• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.1177-1180
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• 1999

This study describes the growth of broiler chickens to the two forms of Gompertz function for application in broiler production models. The first form is based on the estimated mature weight ($W_A$), while the second is based on the estimated hatch weight ($W_O$). Both equations gave identical estimation because they are mathematically identical. To fit the growth curve of commercial broilers that marketed at 35-42 days, it is unnecessary to keep broilers to near maturity (> day 140) to obtain growth data for deriving the Gompertz function. This date does not improve the curve fitting of the early growing period. Additionally, a high mortality and health problem occurred to this type of chicken after day 105.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.65-70
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• 1998

A 16-wk feeding trial was conducted to investigate the proper feeding regimen on the performance of Korean Native Chicken(KNC) consuming broiler diets. Commercial KNC are normally fed 3 kinds of diets during their life span, i. e., starter(S, 0 to 3wk of age), grower(G, 4 to 7wk of age), and finisher(F, 8 to l6wk of age) diets. In this trial, four feeding regimen were employed:T1(S-G-F), T2(S-G-G), T3(S-S-F), and T4(S-F-F). Day-old 360 KNC were randomly allotted to 12 pens: three pens per treatment, and 30 birds per pen. At the end of the trial, the BW of T2 was significantly better than that of T3(P<0.05), and T1 and T4 were intermediate. No significant difference were found in feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and viability among treatments. It appears that, in terms of BW gain, the T2 is the recommendable feeding regimen for KNC consuming broiler diets.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2005

This experiment was conducted to compare the influences of dietary sea urchin shell powder (SUSP) supplemented to broiler diets on performance, mineral contents and blood cholesterol for 5 weeks. The experimental diets contained 21.5 and $19\%$ CP for the starting and finishing period, respectively The ME was 3,100 kcal/kg of feed in both starter and finisher diets. One hundred sixty chicks were assigned to 4 treatments with 4 replicates and fed one of 4 experimental diets containing different levels of SUSP: 1) Control (commercial feed) 2) T1 (commercial feed with $1\%$ SUSP) 3) T2(commercial feed with $3\%$ SUSP) 4) T3(commercial feed with $5\%$ SUSP). Body weight gain was higher in the T1 group when fed the starter diet (P<0.05), but was the lowest in T1 group for finishing period. Feed efficiency was not significantly different between the control and treatment groups (P>0.05). The total cholesterol of the control was higher than the treatment groups and the HDL-cholesterol were higher in T2 and T3. However, effects of diets containing graded levels of SUSP on LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride contents were not found (P>0.05). The SUSP diets were increased significantly the Fe, Zn and Ca contents of chicken meat, and tended to increase total mineral contents. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of SUSP to broiler diets could be applied to the enhancement of Ca, Fe and total mineral contents levels in chicken meat.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.166-171
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• 2002

The main objective of the present study is to estimate the crossbreeding parameters in respect to serum lysozyme level in broilers. The experiment involved a complete $4{\times}4$ diallel design using four synthetic broiler lines namely Coloured Synthetic Male Line (CSML), White Synthetic Male Line (WSML), Coloured Synthetic Female Line (CSFL) and Naked Neck Line (NNL). The lyophilised Micrococcus lysodeikticus suspension was used to detect the lysozyme level in the serum of birds. The data were analysed by least-squares method to find the effects of genetic and non-genetic factors using appropriate model. The crossbreeding parameters for this trait were estimated by complete diallel model assuming the effect of each synthetic line as fixed. The results indicated that additive and non-additive genetic variation attributed to minor genes at many loci is important for the genetic control of serum lysozyme level in chickens. Total non-additive components of variance also showed significant amount of heterosis in crossbred progenies, and therefore exploitation of non-additive component of variance is possible for improvement in serum lysozyme level in broilers. The overall results suggested that for commercial broiler production system, the selection for specialised line on the basis of serum lysozyme level and subsequent crossing of parent lines could enhance the immunocompetence status in relation to serum lysozyme level in crossbred chickens.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 1999

This study was conducted to determine the effects of dietary swine manure and food waste on feeding and drinking behaviours in broiler chicks. A total of 240 birds with 40g of initial weight were randomly assigned in the 8$\times$3 randomized complete block design and 10 birds per replicate. Extrusion recycled feeds(ERF) were prepared by extruding a mixture of 40% swine manure+40% food waste(FW)+20% corn. The birds assigned to one of the 8 dietary regimens; 0, 10, 30, 40% ERF of 20, 40, 60% FW in the place of a commercial boiler starter diet. Video recording were made after one week of adaptation period to the regimen. The tapes were played in a slow motion to examine feeding and drinking behaviour. Feeding and drinking times were greater in the day time at the night. Feeding times peaked at 4 hour intervals. Drinking time increased about 2 times on FW feeding compared to the other treatment groups. The results indicated that feeding and drinking behaviour could be influenced by the dietary regimens and that FW feeding increased drinking. The data also suggested that the FW could replace within 40% of broiler starter diet.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.394-400
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• 2004

To investigate the efficacy of alternatives to antibiotics, the present study was conducted to compare the effects of antibiotic, lactic acid, a blend of commercial essential oils (EOs) and EOs in combination with lactic acid on growth performance and the functional activity of the gut in broiler chickens. A total of 168 broiler chickens were given the basal diet supplemented with 10 ppm colistin (T1), 0.1% lactic acid (T2), 25 ppm EOs (T3), 25 ppm EOs+0.1% lactic acid (T4), 50 ppm EOs (T5) or 50 ppm EOs+0.1% lactic acid (T6) in the period 3 to 35 days of age. As a result, the broiler chickens assigned to T4 group throughout the experimental period had apparently (p<0.05) greater body weight and total gain than these assigned to T1, T2, T3 and T5 groups. However, there was no difference in growth performance among the birds fed the diets supplemented with antibiotic (T1), lactic acid (T2) and EOs (T3 and T5) alone. The weights of digestive organs and the number of lactobacilli and E. coli in the lower ileum were not affected by dietary treatments. Total trypsin activity was significantly (p<0.05) greater in T4 than T1, T2, T3 and T5 groups. Total and specific pancreatic $\alpha$-amylase activities were significantly (p<0.05) enhanced in the broiler chickens fed T4 diet compared with these fed T1, T2 and T3 diets. However, there were no differences in growth performance and digestive enzyme activities including pancreatic trypsin and $\alpha$-amylase between T4 and T6 groups fed the diets supplemented with either low or high EOs levels in combination of lactic acid. In conclusion, a blend of commercial EOs combined with lactic acid showed significant increases in digestive enzyme activities of the pancreas and intestinal mucosa, leading to increase in growth performance.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.628-632
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• 2008

Egg production traits are economically important both for egg-laying and broiler lines of chicken. In sheep, the Q249R mutation in BMPR-IB is associated with ovulation rate. The present study cloned a partial chicken BMPR-IB fragment which contained the corresponding ovine Q249R mutation, including partial exon 6 and exon 7 and full-length intron 6. Five nucleotide changes were identified by alignment of the fragment amplified from Jining Bairi and Zang chickens. Among these nucleotide substitutions, the C/T transition at the base position of 35 and the A/G transition at the base position of 287 were found to be highly polymorphic, and named as SNPs C35T and A287G, respectively. For the SNP C35T, 331 hens of a synthetic broiler line were genotyped by a PCR-SSCP approach and allele C was found to be dominant. For the SNP A287G, 604 birds from the synthetic broiler line, a commercial egg-laying line, as well as three Chinese indigenous chicken breeds were genotyped by a PCR-RFLP technique. The associations of these two SNPs with egg production traits in the broiler line were analyzed. The results indicated that both the C35T and the A287G SNPs were not associated with egg production at 33wks and from 33wks to 42 wks (p>0.1), whereas the SNP A287G was associated with egg production from 47 to 56 wks (p<0.05). The dominance genetic effects on this latter trait and on egg production from 33 to 42 wks were significant (p<0.05).

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.569-576
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• 1993

A feeding trial was conducted to determine the effectivity of microbial treatment on eliminating the toxicity of weevil-infested sweet potato roots, and to assess intake level and performance of broilers fed microbiologically-treated, weevil-infested sweet potato meal. Weevil-infested sweet potato meal was treated with Aspergillus awamori (terpene-degrading fungus), dried, and mixed with other ingredients. One hundred twenty (120) broiler chicks were randomly distributed to treatment diets containing 3 types of sweet potato meal (healthy, weevil-infested, and microbiologically-treated, weevil-infested) incorporated at 2 levels (12% and 24%) in the ration, following the $2{\times}3$ factorial in CRD with 4 replicates per treatment. Voluntary intake was high with healthy sweet potato meal, even at 24% in the ration, especially at later stage of broiler development. Weevil infestation of sweet potato meal, even at 24% in the ration, especially at later stage of broiler development. Weevil infestation of sweet potato roots significantly reduced voluntary intake and broiler performance even at 12% level in the diet, much more at 24% level (p<0.01). Microbial treatment, however, was found to alleviate such problem, especially at 24% level of incorporation (p<0.01). "Toxicity" of weevil infestation, in terms of enlargement of liver and spleen, in the absence of mortality, was only apparent at 24% level of incorporation in the ration. Again, this was minimized by microbial treatment (p<0.01), and is therefore recommended at high levels of incorporating weevil-infested sweet potato meal in broiler diets. Microbial treatment constitutes an added cost, so that economic analyses should be done to find out whether increases in broiler performance, or reduction in the toxic effects of terpenoid compounds, outweigh the cost of treatment before a definite recommendation can be made for its commercial application.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.1181-1192
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• 2021

Objective: The objective of the current study was to investigate the effects of dietary hatchery by-products (HBPs) as a replacement of fish meal (FM) on growth performance, relative organ weight, plasma measurements, immune organ index, meat quality, and tibia characteristics of broiler chickens. Methods: A total of 720 broiler chickens (3 d of age) were randomly allotted to 1 of 9 treatments with 8 replicates. Each replicate consisted of 5 male and 5 female birds. The basal diet was formulated to contain 5.0% commercial FM, whereas eight treatment diets were prepared by replacing 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of FM in the basal diet with infertile eggs (IFE) or a mixture of various HBPs (MIX); therefore, the inclusion levels of IFE or MIX in the experimental diets were 1.25%, 2.50%, 3.75%, or 5.00%. The diets and water were provided on an ad libitum basis for 32 d. Results: Increasing inclusion levels of IFE as a replacement of FM in diets had no effects on growth performance, plasma measurements, immune organ index, and tibia characteristics of broiler chickens. Increasing inclusion levels of IFE in diets increased (linear, p<0.05) meat lightness (L^*) but decreased (linear, p<0.05) meat redness (a^*). The breast meat pH at 1-h postmortem was increased (linear, p<0.05) by increasing inclusion levels of IFE in diets. Likewise, increasing inclusion levels of MIX in diets had no effects on growth performance, relative organ weight, plasma measurements, immune organ index, and tibia characteristics. However, increasing inclusion levels of MIX in diets increased (linear, p<0.05) 1-h postmortem pH but decreased (linear, p<0.05) 24-h postmortem pH of breast meat. Increasing inclusion levels of MIX in diets decreased (linear, p<0.05) thiobarbituric acid reactive substances values of breast meat. Conclusion: Both IFE and MIX are suitable alternatives to FM as protein ingredients in broiler diets.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.80-84
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• 2005

An experiment was conducted to study the performance, carcass traits, serum lipid profile and immune competence in commercial broilers (2 to 42 d of age) fed graded levels (25, 50, 75 and 100%) of finger millet (FM) (Elusine coracana) in place (w/w) of yellow maize (YM). Each diet was fed to eight replicates (five female Vencobb broilers/replicate) housed in stainless steel battery brooders. The estimated metabolizable energy content of FM was about 540 kcal less than the YM. FM contained more protein (10.42 vs. 9.05%) and fibre (9.52 vs. 2.24%) compared to YM. Body weight gain, ready to cook yield, relative weights of giblet, liver, intestine and length of intestine at 42 d of age was not affected due to replacing YM with FM. But, the feed efficiency decreased in broilers fed diets containing 75 and 100% FM in place of YM at both 21 and 42 d of age. The amount of fat deposited in abdominal area decreased and the relative weight of gizzard increased with increase in level of FM in the diet. The serum HDL cholesterol at 21 and 42 d of age and serum triglycerides at 42 d of age decreased with increase in level of FM in diet. The relative weight of spleen and antibody titers against sheep red blood cells (SRBC) at 5 d post inoculation (PI) decreased in broilers fed FM at 100% of YM. However, the relative weight of bursa, SRBC titers at 10 d PI, antibody titers against ND virus and mortality were not affected due to incorporation of FM in place of YM in diet. The fat content in thigh muscle and liver decreased, while the protein content in these tissues increased with increase in the level of FM in broiler diet. Based on the results, it may be concluded that YM can be replaced with FM up to 25% on weight basis without affecting weight gain, carcass yields and immunity in commercial broiler diet (up to 42 d of age). Further, inclusion of finger millet reduced the fat deposition in thigh muscle, liver and in abdominal area compared to those fed maize as the principal source of energy.