In pig and poultry breeding programs, the animals that provide food for consumers are usually crossbred, while genomic selection takes place in their purebred parental lines. Researchers from Wageningen University and Research have written a review paper on how genomic selection can be optimised for the improvement of crossbred animals. Genomic selection Livestock populations are…
The National Farmers’ Federation has welcomed the announcement of new emissions reduction fund method priorities for 2022. NFF chief executive officer Tony Mahar said the new priorities were strongly aligned with the NFF’s submission on the process. “In particular, the NFF supports the development of an ‘integrated farm method’ that would allow separate ERF land-based…
A New report from animal welfare non-profit the Humane League, which examined supermarkets in 29 states in the US, found chicken breasts demonstrating ‘white striping’ in nearly every one. White striping is a muscle disease reportedly impacting 50-96 percent of fast growing chickens. In the US more than nine billion broiler chickens are processed every…
Activity of broilers is related to their gait, but activity recordings alone cannot fully distinguish between birds with a good or a suboptimal gait. That is the main conclusion of a study by Wageningen Livestock Research. Activity tracking and gait scoring Gait or walking ability is often recorded for broilers as an indicator for leg…
Spotty liver disease is an infectious disease caused by the relatively recently identified bacterium campylobacter hepaticus. It has been increasing in prevalence in Australian egg-laying flocks due to an increase in birds farmed extensively, including free range and barn systems, where the chances of faecal-oral transmission of C hepaticus are increased. The only way to…
Yum Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company with close to 50,000 locations globally across its KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and other brands, has released a global policy to transition to 100 percent cage-free eggs in the majority of its locations by 2026 and globally by 2030. This commitment is set to benefit millions of…
On July 31 last year, birds tested positive for avian influenza on a Golden Plains free range egg farm. Over the following four weeks, a further five farms in Golden Plains, East Gippsland and Gannawarra Shire tested positive. In total, three strains of avian influenza were found on six Victorian poultry farms, infecting three bird…
In Australia, meat chickens are not kept in cages and both male and female chicks are raised to produce meat. Most meat chickens are housed in large sheds – ‘barn raised’ – with some also having daytime access to the outdoors – ‘free range’ – once they are fully feathered. Traditionally, chickens have been raised…
Can a waste product deliver important improvements to chicken production? What if antibiotic use in poultry production could be significantly lowered by using waste products from milling? Dr Natalie Morgan is investigating these possibilities after winning the Australian Eggs Award in the 2021 Science and Innovation Awards for Young People in Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.…
The access to open air and an outdoor lifestyle, which is a feature of free range chicken farming, may well be putting birds at a higher risk of an untimely death. Researchers have long understood that despite their more socially acceptable existence, free range chickens are exposed to more disease agents when compared to caged…