• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.83-90
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• 2003

This study was conducted to determine the effects of stocking density on performance and physiological responses of egg-type breeder layers in cages. A total of 264 Hy-Line Brown egg-type breeder layers at the age of 32 weeks were divided into 4 groups with 3 replicates of 22 birds (20 females, 2 males) per replicate and assigned to four stocking density treatments with 22 birds per cage with different sizes (980, 735, 640 and 560 $\textrm{cm}^2$/bird). The birds were fed the same experimental diet ad libitum for 12 weeks, and laying performance, egg and eggshell qualities, fertility and hatchability were determined. At the end of the experimental period, 9 birds were selected in each treatment in order to measure the scores of plumage condition. Antibody titers to Newcastle disease and infectious bronchitis were also determined. No significant differences were observed in laying performances, eggshell strength, Haugh unit, fertility and hatchability among the treatments. In birds housed 640 $\textrm{cm}^2$ per bird, eggshell thickness were significantly lower (P<0.05) than those of the other groups from 7 to 12 weeks. There was no significant difference in antibody titers to Newcastle disease. In birds housed 980 $\textrm{cm}^2$ per bird, antibody titers to infectious bronchitis were significantly (P<0.05) higher than those of the other groups. With increase in the level of stocking density, the scores of plumage condition were also significantly decreased (P<0.01). This study demonstrated that moderate increment of stocking density did not resulted in reduction in laying-performances of egg-type breeder layers. However, it seemed that the higher stocking density might give more stress to the birds from physical stimuli and thus were harmful environment causing higher mortalities compared to the lower ones.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.464-473
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• 2008

Winter migratory birds gather in paddy rice fields to feed shed rice grains. The Korean Ministry of Environment has practiced a policy program Contract on Paddy Field Management (CPFM) during winter fallow since 2002. This program starts with a contract between local governments and farmers, and the government pays a differential subsidy to farmers who finish spreading rice straw, cultivating barley, letting the whole rice plant without harvest, and submerging paddy fields for winter migratory birds. As more local governments have operated CPFM program, the total area on the contract and subsidy budget has increased yearly since 2002. This program could have its stable position as a successful policy by giving profits to farmers. With the program extended, the population of winter migratory birds has been greatly. For the evaluation of environmental performance of a policy, we analyzed this CPFM program by introducing some indicators in the form of Driving Force-State-Response Framework. The indicators were composed of 3 categorized indicators; the area of paddy land contracted under this program as 'driving force' indicator, population of birds, the number of bird species and the amount of feces as 'state' indicators, and the size of monetary support, the number of farmers or local governments participating, and public perception as 'response' indicators. The contract area of paddy field under CPFM could be a good biodiversity indicator reflecting potential performance of this policy measure in the light of its linkage to the population of winter migratory birds. And the share of CPFM land of the whole agricultural land might also be used as a useful indicator of policy evaluation for improvement of wildlife diversity. The 'state' indicators such as population of birds and the number of bird species could be matched to 'driving force' indicator, but the total CPFM area of each site could not reflect the effect of areas under different management practices. However, the amount of bird feces could reflect differences in environmental performance with management practices as 'state' indicators. The development of indicators indicating 'response' such as farmers' behavior, public perception, and policy makers' willingness is also needed to support a successful implementation and improvement of this policy measure with the development of 'performance' indicators integrating all these indicators.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.67-71
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• 2006

A total of 120 male and 240 female quail (Coturnix coturnix Pharaoh) were used to determine the effect of feeding time on laying and reproductive performance of Pharaoh quail. They were fed ad libitum between 09:00 to 17:00 or full day, daily. Each female-male pair was housed in multiple-bird cages and colony cages. Initial and final body weight, quail-day egg production, feed consumption per egg and mortality were measured to determine laying performance of breeders. A total of 960 eggs were used to determine reproductive performance of quail in each treatment group. Eggs were incubated in a commercial setter and hatcher in standard conditions. Embryonic mortality, apparent fertility, hatchability of total and fertile eggs were calculated to determine the reproductive performance. Results indicated that feeding between 09:00 to 17:00 h reduced final body weight and egg production (p<0.001, p<0.001). Whereas, limited time of feeding improved hatchability of total (p<0.001) and fertile eggs (p<0.001) and reduced embryonic mortality (p<0.001) when compared with the effects of feeding full day. It was found that there were no significant differences for the egg production of quail housed in different cage systems. Quail caged in multiple-bird cages consumed less feed (p<0.01) compared to quail housed in colony cages. There were significant differences for the mortality (p<0.05), hatchability of total (p<0.001) and fertile eggs (p<0.001), and embryonic mortality (p<0.001) during the incubation due to main effect of cage systems. There were significant cage $systems{\times}feeding$ time interactions for hatchability of total and fertile eggs and embryonic mortality (p<0.001). As a conclusion; feeding from 09:00 to 17:00 reduced laying performance of quail and improved the reproductive traits compared to full day feeding of quail breeders. But, further investigations are needed to determine the optimum length of feeding time and egg production of breeders in quail fed limited time must be evaluated in comparison with its beneficial or detrimental effects.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.159-164
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• 1992

The present study was done to examine whether inoculated and established bacteria in the digestive tract of germ-free (GF) chickens affect growth performance, energy availability, nitrogen utilization and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) digestibility of the host bird fed a high-fibre diet. Gnotobiotic (GB) chicks were made from GF birds by co-inoculating with Ruminococcus albus, and Staphylococcus warneri, only the latter of which was established in the chicken gut. No difference was detected among conventional (CV), GF and GB birds in body weight gain, food intake or food efficiency from 7 to 21 d of age. The amount of nitrogen retained was larger in CV than in GF and GB chicks. DE and ME values of the diet and NDF digestibility were higher in CV birds than in GF and GB counterparts. It was concluded, therefore, that the established bacterium S. warneri did not give any beneficial effects on the host bird as judged by growth performance, energy availability, nitrogen utilization, and NDF digestibility.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.87-97
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• 2019

Phytate induced excessive mineral excretion through poultry litter leads to poor performance and environmental pollution. Exogenous microbial phytase supplementation to poultry diets reduce the environmental excretion of nutrient and improve bird's performance. However, excessive dietary sodium (Na) level may hinder the phytase-mediated phytate hydrolysis and negate the beneficial effects of phytase. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of different concentration dietary Na on phytase activity and subsequent impact on broiler performance, bone mineralisation and nutrient utilisation. In this study, six experimental diets, consisting of three different levels of Na (1.5, 2.5, or 3.5 g/kg) and two levels of microbial phytase (0 or 500 U/kg) were formulated by using $3{\times}2$ factorial design. The six experimental diets were offered to 360 day-old Ross 306 male chicks for 35 days, where, each experimental diet consisted of 6 replicates groups with 10 birds. Along with growth performance, nutrient utilization, intestinal enzyme activity, dry matter (DM) content of litter and mineral status in bone were analysed. Dietary Na and phytase had no effect on bode weight gain and feed intake. Birds on the low Na diet showed higher (p < 0.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR) than the mid-Na diets. High dietary Na adversely affected (p < 0.001) excreta DM content. Phytase supplementation to the high-Na diet increased (p < 0.01) the litter ammonia content. High dietary Na with phytase supplementation improved ($Na{\times}phytase$, p < 0.05) the AME value and ileal digestibility of Ca and Mg. The total tract retention of Ca, P, and Mg was reduced with high Na diet, which was counteracted by phytase supplementation ($Na{\times}phytase$, p < 0.001). The diets containing mid-level of Na improved (p < 0.001) the function of Na-K-ATPase and Mg-ATPase in the jejunum. The overall results indicate that high dietary Na did not affect phytase activity but influenced the nutrient utilization of birds, which was not reflected in bird overall performance.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.441-446
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• 2008

This study was conducted to determine the effect of heat stress on laying hen performance during summer. A total of 180 Hyline-brown layers, 98 days of age, were housed in a enclosed house. The daily maximum temperature in the house was ranged $26{\sim}36^{\circ}C$. The egg production was markedly fallen than other days when daily maximum temperature in the layer house became more than $33^{\circ}C$. As water intake and feed intake increased to $490\;mL\;bird^{-1}\;day^{-1}$ and $240\;g\;bird^{-1}\;day^{-1}$, the egg production soared. But it was hardly increased more than them. Based on these results, layer house roof should be amply insulated to improve the egg production of layers. If not insulated, the shade curtain should be installed above roof and cool water sprayed before and after 2 p.m. And layers should be provided cool drinking water of about $15^{\circ}C$ in the day time.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.273-283
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• 2018

Two diet energy levels (high or low) and two bedding material (rice husk or saw dust) treatments were designed for either male or female slow-growing Korean meat-type chicken (Hanhyop 3) to make totally eight treatments for 11~75 d feeding trial. Body weight gain (BWG) were influenced by energy levels, sex of bird and bedding material type. There were interaction effect among those three factors. Feed intakes (FI) by male bird during each and overall periods were higher than those by female. Diet energy levels and bedding material affected the FI only during final 56~75 d period, of which FI of high energy diet was higher in male whereas that of low energy diet was higher in female. Although feed conversion ratio (FCR) was improved by high energy diet, the better FCR has dissipated during 41~75 d, when the most of overall BWG were achieved. Apparent total tract retention (ATTR) of nutrients were higher in male than those in female birds with exception on fat ATTR. Fat ATTR was improved when fed low energy diet regardless of the sex of birds. Both energy levels and sex of bird influenced the color of breast. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) value of female thigh was higher than that of male. Levels of moisture and P in female thigh were lower although level of fat in female breast was higher than those in male, respectively. This study showed that diet energy levels for Hanhyop 3 chicken, especially during 41~75 d, should be differently formulated between male and female bird.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.86-96
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• 2010

In this paper, we propose stereo vision-based obstacle detection and vehicle verification methods using U-disparity map and bird's-eye view mapping. First, we extract a road feature using maximum frequent values in each row and column. And we extract obstacle areas on the road using the extracted road feature. To extract obstacle areas exactly we utilize U-disparity map. We can extract obstacle areas exactly on the U-disparity map using threshold value which consists of disparity value and camera parameter. But there are still multiple obstacles in the extracted obstacle areas. Thus, we perform another processing, namely segmentation. We convert the extracted obstacle areas into a bird's-eye view using camera modeling and parameters. We can segment obstacle areas on the bird's-eye view robustly because obstacles are represented on it according to ranges. Finally, we verify the obstacles whether those are vehicles or not using various vehicle features, namely road contacting, constant horizontal length, aspect ratio and texture information. We conduct experiments to prove the performance of our proposed algorithms in real traffic situations.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1501-1509
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• 2003

The simultaneous addition of xylanase (5,600 EXU/kg) and phytase (500 FTU/kg) feed enzymes to wheat-based broiler diets was investigated. Starter, grower and finisher diets, with three tiers of nutrient specifications, were fed to 1,440 broiler chicks kept on deep litter from 1-42 days post-hatch, without and with xylanase plus phytase, to determine the effects of diet type and enzyme supplementation on growth performance. The nutrient specifications of type A diets were standard; energy density and protein/amino acid levels were reduced on a least-cost basis to formulate type B diets and further reduced to type C diets. Phosphorus (P) and calcium (Ca) levels were adjusted in supplemented diets. From 1-42 days post-hatch, diet type significantly influenced growth performance. Birds on type C diets had lower growth rates (2,429 vs. 2,631 g/bird; p<0.001), higher feed intakes (4,753 vs. 4,534 g/bird; p<0.005) and less efficient feed conversion (1.96 vs. 1.72; p<0.001) than birds offered type A diets. Enzyme supplementation increased growth rates by 3.2% (2,580 vs. 2,501 g/bird; p<0.005) and improved feed efficiency by 2.7% (1.80 vs. 1.85; p<0.05) over the entire feeding period. There were no interactions between diet type and enzyme supplementation. At 21 days, 5 out of 30 birds per pen were transferred to cages to ascertain treatment effect on apparent metabolisable energy (AME) and nitrogen (N) retention. Xylanase plus phytase enhanced AME (13.48 to 13.91 MJ/kg DM; p<0.001) and N retention (56.3 to 59.7%; p<0.005). Carcass and breast weights of the caged birds were determined following commercial processing. Diet type significantly influenced breast weight, carcass weight and yield. Birds offered Type A diets, in comparison to Type C diets, supported heavier breast (467 vs. 424 g; p<0.001) and carcass weights (1,868 vs. 1,699 g; p<0.001) with superior carcass yields (71.8 vs. 70.6%; p<0.005). Enzyme addition increased carcass weight by 3.9% (1,752 vs. 1,821 g; p<0.005) and breast weight by 5.8% (431 vs. 456 g; p<0.01) without influencing yields. Feed ingredient costs per kg live weight gain and per kg carcass weight indicated that enzyme addition was economically feasible, where supplementation of Type A diets generated the most effective results. Importantly, soluble and total non-starch polysaccharide and phytate contents of the wheat used were typical by local standards. This study confirms the potential of supplementing wheat-based broiler diets with xylanase plus phytase but further investigations are required to define the most appropriate inclusion rates and dietary nutrient specifications in this context.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.974-980
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• 2014

In semi-arid areas of Southern Africa, dehydration can compromise the performance and welfare of local chickens, particularly during the growing period when confinement is curtailed and birds are left to scavenge for feed and water. The effect of water restriction on the growth performance was compared in Naked Neck (NNK) and Ovambo (OVB) chickens that are predominant in Southern Africa. A total of 54 eight-wk-old pullets each of NNK and OVB chickens with an initial average weight of $641{\pm}10g/bird$ were randomly assigned to three water intake treatments, each having six birds for 8 wk. The water restriction treatments were ad libitum, 70% of ad libitum and 40% of ad libitum intake. Nine experimental pens with a floor space of $3.3m^2$ per strain were used. The pens were housed in an open-sided house with cement floor deep littered with a 20 cm layer of untreated wood shavings. Feed was provided ad libitum. Average daily water intake (ADWI), BW at 16 weeks of age (FBW), ADG, ADFI, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and water to feed ratios (WFR) were determined. Ovambo chickens had superior (p<0.05) FBW, ADG and ADWI than NNK chickens. Body weight of birds at 16 weeks of age, ADG, ADFI, ADWI, and WFR declined progressively (p<0.05) with increasing severity of water restriction while FCR values increased (p<0.05) as the severity of water restriction increased. Naked Neck chickens had better FCR at the 40% of ad libitum water intake level than Ovambo chickens. The dressing percentage per bird was higher in water restricted birds than those on ad libitum water consumption, irrespective of strain. Heart weight was significantly lower in birds on 40% of ad libitum water intake than those on ad libitum and 70% of ad libitum water intake, respectively. In conclusion, NNK chickens performed better than OVB chickens under conditions of water restriction and would be ideal to raise for meat and egg production in locations where water shortages are a major challenge.