• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.465-469
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• 1996

Pathological and virological investigations were conducted on suspected outbreaks of infectious bursal disease (IBD) in a broiler farm and five pullet-raising poultry farms of Mymensingh and Tangail districts of Bangladesh. About 80 to 100 percent chicks were affected at the age of 26 to 45 days and mortality varied from 20 to 30 percent in broilers and 40 to 80 percent in layer chicks. Signs, symptoms, gross and microscopic lesions were typical of acute IBD. Several isolates of virus could be obtained by embryo inoculation and the virus was diagnosed as infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) by agar gel immunodiffusion test (AGID). The virus isolate belonged to the very virulent pathotype of IBDV causing 100 percent mortality in three weeks old chicks on experimental infection.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Poultry Science Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.97-98
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• 2003

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of restricted feeding to pullet on growth and laying Performance, egg qualify and endocrine Profile in brown layers. 1,080 brown-layer chicks divided to three diet treatments, conventional diet and two restricted diets, for 70 weeks. Conventional diets(C) was formulated by NRC recommendation, and one of restricted diet started from seven to seventeen week of age(T1), and another started from twelve to seventeen(T2) with adjusted eighty percentage amount of conventional diet. Body weight decreased with starting restriction of feeding comparing to the C(P＜0.05), but reached to similar weight in all treatments at twenty week regardless restriction. All of birds started to lay egg around 1,400 to 1,450gram of body weight though the age was in order of C, T2 and T1. Overall e99 Production was the highest in T1 (P＜0.05) and there were not difference in C and T2. Average egg weight also showed similar to the tendency of egg production. Feed intake was higher in T1 during maximum production(P＜0.05), but there were not difference in all treatments after the peak. Overall feed conversion ratio improved in T1 compared to C and T1(p＜0.05). Restriction feeding in rearing period could be beneficial to improve egg productivity and to decrease feed cost.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 1995

To investigate the response of egg production to the artificial light to induce early egg laying. and the changes of egg weight and egg shape during the egg laying cycle, 30 Korean ring-necked pullets and their 1,284 eggs layed under artificial light control were used in this study. The first egg was ohserved at the age of 31 wk, after 4 wk of stimulating light(16 hour light: 8 hour dark). Egg production rate during seven 2-wk periods from the begining of the first egg was 43.7% and a clear peak egg production(61.7%) was shown at the 4th 2-wk period. The effects of egg production period and pullet on the egg weight, egg length, egg width and egg shape index(width/length) were significant(P<0.01). In the egg production cycle. egg weight, egg length and egg width increased steadly with time. but the value of egg shape index increased up to the 3rd 2-wk period and then decreased. Repeatabilities from intraclass correlation for the egg weight, egg length. egg width and egg shape index were 0.61. 0.53, 0.49 and 0.48, respectively.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.8-12
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• 2005

Response in a modified reciprocal recurrent selection scheme for egg production was evaluated considering variable family sizes and genetic correlation between purebred and crossbred half sisters. The criteria of selection of purebred breeders included pullet's own performance, purebred full and half sisters and crossbred half sister's performance. Heritability of egg production of crossbreds (aggregate genotype) and purebred's was assumed to be 0.2 and genetic correlation between purebred and crossbred half sisters ($r_{pc}$) as 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 1.0, -0.1, -0.2, -0.3, -0.4, -0.5 and -1.0. Number of dams per sire to produce purebred and crossbred progenies assumed to be 5, 6, 7, 8, while number of purebred female progeny ($N_p$) and crossbred progeny ($N_c$) per dam were considered to be 3, 4, 5 and 6 in each case. Considering phenotypic variance as unity, selection indices were constructed for different combinations of dams and progeny for each value of $r_{pc}$. Following selection index theory, response in crossbred and purebred for egg production was computed. Results indicated that response in crossbreds depended mainly on crossbred family size and also on magnitude of$r_{pc}$ irrespective of its direction, and response was greater with large crossbred family size than the purebred families. Correlated response in purebreds depends both on magnitude and direction of $r_{pc}$ and was expected to be greater with large purebred family size only. Inclusion of purebred information increased the accuracy of selection for crossbred response for higher magnitude of$r_{pc}$ irrespective of its direction. Present results indicate that desirable response in both crossbred and purebred performance is a function of $r_{pc}$ and family sizes. The ratio of crossbred and purebred family sizes can be optimized depending on the objective of improving the performance of crossbreds and/or of purebreds.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.67-73
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• 2013

With an increasing concern on laying hen welfare, barn system has appeared as one of the alternatives to replace the conventional cage. This study was conducted to compare the early laying performance and egg quality at the barn system with those at the conventional cage. A total of 288 shaver-579 brown layers were used for 9 weeks ($21^{st}$ to $30^{th}$ weeks of age) feeding study. Feed consumption and egg weight were significantly (P<0.01) higher at barn than at cage. However, there were no significant differences between two housing systems on hen day egg production (HDEP), egg mass, body weight, feed efficiency and livability. In case of egg quality parameters, shell thickness, albumen height and Haugh unit were significantly (P<0.05) different between two systems. Haugh unit and albumen height were significantly higher in eggs produced at cage (88.97 and 8.16 mm) compared than those produced at barn (83.11 and 6.87 mm), whereas shell thickness was thicker in eggs produced at barn than those produced at cage. Shape index, breaking strength, blood spots and yolk index data were not influenced significantly by the types of housing system. To implement welfare bestowing production, this study showed that the barn system can replace the conventional cage without serious sacrifices on starting phase egg production. In addition, this study suggested that the barn system need to be optimized in view of daily feed consumption.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.281-283
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• 1990

Ten-week-old layer type pullets were used in this study, housed 10 birds per cage(61$\times$41cm) and were replicated 15 times After raising them on a 19% protein diet up to ten weeks of age they were fed a 12% protein corn-soy control diet or one with half or all of the soybean mea replaced with ground full-fat sunflower seeds. At 19 weeks of age, pulltes were transferred to a layer house and their respective diet was gradually changed to a 13.5% layer diet containing 635% oats. The 19% protein SFS diet in treatment 2 did not show my, adverse effect on body weight or subsequent egg productio. The higher level of SES(38%) appeared to delay sexual maturity somewhat as was indicated by body weight and egg production data. However, the higher replacement of soybean with SFS(38%) in the pullet ration may not be critical for sexual maturity, but beneficial in a full laying cycle. There were no adverse effects on later stages of production.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.657-664
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• 1997

432 Babcock ISA white leghorn pullets reared for 8 weeks on a standard managemental conditions were exposed to feed/nutrient and light restrictions from 9 to 20 weeks of age. Four feeding regimes i. e. 100, 85 or 70 percent of the recommended allowance and low energy (2,500 Kcal/kg) low protein (13% CP) ration were fed each in the three light regimes i. e. (A) Natural day light starting from 13.24 hr/day at 8 weeks of age and ending 10.41 hr/day at the end of 20 weeks; (B) Constant 11 hr/day light and (C) starting with 13 hr/day at 8 weeks and decreasing @ 20 min/week till 20 weeks of age. At the age of 20 weeks all the birds were shifted to separate cages under uniform lighting feeding and management. During the 21st week light was increased to 12 hr a day and thereafter with an increase of 30 min per week, increased to 16 hr a day at the age of 29 weeks. From 20 weeks onward till 72 week age, all the birds were offered commercial layer rations ad libitum, prepared according to climatic conditions. The results of the study revealed that birds reared under natural and constant light had higher weights than decreasing light, yet they could not out perform during production period. The effect of feed and nutrient restriction, on the other hand, was found significant during rearing as well as production period. The birds exposed to higher level of feed and those exposed to nutrient restriction were lighter in weight. The 100% fed birds laid their first egg at an early age. However, those reared on 85% of the recommendation excelled all other groups in terms of produced number of eggs, egg mass, hen housed and hen day production and net returns.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.1576-1584
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• 2008

In this study, canonical correlation analysis (CCA) was applied to estimate the relationship between three different sexual maturity traits (X set: days to first egg (DFE), weight of the first egg (WFE), body weight at first egg (BWFE)) and level of nutrient intake (Y set: energy (EI) and protein intake (PI)) or the egg production traits at two different periods (Z set: number of egg (NE1 and NET) and weight of egg (WE1 and WET) from 22 to 25 (Wfirst) and 22 to 33 wk of age (Wall), respectively), which were measured from 64 egg-type pullets (Isa Brown) manipulated for time of access to energy and protein sources to onset of egg production. Partial CCA (PCCA) was used to eliminate the contribution of differences in the levels of nutrient intake to canonical variables for X and Z sets at the first production period. Estimated canonical correlation coefficients between X set and Y set (0.429, p = 0.042), X set and Z set (0.390, p = 0.007 for Wfirst) and within Z set (between Wfirst and Wall; 0.780, p<0.001), and partial canonical correlation coefficient between X set and Z set (0.415, p = 0.009) were significant. Canonical weights and loadings from CCA indicated that the BWFE had the largest contribution compared to the DFE and WFE to variation of egg number produced at two different periods. The results from PCCA indicated that the contribution of PI and EI to the degree of the correlation between canonical variables for X and Z sets were unfavourable. In conclusion, the effect of body weight at sexual maturity upon the availability of nutrients can have a higher contribution to variation of egg production in pullets if the contribution of differences in nutrient intakes to onset of egg production were eliminated.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.976-982
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• 2007

This study investigated whether supplemental Cu, Fe, Zn, and Mn are needed in a practical diet for pullets. Four hundred and twenty females of an egg-laying strain (1-d-old, Lohmann Brown Layer) were randomly distributed into 4 groups, consisting of 7 replicates of 15 birds each. During the 18-week experimental period, chicks were given three basal diets in sequence, each with single or multiple Mn, Zn and Cu supplementation to improve the mineral balance gradually. In the Control, no Mn, Zn, and Cu were added; in the single Mn supplemented group (sMn) Mn was added to 120, 60, and 60 mg/kg for 1-6, 7-12, and 13-18 weeks of age, respectively; in the multiple Mn and Zn supplemented group (mMnZn), Mn was added to 180, 90, and 90 mg/kg and Zn was added to 120, 105, and 105 mg/kg for 1-6, 7-12, and 13-18 weeks of age, respectively; in the multiple Mn, Zn, Cu supplemented group (mMnZnCu), Mn, Zn, and Cu were added to the same multiple of basal Fe concentration relative to NRC (1994) recommendations. Energy and protein metabolizability were determined by subtracting energy/protein intake by energy/protein excretion (from both feces and urine) and dividing by energy/protein intake. There were no statistically significant differences between groups in terms of feed intake, final body weight or tibia length throughout the experiment. Optimal growth performance was observed in the Control, while adding trace minerals to basal diets tended to result in decreased productive performance. Protein metabolizability was increased by mMnZn and mMnZnCu treatments, but energy metabolizability was not affected. Concentrations of Mn, Zn, Cu in excreta varied greatly related to dietary content, and the retentions of Cu, Fe, Zn and Mn were all increased due to the improvement of mineral balance. Based on these results, it is suggested that the concentrations of Cu, Fe, Zn and Mn in typical basal diets used in this study were adequate for normal growth for pullets from 1 to 18 weeks of age.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.35-40
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• 1994

A dietary self-selection study was carried out to get information for the improvement of feeding systems of egg-type growing pullets. Corn diet, soybean meal diet, wheat bran diet and soybean meal+fish meal diet were individually prepared for self-selection regime and 380 day-old chicks of a brown egg strain were offered either a control grower diet(C) or one of the 3 self-selection regime consisted of corn-soybean meal diet ($T_1$), corn-soybean meal-wheat bran diet($T_2$) and corn-soybean meal+fishmeal-wheat bran diet($T_3$) during 20 weeks of the growing period. Compared with pullets fed control diet(C), those fed the self-selection diets($T_1$, $T_2$ and $T_3$) were smaller in body weight at 20 weeks of age by 12% and consumed less energy and protein by 11% and 9%, respectively. Calculated metabolizable energy levels of feed consumed during the growing period were about 3,200 kcal/kg in $T_1$ and 2,300 kcal/kg in $T_2$ and $T_3$ and dietary protein levels were about 12~13% in all self-selection diets ($T_1$, $T_2$ and $T_3$) regardless of pullet age. The results of the study suggest that the conventional feeding system of egg-type growing pullets should be improved in order to control the body weight effectively and to reduce the cost of grower feed.