• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.197-208
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• 1986

This experiment was conducted to find out the effects of the six different feeding methods on the development of body weight, testis, comb and pituitary gland, and the sexual maturity of White Plymouth Rock cockerels. From hatching to 22 weeks of age, the weights of whole body, testis, comb and pituitary gland, and the histological changes of testis and the semen characteristics were checked every other week. The results obtained in this expeniment were as follows: 1. The growth rates of the self-feeding groups were faster than those of the limited feeding groups (70 percent of the self-feeding) by about 2 weeks. The weights of testis and comb showed the most marked increase at 20 weeks of age in the self-feeding groups and at 22 weeks of age in the limited feeding groups, respectively. 2. The weights of pituitary gland from hatching to 22 weeks of age at all observation weeks were not recognised significantly among the compared groups except 4, 14 and 16 weeks of age. 3. Correlations between week of age, body weight, testis, comb and pituitary gland, in the course of 22 weeks, were highly significant. 4. The diameters of lumina and tubules in the seminiferous tubules increased very slowly until 10 weeks of age. They showed the most marked increase at 12 weeks of age in the self-feeding groups and at 14 weeks of age in the limited feeding groups, and then continuously increased until 32 weeks of. age. 5. Primary spermatocytes appeared at first at 8 weeks in the all treatment groups, Secondary spermatocytes appeared at first at 10 weeks in the self-feeding groups and at 12 weeks in the limited feeding groups. At 14 weeks of age spermatids and spermatozoa were found at first in the self-feeding groups but spermatids were found in the limited feeding groups. 6. Age of the first ejaculation was between 14 and 16 weeks of age in the all treatment groups. The Average semen. volume and sperm concentration ranged from 0.1-0.2$m\ell$/ ejaculate and 5.6-9.8${\times}$10$\^$8/ sperm/$m\ell$ at the age of the first ejaculation but 0.30-0.35$m\ell$/ ejaculate and 22.4-42.7${\times}$10$\^$8/ sperm int at the 20 weeks of age in the all treatment groups.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.119-128
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• 2004

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is a very acute systemic disease in poultry, particularly in chickens and turkeys caused by HPAI viruses. An outbreak of HPAI caused by subtype H5N1, was first reported in a broiler breeder farm on December 10, 2003 in Korea, although there had been twenty one outbreaks of the disease reported in the world before. Since mid-December 2003, eight Asian countries have confirmed outbreaks of HPAI due to the same subtype. The outbreak has also resulted in at least twenty three fatal human cases in Vietnam and Thailand as of May 17, 2004 according to the WHO. Regarding the first outbreak of recent Asian HPAI, it has been suspected that some Asian countries with the exception of Korea and Japan veiled the fact of HPAI outbreaks since the last half of 2003, even though it was first reported in Korea. There have been total nineteen outbreaks of HPAI among chicken and duck farms in 10 provinces in Korea since Dec. 2003 and approximately 5,280,000 birds were slaughtered from 392 farms for eradication of the disease and preemptive culling. The origin of the H5Nl HPAI virus introduced into the country are unknown and still under epidemiological investigation. Current status of outbreaks and characteristics of HPAI will be reviewed and discussed on the basis of genetic, virological, clinicopathological, and ecological aspect, as well as future measures for surveillance and prevention of the disease in Korea.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.591-594
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• 2009

Acute and massive death was noted in 10-week-old chickens, broiler breeder, housed in the floor pens. The number of dead chickens exceeded 20 birds each day. Grossly, fibrinous peritonitis with adhesion of mesenteries and intestinal organs was noted. The ceca were enlarged, expanded, and thickened with congestion. Cecal lumen was distended with a caseous core composed of serous, fibrinopurulent, and hemorrhagic exudates with desquamated masses of epithelial cells. The liver had multifocal white irregular necrotic foci surrounded by a raised ring. Light and electron microscope revealed Histomonas meleagridis in the liver with its characteristic structures and not in the intestinal mucoca and submucosa. In this case, the examination of parasite, larvae and egg was conducted more carefully; however, we could not find eggs or worms of Heterakis gallinarum in the dead or live chickens and earthworms in the soils of floor pens. Therefore, we concluded that an outbreak of blackhead disease probably occurred by direct transmission of histomonads from chickens to chickens in this case.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.254-265
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• 2018

Avian influenza recently damaged the poultry industry, which suffered a huge economic loss reaching billions of U.S. dollars in South Korea. Transmission routes of the pathogens would help plan to control and limit the spread of the devastating biological tragedy. Phylogenetic analyses of pathogen's DNA sequences could sketch transmission trees relating hosts with directed edges. The last decade has seen the methodological development of inferring transmission trees using epidemiological as well as genetic data. Here, I reanalyzed the DNA sequence data that had originated in the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N8 outbreak of South Korea in 2014. The H5N8 viruses spread geographically contiguously from the origin of the outbreak, Jeonbuk. The Jeonbuk origin viruses were known to spread to four provinces neighboring Jeonbuk. I estimated the transmission tree of the host domestic and migratory wild birds after combining multiple runs of Markov chain Monte Carlo using a Bayesian method for inferring transmission trees. The estimated transmission tree, albeit with a rather large uncertainty in the directed edges, showed that the viruses spread from Jeonbuk through Chungnam to Gyeonggi. Domestic birds of breeder or broiler ducks were estimated to appear to be at the terminal nodes of the transmission tree. This observation confirmed that migratory wild birds played an important role as one of the main infection mediators in the avian influenza H5N8 outbreak of South Korea in 2014.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.179-191
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• 1990

In order to study the effects of supplementation of live yeast(Saccharomyces cerevisiae) on the performance of laying hens, five experiments were conducted. Two experiment were conducted during summer period, one with 37 wk old Dekalb-Delta strain laying birds(Exp. 1) and the other one with 100 wk old molted Nick Chick Brown laying birds(Esp.2) . In each experiment, 240 birds were divided into 12 groups of 20 birds each and randomly distributed. Each of the two experimental diets(Control 71 and 0.05% live yeast supplemented 72) was fed to 6 groups for 4 wks in Exp.1 and 3 wks in Exp.2. Three experiments were conducted during winter period, Exp.2 with 54 wk old Hy-Line strain laying birds, Exp.4 with 52 wk old Hy-Line strain laying birds, and Exp.5 with 36 wk old broiler breeder(Indian River strain). In each experiment, 540 birds were divided into 18 groups of 30 birds each and randomly distributed. Each of the 3 experimental diets(Control：$T_1$0.05% live yeast supplemented：$T_2$ and 0.1% live yeast supplemented ： T$_3$) was fed to 9 groups for 6 wks in Exp.3, 9 wks in Exp.4 and 4 wks in Exp.5. In Exp.4, Latin Square design was employed to determine the effects of switching feeds at 3 wk intervals. All hens were housed in cages of commercial farm and experimental diets were made with commercial layer feeds. In Experiment 1, egg production was significantly(P＜0.05) higher in $T_2$. Feed intake was significantly (P＜higher in 72 at 1st wk but 4 wk average was not significantly different. Feed efficiency was significantly(P＜0.01) better in 72 at End wk but 4 wk average was not significantly different. Other parameters, such as weight, soft egg production, cracked egg production and mortality were not significantly different. In Experiment 2, egg production was significantly(P＜0.05) higher in $T_2$. Feed efficiency was significantly (P＜0.05 and P＜0.01) better at End wk and 3rd wk but 3 wk average was not significantly different. Soft egg production was significantly(P＜0.05) higher in 72. Other parameters were not significantly different. In Experiment 3, egg productions were significantly(P＜0.05) different among treatments ： $T_3$ was higher than $T_1$ and $T_2$ was higher than $T_1$. Egg weight of $T_1$ and $T_2$was significantly(P＜0.05) heavier than $T_3$. Feed intake of $T_2$ and $T_3$ was significantly(P＜0.05) higher than $T_1$ at 6th wk but overall average was not significantly different. Soft egg production were significantly(P＜0.01) different among treatments：$T_1$ was higher than $T_3$ was higher than $T_2$. Feed efficiency cracked e99 Production and mortality were not signifcantly different. In Experiment 4, egg production tended to increase as the level of live yeast supplementation increased but they were not statistically different. In Experiment 5, egg production of broiler breeders of $T_3$ was significantly(P＜0.01) higher than $T_1$. Feed intake of $T_3$ was significantly(P＜0.05) greater than $T_1$ and $T_2$ at 3rd wk but overall average was not significantly different. Fertility and hatchability tended to be higher in the supplemented groups than in the control.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.95-105
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• 2020

This study presents the production characteristics and physiological characteristics of five Korean native chicken (KNC) breeds consisting of Hwanggalsaek Jaeraejong (HJ), Korean Rhode Island Red (KR), Korean White Leghorn (KL), Korean Brown Cornish (KC), and Korean Ogye (KO). We investigated their production performances, vitalities, and stress responses. We measured the survival rate, body weight, age at first egg-laying, hen-day egg production, egg weight, amount of telomeric DNA, heterophil-lymphocyte ratio (H/L ratio), and heat shock protein (HSP)-70, HSP-90α and HSP-90β gene expression levels for 493 KNCs. The survival rate was highest in KR, and lowest in KO. Body weights were steadily high in the order of KC, KR, HJ, KO and KL. Average hen-day egg production was highest in KL, and lowest in KC. While the amount of telomeric DNA was highest in KR, and lowest in KC. Furthermore, both the H/L ratio and the HSP-90β gene expression level were highest in KC, and lowest in KR. These results indicated that the KR breed was highly resistant to stress, whereas KC was more susceptible to stress. Taken together, it is considered that with improvements the KC breed would be more suited to be used as a Korean broiler breed while KL would be more appropriately used as a Korean layer breed. In addition, it is considered that the KR breed is appropriate to be used as a maternal chicken breeder based on good production capacity and excellent robustness, while the HJ breed is desirable to be improved as a high-quality Korean meat breed based on its excellent meat quality.