Turkeys are seasonal breeders, meaning exposure to a long-day photoperiod triggers the reproductive response. The challenge is that the photoreceptors are deep within the brain. The light must therefore penetrate the skull and brain tissue to elicit a response. While photoperiod — that is, light duration measured in hours — has been the focus for turkey reproduction, there is increasing interest in light intensity and spectrum/color. “The turkey industry recommends very high light intensities — more than 100 watts — for breeder flocks, which is much greater than for other poultry sectors ..read more

A multistate salmonella outbreak in the US due to the consumption of contaminated turkey products spurred a joint effort between the Centers for Disease Control and the turkey industry to identify an untraditional serotype of Salmonella, S. enterica serotype Reading (S. Reading). “Although vertical transmission of the novel S. Reading turkey clonal group from breeders to progeny was suspected, there was no direct evidence to prove it,” says Li Zhang, PhD, a professor at Mississippi State University’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. To develop appropriate ..read more

Breeding birds for efficient cage-free production requires developing healthy hens that lay an egg every day for 100 weeks and possibly up to 200 weeks in the future, reported Sijne Van der Beek, PhD, chief technology officer, Lohmann Breeders, The Netherlands. “We demand more and more from the hen,” Van der Beek said. “The [cage-free] environment is challenging, and what we ask from the hen is challenging.” To help the layer industry manage the shift, genetics companies need to bring birds into a cage-free environment, collect data and select. They also need to find specific limiting traits ..read more

Merck Animal Health has entered into an agreement with Cambridge Technologies, an independent custom vaccine company based in Worthington, Minnesota, to sell and market its innovative autogenous poultry vaccines in the US. Cambridge Technologies uses cutting-edge molecular diagnostic and manufacturing techniques to develop custom vaccine solutions to help veterinarians and poultry producers manage emerging disease challenges. Through this agreement, Cambridge will contribute its production expertise and distribution, while Merck Animal Health will provide its expansive customer reach. “For thi ..read more

USDA’s Center for Veterinary Biologics has granted Huvepharma a conditional license for the manufacturing and sale of a new turkey coccidiosis vaccine. According to the company, the vaccine is the only USDA-approved vaccine with three strains of Eimeria, the protozoan species that causes coccidiosis. It is sprayed onto day-old turkey poults in the hatchery. “The vaccine contains the live oocysts of E. adenoeides, E. meleagrimitis and E. gallopavonis,” says Steven Clark, DVM, technical services manager at Huvepharma. “This allows for vaccination against all three highly pathogenic&nbs ..read more

Merck Animal Health has introduced FLOCKSECURE poultry health portal, an innovative web-based platform solution designed to capture, maintain, distribute and analyze data from post-mortem sessions. Designed for the broiler industry, FLOCKSECURE provides a seamless solution to collect post-mortem data and easily upload it into the web-based portal. The system has the capability to analyze and compare data across farms, complexes and within production companies to track health progress over time and identify trends, providing valuable insights for data-driven decision-making. “This new tool will ..read more

Waste byproducts from rearing insects commercially could play a role as a sustainable broiler feed, the results of research presented at the 2024 International Poultry Scientific Forum suggest. Scientists from Southern Poultry Feed & Research and EnviroFlight LLC tested a product made from the frass of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens), which includes digested feedstocks and the exoskeletons of the insect larvae which are rich in chitin. The feed contains roughly 20% protein and 6% fat. In two experiments with male Cobb 500 chicks, they investigated the effects of different inclusion r ..read more

By Daniel Wilson, DVM Wilson Veterinary Co. Indianapolis, Indiana (Second in a two-part series) For many decades, coccidiosis control was relatively easy for the commercial layer industry. Pullets and layers in cages limited the environmental conditions that coccidiosis favors. Although there were some housing styles or movement of birds that presented an opportunity for a coccidiosis challenge, fecal-oral exposure to coccidia was relatively limited. Unfortunately, this situation has been disrupted by changes in the industry. With consolidation has come larger farms as well as pullet houses, a ..read more

Without other stressors to skew results, altering stocking density (SD) within common ranges does not affect the well-being of layer chicks being transported from hatcheries to pullet-rearing operations, according to results of a field trial conducted by University of Saskatchewan researchers. However, reducing SD increased temperature variability in the transport boxes, which can affect chick thermoregulation and further stress chicks in transport, researchers reported in Applied Poultry Research. Stocking density recommendations Animal-welfare organizations have raised concerns about SD of l ..read more

By Bethany Baker-Cook, PhD, Auburn University What is litter? Litter and its management are an essential part of bird management and ensuring bird welfare. This goes for broilers, turkeys, or laying hens kept on litter floors. Litter is a combination of the bedding used within a house combined with the excreta from the birds. Good quality litter provides birds with a comfortable place to rest and perform natural behaviors. Litter has multiple functions, including absorbing excess moisture from excreta and the environment, diluting fecal material, reducing bird contact with the feces, neutraliz ..read more