3 – Meat Birds (Production and Management) Flashcards
Brooding definition
- Period of early life characterized by requirement for supplemental heat
Rearing definition
- Period of time from the end of brooding to onset of sexual maturity
Reproduction definition
- Onset of sexual maturity until end of reproductive cycle
Breeding cycle: housing
- 2/3 slat and 1/3 litter or cage
Brooding and rearing: housing
- Litter floor barn
Why control body weight?
- Growth vs. reproduction
o Double yolk=not good for hatching - Prevent obesity and improve reproductive performance
- Decreased mortality
- Control sexual maturity
o Too fat=lower sperm count - *controversial
What is done for feed intake control during brooding and rearing?
- As much as they want until 2-3 weeks of age
- Initiate weekly sampling by at least 2 weeks of age
o Allocate feed based on sample weights - *start restricting feed on daily basis and then SOME switch to feeding twice the restricted amount on every other day basis
- Return to everyday feeding at ~20 weeks of age
What is done for feed intake control during the laying or breeding cycle?
- Feed levels increase prior to sexual maturity
- Start breeder ration by at least 22 weeks of age
- Reduce feed intake when egg production starts to decline
What percent of flock mortal is due to disease?
- 10%
What are some ways to control disease?
- Isolation: ALL SPECIES
- All in all out management
- Clean out and disinfection
- Source of stock
- **Vaccination (with antibody testing)
- Test barns and take blood samples every 2 weeks
What are some processes done in the hatchery for managing males?
- Dubbing: removing comb
- Trimming dew claw and inner toe nails
Why is dubbing done to males at hatchery?
- Easiest way to ID males coming from specific genetic lines
- *only dub the A males (not the C males)
Why is trimming of dew claws and inner toe nails done to males at hatchery?
- Aggression
o For when they mount females - *infrared toe treatment: just end of claw so no nail growth at edge of bone
How are males housed?
- Separate at least to 6 weeks of age
- Separation to housing in breeder barn preferred
What are the 2 types of beak TREATMENT for males?
- Hot-blade trimming
- Infrared beak treatment: prevents epithelial re-growth
Sex ratios: 3 categories
- Natural mating
- At hatching: 13-15 males per 100 females (to account for mortality)
- *At breeding: 8-10 males per 100 females
Why do you want to separate male feeding during breeding?
- Controlling male weight
- Male nutritional requirements
- *results in better fertility late in breeding cycle
What are some methods of feeding males and females separately during breeding?
- Usually like to stick to their different feeders
What is adding spiking males?
- Bring younger males (spiking males)=stimulate testosterone in older males
- *increases fertility (increase the old, and added from the new)
o BUT: then not all in all out=biosecurity
What is the age of the hens at their first egg?
- 23-24 weeks of age
Egg production peak is
- 85% hen day egg production
What is the egg production at 64 weeks of age?
- 50% hen day egg production
How many eggs do you normal get per hen and what is the hatchability?
- 171 eggs/pen
- Hatchability: 85%
- *145 chicks per hen
What are the types of meat chickens?
- Rock Cornish Game Hen (whole females)
- Broiler (whole, cut up male or female)
o KFC, Swiss Chalet, further processed meat - Roasters (whole male or female)
Aviagen Ross 308 Guide
- To look at hatched performance objectives
- *see if they are growing good
What is the floor in broiler housing?
- Litter floor
What is the floor in turkey housing?
- Litter floor
Environmental quality and bird comfort + health (broiler/turkey): areas to consider
- ***Ventilation (fan capacity)
- Barn construction (insulation, unintentional openings)
- Outside air (RH,T)
- Heat sources
- Inside air (RH, T)
- Feed
- Bird number and sizes (CO2, manure)
- Bacteria
- Litter quality and quantity
Birds are homotherms
- able to control body T at 7-21 days
- *higher T than us (41.9 degree C chickens)
What are the two methods of heat loss in birds?
- Sensible (direct)
a. Conduction, convection, radiation - Insensible (indirect)
a. Evaporative
Conduction
- Transfer of heat form molecule to molecule
- Ex. what skin is in contact with
- *stocking density
Convection
- Involves movement of air
- *want to prevent too much of this happening in poultry
- Ex. air comes in and the heat is removed and the cool air goes over your skin
Radiation
- Heat in the form of electromagnetic waves
- In Canada: don’t have open sided barns
What is the order of sensible heat loss in order of importance?
- MOST important: convection (VENTILATION)
- Conduction
- Radiation
What are some thermoregulation methods?
- Behaviours
- Ptiloerection
- Vasomotion
- Shivering
- Panting
How is the barn temperature monitored?
- Thermometers in representative location
- Bird behaviour and appearance
a. Huddling, shiver, ptiloeretion, panting, space distribution
What are the brooding temperatures?
- Initial: 30-32 decree C
- Decrease weekly by ~2 degree C
- Final temperature: 21 degree C
What are the two ways to provide a heat source?
- Whole room heating (make sure the whole room is warm enough before the chicks arrive)
- Localized heat sources
How is temperature managed in brooding?
- Use brooder guards and attraction lights (not as often anymore)
- Distribution of feeders and waterers (increase the amount)
What is the light management in brooding?
- OLD: 24hr continuous light
- NOW: Darkness can allow natural diurnal patterns and improve sleep and alters behaviour
o 23hr light, 1 hr dark, slowly increase to 6hr dark, 18hr light
What are the sources of moisture in the brooding barn?
- Poultry feces (70-80% moisture)
- Respiratory evaporation
- Incoming air
- Spillage
What are the recommended humidity levels?
- 55-70%
- Variable during broiler growth cycle
Why do you not want high humidity?
- Cold temperature conditions
o Reduced ventilation
o Damp litter
o Increased ammonia - Warm temperature in combination with high humidity
o Pathogens
o Disease
o Ulcerations on foot pad
Why do you not want low humidity?
- Excessive ventilation
o Dusty
o Poor feathering and growth - Early brooding
o Combination of winter brooding and weak chicks
o Starveouts: wont eat or drink
What are the gases in a barn?
- Ammonia (NH3)
- Hydrogen sulfide
- Methan
- CO2
- CO
What are the sources of gases in a barn?
- Anaerobic degradation of manure organics
- Animal respiration
- Fuel burning heaters
What is the ammonia tolerance level?
- 25ppm
What are the adverse effects of ammonia?
- IRRITANT
- Increased susceptibility to respiratory disease
- Increased incidence of breast blisters, ulceration of foot pad
o Breast on wet litter - Keratoconjunctivitis
- Decreased performance
What are the sources of dust?
- Feed
- Litter
- Feathers
- Dander (skin scales)
What are the contributing factors to dust?
- Flight ability (poulet barn=more flying to perches)
- Behaviour
o Dust bathing
o Foraging
How can dust be controlled?
- Ventilation rate
- Misting
What are some of the detrimental effects of dust?
- Vector of microbes (Marek’s disease)
- Direct damage to the lung and respiratory tract
What are some of the factors that influence space requirements? (4)
- Type of bird
- Management factors
- Quality of management
- Other environmental factors
*linear ADDITIVITY of CONCURRENT STRESSORS
What happened at too low of stocking density?
- Too much movement=injuries
What are the effects of inadequate space?
- Decreased performance
- Reduced uniformity
- Increased mortality (reduced immune function)
- Increased carcass defects
- Increased condemnation at processing (meat stocks)
What are the 3 different components of light?
- Light wavelength
- Light intensity
- Photoperiod length and distribution
Light wavelength examples in birds
- Blue light during handling=calmer birds (can see it better!)
- Red light=reduces cannibalism
o *superior for lay/breeding period - *birds have more cones (see a broader colour spectrum then we do)
*can see light through their skull (hits pineal gland)
What is light intensity measured in?
- Lux
- Foot candle (American)
- CLUX/GALLILUX (should be the standard)
o ‘chicken lux’: takes into account birds perception under a specific light colour
Light intensity can be manipulated to influence bird behaviour to
- Increase activity
- Reduce cannibalism
- Reduce feed wastage
- Decrease bruising
What is the recommendation for light intensity during early + late brooding and rearing?
- Early brooding: >20lux
- Later brooding and rearing: 5-10lux (turkeys: 5 lux)
How can exposure to darkness benefit bird health?
- Physiological changes associated with darkness
o Reduced early growth using extended darkness - Increased exercise
- Good performance, improved feed efficiency and reduced electrical costs
What are the potential negative aspects of dark exposure?
- Reduced growth in short grow out period
- More difficult to handle at marketing
- Reduced breast meat yield
- *need a balance of positive and negative aspects of darkness exposure (aim for 18light, 6 dark)
Level and balance of nutrients is important in nutrition
- More than 40 chemical compounds or elements necessary to support growth, reproduction and life
- *there are major classifications and sources
What are the 4 major classifications and sources of nutrients?
- Energy
- Protein
- Vitamins
- Minerals
Energy nutrient feed ingredients (high to low)
- Cereal grains
- Fat
- Protein concentrates
Protein nutrient feed ingredients (high to low)
- Protein concentrates
- Cereal grains
- Purified AA
Vitamins nutrient feed ingredients (high to low)
- Vitamin supplements
- Other feed ingredients
Minerals nutrient feed ingredients (high to low)
- Mineral premixes/specific supplements
- Other feed ingredients
Example of a broiler diet is Western Canada
- *mainly wheat
- Source of protein: barley
- Soybean
- Minerals+
