• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1545-1549
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• 2003

Broiler chickens were subjected to (i) pre-treatment for 24 h with 1,200 ppm L-ascorbic acid in their drinking water on day 42 (AA), (ii) 60% feed restriction on days 4, 5 and 6 (FR), (iii) combination of AA and FR (AAFR), or (iv) neither treatment (control). On day 43, the birds were crated and transported in an open truck for either 60 min or 120 min. Heterophil/lymphocyte ratios (HLR) were determined prior to ($T_0$) and 20 h following the 60 min ($T_60$) and 120 min ($T_120$) journeys. Prior to transportation, all treatment groups had similar HLR. Following $T_60$, the AAFR chicks had smaller increase in HLR than their control, AA and FR counterparts. The AA, FR and AAFR birds exhibited lower HLR than controls following $T_120$. The means HLR of AA, FR and AAFR did not differ significantly. Irrespective of journey time, AA and AAFR birds had shorter tonic immobility duration than their FR and control counterparts. The tonic immobility duration of all birds increased with journey duration.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.550-555
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• 2007

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of two lighting programs (continuous lighting (CL) 24L:0D and intermittent lighting (IL) 1L:3D) on the broiler performance, carcass traits, incidence of tibial dyschondroplasia (TD), relative asymmetry (RA), duration of induced tonic immobility (TI), heterophils-lymphocytes ratio (H/L), serum glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride levels. The chicks were randomly divided into 2 treatment groups consisting of 100 chicks per treatment, continuous lighting (CL) 24L:0D or intermittent lighting (IL) 1L:3D. Each treatment consists of 5 replicates of 20 chicks. The experimental period was 6 weeks. Use of IL decreased feed to gain ratio, improved immune response and reduced fearful. Body weight, carcass traits, TD and stress parameters (organ weights, RA, H/L, glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride levels) were not significant in different lighting groups. As a result IL was beneficial for producers and chickens than CL.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.262-269
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• 2008

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of breeder age and stocking density on performance, carcass characteristics and some stress parameters (H-L ratio, serum glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, tonic immobility test (TI), antibody production, relative asymmetry (RA) and external appearances). This experiment was carried out with 705 one-day old male broiler chicks (Ross 308) obtained from three different ages of broiler breeder (32, 48 and 61 wks). Each age group was randomly divided into two stocking density groups (11.9 and 17.5 broilers per $m^2$) with 5 replications per group. The experimental period was 6 weeks. Broilers from 32 wk-old breeders had lower initial weight (p<0.001), body weight gain of the first 3 week of rearing (p<0.01), the percentage of abdominal fat (p<0.001) and serum cholesterol level (p<0.01); higher percentage of gizzard (p<0.01) and longer TI duration (p<0.001) than those from 48 and 61 wk-old breeders. Broilers reared at 17.5 b/m2 had lower final BW, body weight gain, feed consumption, feather condition and foot health (p<0.001), higher percentage of heart, H-L ratio, serum glucose and cholesterol levels (p<0.001), and longer TI durations (p<0.001). There were no significant interactions in examined parameters except for feed to gain ratio between breeder age and stocking density.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.1454-1460
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• 2022

Objective: Early environmental enrichment in life can improve cognition in animals. The effect of prenatal auditory stimulation on learning ability and fear level in chick embryos remained unexplored. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of prenatal auditory stimulation on the learning ability and fear level of chicks. Methods: A total of 450 fertilized eggs were randomly divided into 5 groups, including control group (C), low-sound intensity music group (LM), low-sound intensity noise group (LN), high-sound intensity noise group (HN) and high-sound intensity music group (HM). From the 10th day of embryonic development until hatching, group LM and group LN received 65 to 75 dB of music and noise stimulation. Group HN and group HM received 85 to 95 dB of noise and music stimulation, and group C received no additional sound. At the end of incubation, the one-trial passive avoidance learning (PAL) task and tonic immobility (TI) tests were carried out, and the serum corticosterone (CORT) and serotonin (5-HT) concentrations were determined. Results: The results showed that compared with the group C, 65 to 75 dB of music and noise stimulation did not affect the PAL avoidance rate (p>0.05), duration of TI (p>0.05) and the concentration of CORT (p>0.05) and 5-HT (p>0.05) in chicks. However, 85 to 95 dB of music and noise stimulation could reduce duration of TI (p<0.05) and the concentration of CORT (p<0.05), but no significant effect was observed on the concentration of 5-HT (p>0.05) and PAL avoidance rate (p>0.05). Conclusion: Therefore, the prenatal auditory stimulation of 85 to 95 dB can effectively reduce the fear level of chicks while it does not affect the learning ability.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.887-894
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• 2016

This study was conducted to compare the effects of layout of furniture (a perch, nest, and sandbox) in cages on behavior and welfare of hens. Two hundred and sixteen Hyline Brown laying hens were divided into five groups (treatments) with four replicates per group: small furnished cages (SFC), medium furnished cages type I (MFC-I), medium furnished cages type II (MFC-II), and medium furnished cages type III (MFC-III) and conventional cages (CC). The experiment started at 18 week of age and finished at 52 week of age. Hens' behaviors were filmed during the following periods: 8:00 to 10:00; 13:00 to 14:00; 16:00 to 17:00 on three separate days and two hens from each cage were measured for welfare parameters at 50 wk of age. The results showed that feeding and laying of all hens showed no effect by cage type (p>0.05), and the hens in the furnished cages had significantly lower standing and higher walking than CC hens (p<0.05). The birds in MFC-III had significant higher preening, scratching and feather-pecking behavior than in the other cages (p<0.05). No difference in nesting behavior was found in the hens between the furnished cages (p>0.05). The hens in MFC-I, -II, and -III showed a significant higher socializing behavior than SFC and CC (p<0.05). The lowest perching was for the hens in SFC and the highest perching found for the hens in MFC-III. Overall, the hens in CC showed poorer welfare conditions than the furnished cages, in which the feather condition score, gait score and tonic immobility duration of the hens in CC was significantly higher than SFC, MFC-I, MFC-II, and MFC-III (p<0.05). In conclusion, the furnished cage design affected both behavior and welfare states of hens. Overall, MFC-III cage design was better than SFC, MFC-I, and MFC-II cage designs.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 2010

The effect of sex ratio on behavior and welfare indexes in broiler chickens was investigated. Five variants of the sex ratio (male to female), namely, 100:0 (T1), 75:25 (T2), 50:50 (T3), 25:75 (T4) and 0:100 (T5) were tested in broilers between the ages of 7 to 35 days. It was found that the most common behavior in all sex ratios was resting behavior, ranging over 74.4 % of total behavioral frequency. The ranges of other behavior traits of total behavior traits were as follows: pecking, 5.4 to 23.1 %; standing, 1.8 to 24.8 %, and moving, 0.6 to 11.5 %. The behavioral frequency of resting, pecking, standing and moving were not affected by the sex ratio and between male and female. But the percentage of pecking, resting and moving behavioral frequency was significantly different by the age of birds (P<0.05). Age of birds had no effect on standing behavioral frequency. It seems that gait, food pad and hock burn score were no affect by sex ratio but tend to decreased in female than male. Claw length of 21 and 35 days was not affected by sex ratio and between male and female. The duration of tonic immobility (TI- reaction) was tend to decreased age of 21 than 35 days, and female than male. Both male and female of the study, hock burn score, claw length and TI-reaction were tend to lower in T4 than other treatments. The results suggest that, when male and female broilers are reared together, sex ratio can influence broiler welfare indexes in this study.