• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.405-410
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• 2005

To analyze and identify selected risk factors for infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) infection in the growing and laying period of laying-hen flocks, a longitudinal field study was conducted with 27 commercial flocks reared in three provinces of Korea during the period from May 2003 to April 2004. Using monitored data for IBV infection status among study flocks we computed the multivariate odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding confidence intervals (CIs), and population attributable risks (PARs). Multivariate logistic regression showed significant risk increments for: continuous entry of chick (OR=1.9, 95% CI, 0.7-69.1) and operation years of the layer house greater than or equal to 5 years (OR=3.2, 95%CI, 1.6-389.9). No significant interaction was found between variables. The PAR suggested that continuous entry of chick (PAR=32%) and ${\geq}5years$ of house operation (PAR=84%) had the highest impacts on IB presence in laying-hen flocks under study. Of the two significant factors, however, operation year of the layer house lacks an easy applicability in preventing IB control strategies, and the possibility of confounder cannot be ruled out.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 1983

In an effort to understand epizootiological aspects of infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT), a total of 56 chicken flocks in six farms comprised of 35 broiler breeder, 13 commercial layer and 6 layer breeder flocks. were investigated. The farms experienced ILT during the period of one year from June, 1982. In most farms the birds were vaccinated against ILT just before or after the disease outbreak. In two of the farms in which ILT broke out in winter, it was possible to contain the disease in only one or two fleets without transmitting it to the remaining 5 to 7 flocks in the farms by adopting strict isolation procedures for the affected flocks. In regarding inter- flock spreading speed, it took an average of 6 days for flocks rearing on floor and 11 days for those in cages. Among the flecks in rearing cages. transmission among laying flocks was much faster. taking an average of 8 days, compared to non-laying flocks of 17 days, suggesting spreading of the disease by means of egg trays or egg collection process. Peak mortality was observed between 5 and 10 days after from the time of appearance of first dead birds from the disease and the period of mortality, with an average of 18 days, was not influenced by rearing systems, breeds and age of birds. Mortalities in the affected flocks ranged from lo/e to 19.8%, with an average of 6.5 %, and was also not influenced by the above variables except significantly lower mortality in immature broiler breeder flocks (2.9%) compared to immature layer (11.8%) and mature broiler breeder flocks (6.9%). In one breeder farm in which all the birds were kept on floor and ILT broke out in summer, mortality in male birds in all seven flocks of 37 weeks of age or older was as high as twice of that in female birds in the same flocks. This trend was not observed in one 31 weeks old flock and was reversed in another 14 weeks old flock in the farm.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.263-269
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• 2000

This study was carried out to set a standard of damage compensation by researching state of damage due to noises in laying and prelaying hens. Recently, there are many damage cases in chicken farms near construction site that were caused by noises of construction. Therefore disputes and complaints about economical loss have increased ceaselessly. But we have few research and report such a thing. The result have shown that the weight loss rate was ranged from 9.48% to 23.2% and mortality of laying period of hens was higher than prelaying period. Pathological findings were fatty liver, congestion and hemorrhage of intestine, erosion of proventriculus and gizzard in order of case frequency. And these signs in hens of laying period was more serious than prelaying period. Half-life rate of antibody titers against Newcastle disease and infectious bronchitis in sound stressed hens was no different compared with non-stressed hens. Egg production rate dropped from 38% to 45% according to strength of noises. Before being stressed, hens produced special, large, middle, small-size eggs in the order. But after being stressed, their egg Production rate of middle, small-size Increased while egg production rate of special, large-size decreased. Production rate of soft and broken shell eggs was 0.015% in the stressed flocks higher than 0.005% in the non-stressed flocks.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 1979

The present study was undertaken to observe the immune status of breeding hens and laying hens against Newcastle disease (ND). The methods of extraction of hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibody from egg yolk, the detection of HI antibody in egg albumen and the correlation between HI antibody titers in maternal sera and egg yolks were discussed. For the purposes of these experiments, 9 flocks of breeding hens and 16 flocks of laying hens immunized against Newcastle disease virus were investigated. The vaccination program of tested flocks was 3-3-3 or 4-4-4 in general. The results obtained are summerized as follows: Freezing-thawing was the best method far antibody extraction from egg yolk for HI test. The HI antibody against NDV was found in egg albumen (geometric mean, 4.5), but lower than that found in egg yolk (32.1). The geometric mean of HI antibody titers of egg yolks (84.1) was higher than that of maternal sera (68.4) and day-old chicken sera (25.3). There was correlation between HI antibody titers of maternal sera(Y) and those of egg yolks(X). The coefficient correlation was r=0.63, and the line of regression of Y on X was $\hat{Y}$=35.91+0.35X.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2003

Avian pneumoviros(APV), also known as avian rhinotracheitis virus(ARTV), affects both turkeys and chickens and is known to be the primary causative agent of turkey rhinotracheitis (TRT). The aim of this study was to establish the presence or absence of antibodies to avian pneumovirus in the commercial poultry population of Korea. For this purpose, chicken serum samples were obtained and tested by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The tested serum was collected in laying hens with reduction of egg production or normal in Gyeongbuk province. A total of 184 sera representing 42 different poultry farms of the Gyeongbuk region of Korea were included in this study. Laying hens of 16 different farms with reduction of egg production and laying hens of 26 different farms with clinically healthy at the time of serum sampling were considered positive to antibody against APV. In the farms with reduction of egg production, positive farm to antibody against avian pneumovirus were 11 of 16 different farms(68.8%) and positive sera were 47(58.8%) of 80 different serum. In the farms with clinically healthy flock, positive farm to antibody against avian pneumovirus were 12(46.2%) of 26 different farms and positive serum sample were 39(37.5%) of 104 different sera. According to the results tested to 42 different farms in 14 city, 8 of 14 city have flocks with antibody positive laying hens against APV, 1 of 14 city have antibody suspicious and 5 of 14 city shown antibody negative, respectively.

• 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 Veterinary Research
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.193-199
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• 2018

As animal welfare issue becomes important, the European Union bans conventional cages for laying hens from 2012. So the alternative housing systems like floor pens, aviaries or free range systems have been suggested. From 2011 to 2014, we monitored 20 welfare-oriented laying hen farms in South Korea to figure out serological status of major viral diseases. During this period, total 3,219 blood samples were collected from the randomly selected chickens to test and evaluate the hemagglutination inhibition titers for low pathogenic avian influenza, Newcastle disease and egg drop syndrome '76. A total of 2,926 blood samples were tested through enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to assess the serological status of infectious bronchitis (IB). The distribution of ELISA titers for IB was various from almost 0 to 20,000 through the all weeks of age. Also, the antibody coefficient of variation for most of the diseases in this study was higher than those of typical cage layers. As this study was the first surveillance for major avian viral diseases of the animal welfare-oriented farms in South Korea, the results obtained from this study will help to determine what information and resources are needed to maintain better biosecurity and to improve the health and welfare of laying hen flocks.

• 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.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.11 no.1
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• pp.49-64
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• 1984

During the 1978-79 Newcastle disease (ND) epizootic period, a detailed survey was conducted on the five representative farms which had been following one of the recommended vaccination programs. When the disease broke out during laying period, clinical symptoms were mild to moderate respiratory distress and greenish diarrhea. Affected flocks experienced weekly mortality from less than 1% to 17%. Egg production returned to normal 18 to 36 days after the initial signs appeared although some flocks never returned to normal. On postmortem examination,, most affected chickens showed severe hemorrhagic lesions in the duodenum, hematoma on ova, and heavy fat accmulation on various visceral organs. Most of the NO affected flocks had geometric mean hemagglutination inhibition antibody(HIA) titers of 7 log$_2$ or higher two to three weeks after the appearance of clinical signs. These HIA titers were at least 16-fold higher than those before infection. Flock mean HIA titers before infection were usually lower than 3 log$_2$. Severity of clinical signs and anamnestic antibody response were maximum in the flocks whose vaccination immunity was insufficient or waned considerably. Observations showed that even young birds, if properly vaccinated, could get effective protection from field ND exposure.