Page 4 - National Poultry Newspaper

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When it comes to hot days, happy shedded hens, like these at Fremantle Egg Company, must have shade, water and comfortable ambient temperature. Once these girls have enjoyed a good night’s sleep, a hearty breakfast and laid their eggs for the day, they are free to roam outside on green pastures.
Be prepared for hot chooks with fire-resistant feathers
THOUGH Down Un- der we’re a few months away from the sorts of hot temperatures that can debilitate layer hens and, importantly, dimin- ish their productivity and lower their welfare, it’s timely to scout ideas from those in the north- ern hemisphere who are right amongst it now.
As the Boy Scouts motto declares: ‘Be pre- pared’.
On that note, I was in- terested to pick up and now pass on some tips proposed by Jean Sander, DVM, Senior Technical Services Veterinarian with Zoetis in North Car- olina, US.
Cant Comment by BRENDON CANT
tion in egg weight. According to Sander, a
layer’s normal body tem- perature is about 40C.
While hens are comfort- able with an ambient tem- perature of 18-24C, when that temperature climbs above 32C, the more seri- ous consequences of heat stress occur.
Importantly, from a con- sumer perspective, the re- view authors also pointed out heat stress might af- fect food safety, with re- cent studies demonstrat- ing bacteria such as sal- monella and campylo- bacter could exploit the neuroendocrine altera- tions due to the stress response in the host to promote growth and pathogenicity.
Other consequences of heat stress include in- creased water intake that could lead to wet manure and soiled eggs and re- duced immune function, which could impair vac- cine efficacy.
So, what does Sander suggest those in the busi- ness of producing qual- ity, safe eggs from happy, healthy hens do?
Here’s a sample of her handy hints:
• If birds are at risk of heat stress or already overheating, avoid dis- turbing them, especially during the hottest part of the day so they don’t get hotter moving around.
• Don’t overstock cag- es. Birds need to be able to spread their wings to increase airflow around their bodies. If layers must be moved on a hot day, place fewer in each transport crate and inter- sperse those crates with empty crates for better air circulation. Postpone beak trimming to a cooler day or trim early morning before it’s too hot.
• Routinely check fog- gers or misters and run for two minutes out of every 10 if humidity is low.
• Maintain the water system for cleanliness and function to prevent heat stress in layers. Drinkers must be system- atically checked to ensure they’re all working.
• Cool drinking water by flushing lines in the afternoon. Cool water helps bring down the birds’ core temperature. If water is below 25C, birds will drink more.
• Adding vitamins and electrolytes to drinking water helps replace lost sodium, chloride, potas- sium and bicarbonate, but they are best adminis- tered before onset of ex- treme heat.
Meanwhile on the sub- ject of hot chickens, re- searchers at University of Auckland, New Zea- land have apparently de- veloped a way to turn chicken feathers into a high-performing fire re- tardant.
With billions of chicken feathers produced by the poultry industry, most of which end up in the incin- erator or landfill, they are an obvious international waste problem.
Distinguished Prof Debes Bhattacharyya of the University of Auck- land’s Faculty of Engi- neering has found a way to use chicken feathers as a base for a fire retard- ant, one that is safer than many retardants, cheaper to produce and solves an international waste prob- lem.
While I know chicken feathers are made of a keratinous material also
Page 4 – National Poultry Newspaper, August 2019
☛ continued P6 www.poultrynews.com.au
Writing in
Health Today, she ref- erenced a review article from Purdue University and USDA’s Agricultural Research Service that said heat stress was asso- ciated with a 31.6 percent reduction in feed conver- sion, 36.4 percent reduc- tion in egg production and 3.41 percent reduc-
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