National Poultry News

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NATIONAL
Vol 3. No. 7 July 2020 National Poultry Newspaper PO Box 387 Cleveland 4163 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Fax (07) 3821 2637 Email ben@poultrynews.com.au
Assoc Prof Shubiao Wu, Dr Kosar Gharib-Naseri, Dr Sarbast Kheravii and PhD student Ashley England.
Fast and accurate sexing method developed for chickens
n Job Ready Training back in business
Salmonella risk from backyard chooks
THE Victorian De- partment of Health and Human Services is investigating an out- break of salmonella illness attributed to backyard chickens.
hygiene after contact,” Dr Bone said.
systems or medical con- ditions are particularly vulnerable and should be especially cautious.
Most cases are from Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs, as well as in Gippsland and western Victoria.
“It’s important that people wash their hands after they’ve touched chickens, been in the coop or handled litter or feed.
Chickens infected with salmonella enter- itidis can produce bac- teria-containing eggs.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Prof Brett Sutton said inves- tigations have not iden- tified a common source as yet, but that most cases had contact with or consumed eggs from backyard chickens.
“Kids love touching chickens and playing with them, but they need to be supervised when they’re around chickens and avoid cud- dling or kissing them.”
This can increase the chance of a person be- coming ill with the bac- teria if the egg is eaten raw or not thoroughly cooked.
People are at risk of becoming sick after handling chickens and eggs, and after eating raw or under-cooked eggs.
“Lightly soiled eggs need to be wiped down with a dry cloth or tis- sue – do not wash them as washing eggs can move salmonella from outside the shell to in- side the egg through its pores.”
Dr Bone said symp- toms are not like a 24-hour viral infection and include fever, ab- dominal pain, nausea and vomiting.
Families with back- yard chickens should be aware of the risk, and safe handling prac- tices to limit the chance of salmonella infection are advised.
Australia experienced a large salmonella ente- ritidis outbreak linked to eggs in 2019.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Angie Bone said poisoning from salmonella enteritidis can be avoided.
Dr Bone said salmo- nella enteritidis is a very intrusive form of infection, and that it en- ters the egg before it is laid – whereas most salmonella attaches to the egg as it’s laid from exposure to the chick- en’s stool.
Eleven poultry facili- ties in NSW and a Vic- torian egg layer farm discovered salmonella in late 2018, and all sites were quarantined and decontaminated.
“There are a number of diseases you can get from animals, and it’s always important to en- sure you maintain good
Dr Bone said infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune
Over 171 residents in NSW have been affect- ed since the strain was detected in May 2018, with five in Victoria, three in Queensland and one in Tasmania.
It is important to ex- amine the quality of any egg before eating it.
If infection is sus- pected, seek medical assistance.
“Cracked, damaged or heavily soiled eggs shouldn’t be used,” Dr Bone said.
Symptoms present af- ter 48-72 hours of expo- sure and can last for up to a week.
THIS month the Poultry Hub Australia team re- turned to the office.
searchers due to biosecu- rity concerns.
We have all enjoyed hav- ing less Zoom meetings and chatting face-to-face, while maintaining social distance of course.
Other sexing methods include in-ovo sexing, such as near-infrared fluorescence, Ramen spectroscopy oestrogen radio-immune assays and genetic engineering modification.
Though procedures have changed in the of- fice since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is great to feel a little sense of normality again.
would like to share. Assoc Prof Wu and his
their nutritional needs and health.
These methods are technically complex and not feasible for research purposes where in-house hatching is not available
Poultry Hub’s Job Ready Training is back in busi- ness.
team have developed a fast and accurate sexing method to sex chickens using feather crude DNA.
However, issues would arise as parent lines may not respond to nutritional treatments and disease challenge in exactly the same way as commercial broilers.
for in-ovo sexing, and an engineered strain is not applicable.
We have our next train- ing booked in for July in Tamworth and a series of other trainings across the New England region of NSW, which is very ex- citing.
In recent years, re- searchers have found it difficult to source sexed day-old broiler chicks for research purposes.
Therefore, a fast and relatively larger-scale sex- ing approach for research purposes was required.
We are still taking reg- istrations, so if you are in- terested in taking part in this training program or want to know more, please contact us at poultryhub@ une.edu.au
This was due to the change in genetics of cur- rent commercial broiler breeds resulting in feather sexing no longer being available.
Vent sexing is being used as an alternate meth- od to feather sexing, yet this method – though fast and accurate – requires highly trained and experi- enced personnel.
Molecular sexing meth- ods have shown the most promise in meeting these requirements.
A great new piece of technology has been de- veloped at the University of New England that I
This has forced many researchers to use parent lines or as-hatched com- mercial broilers to study
In addition, most hatch- eries were reluctant to allow vent sexers to sex a small number of birds on a regular basis for re-
The method they de- veloped is based on the fact that female birds are heterogametic (ZW), and males are homogametic (ZZ).
by TAMSYN CROWLEY Director
The quick DNA extrac- tion and fast PCR run
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