Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris), breeder, eggshell color, hatchability. ABSTRACTThe objective of this study was to determine the effects of eggshell color of guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) eggs on eggshell quality and hatchery results.

The impacts of breeder age (32 and 55 weeks), egg storage time (2-12 days), setter ventilation program (control-test) on incubation and post-hatch performance of broilers were investigated in this study. Young (Y) and old (O) breeders' hatching eggs were incubated in two different setters operated by two different ventilation programs as control (C) and test (T). Incubation took place after a short (S) and long (L) time of storage in this study. According to the trial design, eight treatment groups were as YSC, YST, YLC, YLT, OSC, OST, OLC and OLT. In total 9600 eggs and 6400 chicks were used. Early stage embryonic mortality (ED) rates were lower and accordingly hatchability of fertile eggs (HF) were higher (p<0.05) in YS than the other treatment groups. In contrast, incubation performance in eggs hatched in C and T programs were found to be similar. However, interaction between treatments were significant (p<0.05) and ED and HF were significantly (p<0.05) improved at OC. Liveability in growing period was affected (p<0.05) by breeder age but it wasn't affected by storage time and incubation program. Higher post-hatch performance was achieved in chicks of OST but differences between groups weren't significant except for chick weights in comparison by breeder age. However, interactions between treatments were significant (p<0.05) and reached the highest post-hatch performance in YST (p<0.05). In conclusion, the long time storage of old breeders' eggs improved incubation and posthatch performance when they were incubated at test program.

Abstract. In this study, the effects of using soy oil (SO), poultry fat (PF) and tallow (T) in broiler feed at fixed energy : protein ratio on field and slaughter parameters were evaluated. The average live weight (ALW), feed conversion ratio (FCR), production efficiency factor (PEF) and mortality were investigated as field performance parameters; carcass weight (CW), carcass yield (CY), heart–liver weight (HLW), heart–liver yield (HLY), abdominal fat weight (AFW) and abdominal fat yield (AFY) were investigated as slaughter performance parameters. The experiment was performed in accordance with animal welfare legislation of Turkey and continued for 41 d. It was conducted with a total of 12 600 Ross 308 broiler chicks from Ross 308 strain middle-aged (36 weeks) broiler breeders. Ten different diets in which SO in starter; SO, PF and T in grower and single; or equal mixing of them (SO + PF, SO + T, PF + T) in finisher were used. When animal fat (PF and T) was used instead of SO, especially in grower feed, the field performance parameters improved except for mortality (P<0.05). This situation was not seen in slaughter performance parameters except for CW, HLW and HLY (P>0.05). However, it was found that sex affected slaughter performance parameters except for CY and AFW; higher CW and HLW and lower AFY and HLY were observed due to higher CW in male broilers (P<0.05). In addition, the interactions between the type of the fat and sex were not found to be significant except for CW and CY (P>0.05). At the end of the study, it was seen that if certain ratios are not exceeded, the use of animal fat instead of SO may be a good and economic alternative. Such an arrangement, which can be made depending on oil and fat prices, can reduce the feed cost, which is a more important result in terms of large integrations.

Background: The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of Hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha) and physical activity. We studied its effect on penicillin induced epilepsy. in gerbils. Materal and Methods: Epilepsy was induced by administration of peniciline G (500 IU, ip). The gerbils were divided randomly in four groups (6 animals per each group) and studied as described below: 1) Control group 2) Exercise group (30 min/each day for 8 weeks) (Eg) 3) Extract group, 50mg/kg/day/animal in 1 ml saline, 3 h prior to exercise (Exe) 4) Exercise+Extract + (Exe+Ex). The severity of epilepsy was observed and recorded. Results: The means of latencies (Mean±SE) were 236±45, 369±36, 386±58 and 433±37 ms in groups of control, Exe, Ex, and Exe+Ex respectively. The mean spike latency significantly (P=0,033 F=3,560) decreased in Exe, Ex and Exe+Ex when compared control. Although spike frequency significantly (P<0.05) diminished in groups of Exe and Ex, no significant decrease was observed in control and Exe+Ex. Similar trend was seen for amplitude values. Spike amplitude values were determined to be significantly (P<0.05) lower than those of control and Exe+Ex. Conclusion: Crataegus oxyacantha extract has shown positive affect to ameliorate on some seizure parameters in this study. However, further more advanced physiologic and neurochemical studies are required to determine the mechanisms involved.

The effects of incubator carbon dioxide ( CO 2 ) and oxygen ( O 2 ) concentrations with parental stock age ( PSA ) on embryonic deaths ( ED ), hatchability of fertile eggs ( HFE ), some blood parameters, and the tissue development of broilers were investigated. Four consecutive repetitions following the similar materials and methods were carried. From 3 different aged ROSS 308 broiler parental flocks 7,680 hatching eggs were obtained and classified as young (Y; 29 wk), middle (M; 37 wk) and old (O; 55 wk) as regards PSA, and randomly distributed. Four different incubator ventilation programs ( IVP ) as control ( C ; 0.67% CO 2 and 20.33% O 2 ), high CO 2 ( HC ; 1.57% CO 2 and 20.26% O 2 ), high O 2 ( HO ; 0.50% CO 2 and 21.16% O 2 ), and high CO 2 + O 2 ( HCO ; 1.17% CO 2 21.03% O 2 ) were applied with oxygen concentrator, and ED and HFE were investigated. Lung and heart tissues, hemoglobin value, packed cell volume, and red blood cell count, triiodothyronine, thyroxine, adrenocorticotropic hormone ( ACTH ) values of the chicks were analyzed. It was found that IVP affected ED and HFE. Higher rate of early ED ( EED ) was obtained from the HC than HCO, and higher middle+late stage+pipped but unhatched ED ( MLPED ) with a lower rate of HFE was observed in the C group than HO and HCO ( P < 0.05). Association was found between PSA and IVP ( P < 0.05), being more evident in EED for young PSA, in MLPED with HFE for Y and O PSA. From hematological values, no statistical difference in RBC, PCV, and Hb values were found among the treatment groups, ACTH concentration known as a response to stress was found to be higher than C in all groups, triiodothyronine concentration was higher in the HO group than C. In the histopathological examination, used IVPs were found to have negative effects on the lung and heart such as vacuolization, hemorrhage in all PSA groups except for C. Conclusively, PSA and IVP affected some hatching, blood and tissue development parameters of the broiler chicks.

________________________________________________________________________________ AbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate the effect of thermal conditioning of broiler chickens during embryonic development on subsequent performance under standard rearing conditions. During incubation eggs from 32-, 45-and 56-week old Ross 308 broiler parent stock were subjected to a 2 h heat shock of 39 °C on days 14 and 15 of incubation. Eggs in the control were incubated throughout incubation at 37 °C. Chicks were feather sexed and equal numbers of each sex were placed in each pen per treatment, and reared for 42 days. Live weight, mortality and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were used as measures of performance. The final (six-week) live weights of broilers from young, mid and older parents for the treatment and control groups were 2113 ± 13.8 vs. 2159 ± 20.0, 2084 ± 29.2 vs. 2139 ± 20.0 and 2096 ± 17.6 vs. 2131 ± 24.3 g, respectively. The six-week live weight of the heat-treated group (2098 ± 12.0 g) was significantly lower than that of the control (2143 ± 12.2 g). The 1-6 week mortality figure was significantly lower in the heat-treated group of chickens from the young (83) and mid parent (77) groups compared to their controls (130 and 119), respectively. However, in the treatment group the incidence of mortality in broilers from the older parent group was significantly higher (105) than that of the control (79). The overall mortality without considering the parent age group was significantly lower in the treatment group (265) than in the control group (328). Mean FCR (g feed/g gain) of the chickens of the three parent groups was 1.79 ± 0.02 vs. 1.75 ± 0.03, 1.85 ± 0.03 vs. 1.77 ± 0.02 and 1.80 ± 0.03 vs. 1.77 ± 0.03 for the treatment vs. control groups, respectively, but the difference was significant only in the mid age parent group. These results suggest that prenatal thermal conditioning is not detrimental to broiler growth under standard rearing conditions in the absence of thermal stress. However, survival rate was improved but live weight and FCR were in some cases significantly poorer. ________________________________________________________________________________

This study investigated the effects of incubator carbon dioxide (CO 2) and oxygen (O 2) levels, and egg weight (EW) on embryo mortality (EM) and hatchability of fertile eggs (HFE). A total of 1920 hatching eggs were obtained from a middle-aged (41 weeks) ROSS 308 broiler breeder flock. The eggs were classified according to EW as heavy (69.63 ± 0.09 g), medium (65.20 ± 0.04 g) and light (61.11 ± 0.08 g) and randomly allocated to four separate identical incubators. To these incubators, four different incubator ventilation programmes (IVP) classified as control (C; 0.7% CO 2 and 20.9% O 2), high CO 2 (HC; 1.1% CO 2 and 20.3% O 2), high O 2 (HO; 0.6% CO 2 and 22.0% O 2), and high CO 2 + O 2 (HCO; 0.9% CO 2 21.0% O 2) were applied, and EM and HFE were examined. IVP affected EM and HFE; a higher rate of early EM and a lower rate of HFE were obtained from the HO group compared to the HCO group, and a lower rate of HFE was observed in the HO group than to the C group (p<0.05). An association was found between EW and IVP (p<0.05), being more evident in early EM for light eggs. Consequently, IVP; i.e., different CO 2 and O 2 levels in the incubator affected the hatching results. This is considered to be due to the altitude of the experiment (724m) and the uniform eggs being obtained from the same middle-aged flock, and incubator O 2 levels should be taken into consideration, as well as CO 2 .

The impacts of egg weight (EW), egg shell temperature (EST), egg position in the incubator (EP) and incubator ventilation program (IVP) on embryonic mortality (EM) and hatchability of fertile eggs (HFE) of broiler breeders were investigated in this study. EW was determined total 1920 hatching eggs which were obtained from middle aged (31 weeks) Ross 308 broiler breeders. These eggs were classified according to weight as heavy (65.52±0.08g), medium (61.47±0.04g) and light (57.56±0.08g) then were randomly set in trolleys of four identical incubators sorted as near the heather side – door side, humidifier side – opposite side and top – middle – bottom. In two incubators 37.78°C (100.0°F) EST and 38.06°C (100.5°F) EST were provided in the other two. Similarly, two machines were operated on classic IVP system and the other two were operated on new IVP system organised specially for this project during first 10 days of incubation. At the end of the hatching period, data including EM and HFE data were examined in eggs with different EST, EW and EP. It was found that EW and EST were affected to EM and HFE. Lower last stage + pipped but unhatched embryo rates and accordingly higher HFE were determined in eggs with 37.78°C (100.0°F) EST and light. However, differences between IVP and EP data were not significant.