• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.297-302
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• 2002

The effects of eggshell pigmentation and egg size (medium and large) on the spectral properties and characteristics of eggshells were examined in eggs from two genetic groups of breeder flocks. Birds from meat (Hybro, pigmented eggshell, PES) and layer (Leghorn, non-pigmented eggshell, NPES) at 40 and 46 weeks of age, respectively, were used. Measurements of per cent shell (PS), shell thickness (ST), shell volume (SV), shell density (SD), egg shell conductance (EC) and physical dimensions of eggs were made. The spectral properties of eggshells were measured over the wavelength (WL) range of 200 to 1,100 nm. Eggshell absorbed approximately 99.8 percent of the light and transmitted only about 0.12 percent with a maximum light transmission at the near-infra-red region of about 1075 nm. It attenuated shorter WL and transmitted longer WL. Eggshell pigmentation and egg size influenced light transmission into the egg. The NPES had higher EC and transmission of light and lower PS and SD than those of the PES. Large size eggs had higher EC, SD, SV, transmission of light and egg physical dimensions than those of medium size eggs. It is concluded that genetic make up of birds and egg size influenced eggshell characteristics including EC and that, as a consequence, the difference in the spectral properties of eggshells. The pigmentation of eggshell influenced the amount and WL transmitted into the egg. The size and EC of eggs influenced the amount of light transmitted through the eggshell. EC is a good indicator for the ability of eggshell to transmit light.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.173-179
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• 2014

While use of mass rearing systems improved poultry production, chances of exposing to contagious diseases have been increased, making flocks more vulnerable to diseases. Diseases of interest which affects egg production adversely include Low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI), Infectious bronchitis (IB), Avian meta-pneumoviral infection (aMPV) and Egg drop syndrome'76 (EDS'76). This report collected and analyzed 5,385 serum samples, which were collected from 1,330 different chicken flock, provided by Chungbuk National University, Avian Disease Laboratory at 2009. Serums were analyzed based on rearing stages; 0~1.3weeks (wks) (maternal antibody period), >1.3~3 wks (starting period), >3~10 wks (growing period), >10~22 wks (developing period), >22~40 wks (peak laying period), >40~60 wks (late laying period) and over 60 wks (post-molting period). Results showed the 99.7% of the tested flocks were immunized against ND and73.8%, 97.1%, 78,2% and 78% of the flocks were immunized against other 4 agents (LPAI, IB, EDS'76, aMPV). Maternal antibody was transferred to enough quantity for NDV. Generally, antibody titers which were developed at 22 weeks were stabilized permanently for life. In case of IB and aMPV, infection titer emerged as early as 10 weeks and the titer was increased from 99.4% to 100% for life. EDS76 showed increase in titers, reflecting decreased frequency of vaccination programs. Overall, this study displayed general trends of major viral disease in layers, but considering the trend of development of preventive measures and evolution of pathogens, conducting serological surveys on a regular basis is important.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.134-137
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• 2009

Although there is circumstantial evidence that infectious bronchitis(IB) in the Korean layer industry has contributed to severe economic losses, the seroprevalence against IB virus(IBV) and risk factors associated with seropositivity are not well known. During May to October 2007, 820 blood samples were randomly collected from 41 laying hen flocks(20 birds in each flock) with $\geq$ 3,000 birds of 18 week of age or older in three provinces of Korea. The samples size was determined considering a flock-size range of 3,000-65,000 birds, an expected bird-level seroprevalence of $\geq$ 15%, and a 95% level of confidence. Serum samples were examined using a hemagglutination inhibition test for antibodies to IBV. The overall apparent flock-level seroprevalence was 46.3%(95% CI, 31.1-66.6) with no statistically significant differences among provinces(X=1.205, p>0.05). There were 19 positive flocks with one to eight seropositive birds, and 11 of these had one or two seropositive birds. None of the measured parameters were significantly associated with seropositivity against IBV in a subsequent multivariable logistic regression analysis. A longitudinal risk factor studies considering management and vaccination characteristics possibly associated with the IBV flock prevalence would be beneficial.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.152-157
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• 1995

A total of 1050 layer and broiler chickens from 63 flocks of 21 poultry farms in South-Kyeonggi area, aged from 1 to 18 weeks, were investigated for the prevalence of Cryptosporidium baileyi infection from May 1992 to March 1993. The results have shown that 44 chickens(4.19%) were infected with C.(baileyi during the period of investigation) Fecal samples were treated by using Sheather's flotating technique and were examined under the light and phase contrast microscopy and then stained by Kinyoun method. Cryptosporidium oocysts were found in 35 out of 650 broilers(5.4%) and 9 out of 400 layer chickens(2.3%) aged mainly from 2 to 12 weeks. The regional infection rate were 4.7% in Pyeong-taek, 5.1% in An-sung and 2.3% in Yong-in, respectively. The average size of isolated oocyst was about $5.23{\times}4.92{\mu}m$ and the oocysts were orally inoculated into 2-day-old SPF chickens for the histological examination of oocyst in bursa of Fabricius. The study has concluded that C. baileyi infects chickens and oocysts were isolated in South-Kyeonggi area.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.105-110
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• 2006

A three-layer, feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN) with sixteen input neurons, three hidden neurons, and one output neuron was developed to identify the presence of infectious bronchitis (IB) infection as early as possible in laying hen flocks. Retrospective data from flocks that enrolled IB surveillance program between May 2003 and November 2005 were used to build the ANN. Data set of 86 flocks was divided randomly into two sets: 77 cases for training set and 9 cases for testing set. Input factors were 16 epidemiological findings including characteristics of the layer house, management practice, flock size, and the output was either presence or absence of IB. ANN was trained using training set with a back-propagation algorithm and test set was used to determine the network's capability to predict outcomes that it has never seen. Diagnostic performance of the trained network was evaluated by constructing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve with the area under the curve (AUC), which were also used to determine the best positivity criterion for the model. Several different ANNs with different structures were created. The best-fitted trained network, IBV_D1, was able to predict IB in 73 cases out of 77 (diagnostic accuracy 94.8%) in the training set. Sensitivity and specificity of the trained neural network was 95.5% (42/44, 95% CI, 84.5-99.4) and 93.9% (31/33, 95% CI, 79.8-99.3), respectively. For testing set, AVC of the ROC curve for the IBV_D1 network was 0.948 (SE=0.086, 95% CI 0.592-0.961) in recognizing IB infection status accurately. At a criterion of 0.7149, the diagnostic accuracy was the highest with a 88.9% with the highest sensitivity of 100%. With this value of sensitivity and specificity together with assumed 44% of IB prevalence, IBV_D1 network showed a PPV of 80% and an NPV of 100%. Based on these findings, the authors conclude that neural network can be successfully applied to the development of a screening model for identifying IB infection in laying hen flocks.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.55-59
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• 2003

A necrotizing skeletal myopathy was diagnosed in three flocks of 30,000 thirty-eight-week-old layer breeder chickens. The mortality attributed to the myopathy was 17.7%, 12.3% and 21.1% in flock A, B and C, respectively. Clinically, chickens were showed depression, anorexia, posterior paresis, inability to rise, incoordination, reluctance to move, and leg trembling and weakness. The most striking findings at necropsy was pale streaking in the muscles of the thighs and legs. Microscopic lesions included myofiber degeneration and necrosis with massive cellular proliferation interpreted as sarcolemmal nuclei proliferation. Plasma creatine kinase, asparte aminotransferase and akaline phosphatase were markedly elevated. In conclusion, author suggested that submitted chickens were affected by ionophores poisoning.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.45-59
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• 2000

The present study was conducted to investigate the epidemiological properties of salmonellosis of poultry farms in Kyongbuk province during the relied from November 1998 to November 1999 And antibiotic susceptibility and biochemical characteristics of 120 Salmonella cultures isolated from chicken samples were also investigated. The results obtained through this study were summarized as follows, 1. Among 667,200 chickens of 31 flocks in 17 layer farms and 9 broiler farms, 61,350 chickens of 31 flocks were died with salmonellosis. The death rate of 25 farms varied from 0.1% to 75.0%, and the average death rate was 9.2%. 2. According to etiological agents, fowl typhoid was shown the most predominant outbreak among the salmonellosis during a year, which accounted for 8R.0%(22/25) of the total case 3. The serotypes of 120 Salmonella isolates were identified as 7 strains(5.8%) of S pullorum, 10 strains(8.4%) of S typhimurium and 103 strains(85.8%) of S gallinarum. 4. Most outbreak of fowl typhoid were prevalent on the layer chicken farms(77.1%), and the summer season(45.5%) also appeared the most hazardous season during the year. 5. It seemed that the Hyline breed(70.6%) was the most susceptible among the layer chicken breeds, and followed by Isabrown(23.5%), Tetra(5.9%) in order. 6. In layers, 76.4% of fowl typhoid occurred commonly from 14 to 40 weeks including the early laying peroid, but in broiler farms, all cases was outbreak within first second weeks. 7 All the strains of S pullorum were resistant to lincomycin(Lm), penicillin(Pm), and steptomycin(Sm), but sensitive to amikacin(Ak), ampicillin(Am), cephalothin(Ce), ciprofloxacin (CiP), chloramphenicol(Cm), colistin(Co), enrofloxacin(Enr), furazolidone(Fu), gentamicin(Gm), kanamycin(Km), neomycin(Nm), polymyxin(Po), and teracycline(Tc). All the strains of S typhimurium were resistant to Lm(100%), Pm(100%), Po(90%), and Sm(90%), but were sensitive to Ak, Am, Ce, CiP, Cm, Co, Enr, Fu, Gm, Km, Nm, and Tc. 8. Minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC) of 103 strains of S gallinarum were also evaluated and their patterns were much more variable than others. All the strains of S gallinarum were sensitive to Ak, Am, Ce, Cip, Cm, Enr, Fu, Km, and Nm, but resistant to Lm(100%), and Sm(100%), 99(96.1%) to Co, 83(80.6%) to Pm, and 83(80.6%) to Po, 55(53.4%) to Gm, and 33(32.0%) to Tc. 9. The multiple drug resistance patterns of 120 Salmonella strains were CoLmPmPo Sm pattern(34.2%), CoGmLmPmPoSmTc(20.8%), CoGmLmPmPoSm(13.3%), CoGmLmSm(7.5%), LmPmSm(7.5%), LmPm(6.7%), CoLmSmTc(3.3%),, CoGmLmSmTc(1.7%), GmLmSmTc(1.7%), CoGmLmPoSm(0.1%), LmPmPo(0.1%), CoLm Sm(0.1%), and LmSm(0.1%), in order.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.91-97
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• 2007

To evaluate the physiological status of laying flocks, the blood chemistry values were measured and analyzed in various ages under different feeding conditions. Total 671 birds from 48 Hyline brown hens flocks from 13 different poultry farms were bled at the ages of day(s) 1, 11, 21, 50, 80, 120, 180, 240, 300, 400, and 500. The 17 blood chemistries including glucose, lipids, proteins, enzymes, electrolytes and metabolic by-products were measured with an autoanalyzer. Blood glucose showed the highest at the hatching day not relate with the dietary carbohydrates and energy, but tended to decrease during the rest of growth stage in hens. Total blood protein, albumin and globulin increased depending on the ages even though dietary protein was decreased. Blood lipid was greatly changed at different growth stages. Cholesterol was the highest at hatching period and maintained consistently until the 120 days of age. It was increased in birds after 180 days of age. HDL was also highest in hatchery, but decreased greatly after 180 days of age. However, TG was the lowest at one day old, but was increased up to 10 times after 180 days of age compared to that of one day old. The enzyme activities were different. AST, ALT, and GGT showed comparatively contained consistently, whereas amylase was slowly decreased. Blood P, Na, K and Cl showed consistency, but Ca content was increased upto two times of the one day of age. The results from this study showed that the blood chemistry values were affected by the general metabolic status of the host with ages not by feeding conditions. Further, the standard data of age-dependent blood chemistry values in the laying flocks were obtained, which can be utilized for early detection of the changes in the physiological status occurred by the infectious or metabolic diseases. The results of these analyses seemed to be useful to increase the productivity of laying flocks through rapid and proper veterinary medical treatments.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2011

A case of aspergillosis in 39-day-old layer chickens having a history of gradual emaciation and subsequently death with nervous signs such as torticollis and lack of equilibrium was documented. Based on the results from serology and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, this flock was not affected with known viral or bacterial diseases. On postmortem examination of the affected birds, multiple white to yellow nodules measuring 1~5 mm in diameter were observed in the lungs, cerebrum, liver and kidney. Microscopically, these nodules were identified as granulomatous lesions characterized by mixed population of multinucleated giant cells and lymphocytes. By periodic acid-schiff staining and nucleotide sequencing analysis, Aspergillus flavus with characteristic septate and branched hyphae were identified in the granuloma of lung and cerebrum. This case was a chronic and multisystemic aspergillosis specialized to central nervous system caused by Aspergillus flavus infection in the layer flocks.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.361-372
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• 2010

Serological evaluation for the poultry is important for various reasons, such as designing and assessing the vaccination program and diagnosing diseases and for this reason, serologic tests for the layer flocks have been conducted on a regular basis. Moreover, the nationwide serological survey and analysis are essential to understand the epidemiological status of national poultry industry. In this sense, the study was conducted to evaluate the immune status of the layer flocks with the sera submitted to Avian Disease Laboratory, Chungbuk National University in 2009, and several important viral diseases were selected for evaluation including low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI), Newcastle disease (ND), infectious bronchitis (IB) and avian metapneumovirus (aMPV). For LPAI and ND, the age-related patterns of geometric mean titer (GMT) changes were similar but there were differences in the flock positive rate and the level of GMT due to the different vaccination policy. In the case of IB, the values of GMT showed that the field infection was more prevalent than expected. For aMPV, positive birds in a flock increased as the layers got older, which reflected the course of field infection because vaccination against aMPV was not allowed in 2009. From this study, the immune status for the main viral diseases in layers became more clarified but this information was limited because of only one year study. Therefore, serological survey needs to be conducted on a yearly basis and furthermore include broilers and breeders for a better understanding of the health status in the national poultry industry.