia) and from faecal and litter samples using the Thermo Scientific GeneJET viral DNA and RNA Purification kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, USA).
The RNA extracted from all samples was quantified using a Na-noDropH ND-1000 UV-Vis spectrophotometer (Nano-DropH Technologies, Wilmington, DE, USA) and stored at -80°C until used for IBDV qRT-PCR assay.
IBDV viral genome copy number was quantified from all extract-ed RNA (bursa, faeces, dust and litter) using a TaqMan® IBDV specific qRT-PCR assay developed and validated by Authors based on the sequence data for IBDV VP2 of Ignjatovic and Sapats (2002) and carried out in a Rotor Gene 3000 Real-time PCR instrument (Corbett Research, Mortlake, NSW, Australia). A standard curve based on plasmid standards of known ge-
nome copy number was used for absolute quantification.
Appropriate statistical analyses were carried out using JMP®10 statistical software (SAS Institute Inc, NC) with results present-ed as least squares means ± SE with a significance of level P < 0.05.
Results
Clinical observation of all challenged and control birds were made twice daily. No deaths were reported during the experi-ment and birds were clinically normal.
Repeated measures analysis of Log10 anti-IBDV titre revealed that challenged birds had significantly higher titres than un-challenged birds (2.52±0.14v., 1.73±0.14, P=0.0004) and there was a non-significant trend (P=0.07) towards a higher level of antibody in birds challenged at day 14 (2.30±0.12) than those challenged at day 0 (1.94±0.15). There was significant inter-action between the effects of challenge and time after chal-lenge (P=0.02) reflecting decreasing antibody titres in control birds and increasing or high levels in challenged birds over time (Figure 1).
Figure 1 - Least squares mean (±SEM) log10 antibody titre showing interaction between the effects of challenge with IBDV variant stain 02/95 and time after challenge in commercial broilers
Figure 2 - Least squares mean Log10 (viral copy number/ mg bursal tissue+1) (±SEM) by time after infection in chickens inoculated with IBDV 02/95 strain at ages zero and 14 days. Different letters indicate significant differences between columns
56 - veterinary science -
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Analysis of IBDV viral copy number (VCN) in bursal tissue re-vealed significantly higher levels in birds challenged at day 14 than day zero (P= 0.022), a significant increase in load over time following challenge (P=0.031) and a significant interaction between these effects (P=0.015, Figure 2). In chicks challenged at day zero viral load was very low at 7 and 14 dpi, increasing thereafter. In chicks challenged at day 14 load was highest at 7 dpi and declined slightly at each sampling up to 28 dpi. No virus was detected in control birds of both age groups.
Analysis of Log10 IBDV VCN in faeces revealed no overall differ-ence between birds challenged at days zero and 14 (P=0.75), but a significant effect of time following challenge (P=0.004) and a significant interaction between these effects (P=0.040). Both groups of chickens shed detectable virus in faeces prior to 7 dpi but not from 7 - 21 dpi. At 28 dpi IBDV was again detected, with significantly higher levels in day 14 challenge group.
IBDV was detected in dust samples from the challenged shed with mean log10 (VCN/mg dust+1) of 4.36, 2.96 and 2.17 (SEM = 0.35) at 7, 14 and 21dpi respectively.
Litter samples collected from the 14 day-old challenged birds contained 5.83 and 3.54 x 10^3 VCN/g litter respectively. The equivalent values for samples from the day zero challenged group were 525 and 0 VCN/g litter.
Discussion
Replication of IBDV in the bursa was inhibited for at least two weeks in chickens challenged at hatch, relative to those chal-lenged at day 14. This is most likely due to the presence of ma-ternal antibody directed against IBDV. Antibody titres in control birds fell by more than one log between days 0 and 14 and ap-peared insufficient at day 14 to prevent rapid viral replication.
Viral load profiles following challenge in the day 14 challenged broilers were similar to those in maternal antibody negative specific pathogen free (SPF) chicks challenged at day 0 in a previous study. Interestingly, in chicks challenged at hatch, vi-ral load levels in the bursa by day 21 reached levels as high or higher than those observed in the birds challenged at day 14, suggesting that the effects of maternal antibody are to delay rather than completely inhibit viral replication in the bursa.
In the present study IBDV was detected in bursa up to the end of the experiment at 28 dpi. This is longer than the detection periods of 14 and 21 dpi in commercial broilers challenged with variant IBDV, but shorter than the 42 dpi reported by Elanku-maran et al., (2002).
Early shedding of IBDV in faeces as observed in the present experiment has been reported in infected SPF chickens but the detection of virus at 28 dpi after absence for the previous
© D
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- january 2018 - 57
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three weeks is a novel finding.
The significant viral loads of IBDV found in dust collected at seven, 14 and 21 dpi from infected shed is in agreement with earlier reports of IBDV detection in dust and suggest that dust could be an alternate sample for disease monitoring as applied in Marek’s disease surveillance. Significant amounts of IBDV RNA were also detected at seven and 14 dpi in litter samples from the day 14 challenged group, but little or none from the than day zero challenged group.
Higher anti-IBDV antibody titres were detected in both chal-lenged groups than their controls indicating an active immune response to challenge in both groups.
Conclusion
The Authors conclude that delaying IBDV challenge from hatch to 14 days of age significantly enhanced viral replication in the bursa post challenge, and shedding in faeces, but did not alter
the development of an active immune response or peak levels of IBDV in the bursa. These effects are more probably mediat-ed by a decline in passive immunity due to maternal antibody, than by a true age effect. The latter is currently under investiga-tion. The Authors also conclude that the presence of IBDV can also be monitored in environmental samples such as dust and litter using RT-qPCR methods.
Acknowledgments: The Authors acknowledge the Australi-an Poultry CRC and University of New England for providing funds for the research, Dr. Sandra Sapats and Dr. Gaylene Gould, Australian Animal Health Laboratory, CSIRO, Geelong for providing them the IBDV 02/95 strain and Ms Sue Burgess for technical support.
References are available on requestFrom the Proceedings of the Australian Poultry Science Sym-posium
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58 - processing -
PROCESSING
M. Salines1,2, V. Allain1, M-P. Donguy3,
S. Le Bouquin1,C. Magras2
1French Agency for Food, Environmental
and Occupational Health & Safety - ANSES,
Ploufragan-Plouzané Laboratory, France
2 LUNAM Université, INRA, UMR 1014 Secalim, Oniris,
Atlanpole-La Chantrerie, Nantes, France
3 DGAL, Office of Slaughterhouses and Cutting plants, Paris,
France
Innovative methods for a multidisciplinary risk management in poultry slaughterhousesThe purpose of controls in slaughterhouses is to ensure food safety and quality as well as to monitor animal health and welfare.
Control efficiency can be guaranteed by a multidisciplinary approach. Indeed, thanks to their knowledge of process and product, the active participation of food business operators (FBOs) to poultry meat control has to be enhanced. According to Euro-
pean regulations, determination of sanitary actions depending on the associated risk has to be under the responsibility and the supervision of official veterinary services (OVS).
In this context, it is necessary to implement
59- january 2018 -
PROCESSING
Standardized documents describing lesions leading to carcass condemnation and training programs were ex-ecuted to provide reliable tools helping operators to de-tect post-mortem abnormalities.
Conclusions
An innovative control system was established, based on the risk assessment presented by the flock and the im-plementation of methods adapted to the level of risk, in-volving all stakeholders in a sustainable interaction. The system was then tested in 11 voluntary slaughterhouses for 1 year. The perception of the method was also eval-uated through sociological interviews with stakeholders in about 30 slaughterhouses. Results of these studies will enable to assess the efficacy and the feasibility of the system and if necessary, to adapt it.
an adapted control system taking into account respec-tive competences and organizational constraints of FBOs and OVS.
Material and methods
A group of multidisciplinary experts developed an in-novative system to manage efficiently risks in poultry slaughterhouses and provided decision-makers with useful methods and tools for a new approach of poultry meat inspection.
They listed the inspection tasks to be performed, de-fined the articulation between FBOs and OVS to imple-ment these tasks and set indicators of achievement.
Results
Four tasks to be performed were selected: analysis of the Food Chain Information, ante and post-mortem ex-aminations and feedback to the farmer. For each task, a set of indicators was determined and a warning value was set for each of them. The indicators were moni-tored by FBOs; if the threshold value was exceeded, they had to alert OVS managing the alert and imple-menting adapted actions. Record sheets were devel-oped to register indicator values and actions taken by FBOs and OVS in order to provide evidence of the im-plementation of health inspection and to ensure data traceability.
“A group of multidisciplinary experts developed an innovative system to manage efficiently risks in poultry slaughterhouses and provided decision-makers with useful
methods and tools for a new approach of poultry meat inspection”
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