Poultry or Avian Science Commons^™

Improving Broiler Performance Utilizing Modern Feed Additives, Niles Rourke Ridgeway

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Modern broiler production strives to make modest improvements regarding broiler performance. This remains a goal as global population increases thusly increasing the quantity of an affordable, high quality source of protein. In recent years, an added stressor to achieving prior goals is mostly related to consciousness of environmental and consumer health. For decades, integrators have utilized minimal amounts of antibiotics as a barrier to most pathogens affecting the microbiome of a broiler’s gastrointestinal tract. Regulatory efforts have now prohibited most of previous sub-therapeutic medicine and started an in-depth scope of broiler gut health and interaction with antibiotic alternatives. In an …

Key Habitat Features Facilitate The Presence Of Barred Owls In Developed Landscapes, Marion A. Clement, Kyle Barrett, Robert F. Baldwin

Publications

As urbanization continues to transform landscapes, it is imperative to find ways to conserve biodiversity within fragmented habitats. Forest interior dwelling birds are particularly vulnerable to development pressures because they require large tracts of forest to support their life cycles. Although Barred Owls (Strix varia) are frequently described as an obligate mature forest species, they have been found in urbanized landscapes. To determine if certain habitat characteristics, such as mature trees, facilitate the presence of Barred Owls in developed regions, we modeled Barred Owl occupancy probability along a development gradient in the Piedmont region of the southeastern United …

The Effects Of Management Practices On Grassland Birds: An Introduction To North American Grasslands And The Practices Used To Manage Grasslands And Grassland Birds, Jill A. Shaffer, John P. Delong

Papers in Ornithology

Summary

The Great Plains of North America is defined as the land mass that encompasses the entire central portion of the North American continent that, at the time of European settlement, was an unbroken expanse of primarily herbaceous vegetation. The Great Plains extend from central Saskatchewan and Alberta to central Mexico and from Indiana to the Rocky Mountains. The expanses of herbaceous vegetation are often referred to as native prairie or native grasslands. Native grasslands share the characteristics of a general uniformity in vegetation structure, dominance by grasses and forbs, a near absence of trees and shrubs, annual precipitation ranging …

The Effect Of Feed Manufacture Techniques On Pathogen Reduction And Feed Nutrient Value, Timothy Paul Boltz

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Experiments were conducted to evaluate how differing feed manufacture techniques, such as varying conditioning times and new equipment, can affect pathogen mitigation, feed manufacture metrics, amino acid digestibility, and enzyme recovery in feed. Feed hygienics are of increasing importance in providing safe feed to animals, and ultimately safe food for consumers. Salmonella has been identified as a major microbial hazard in animal feed that has been linked to animal and human illness. In chapter 2, the effects of standard pelleting and more thermally aggressive techniques were utilized to determine pathogen mitigation potential. Use of antibiotics has decreased in recent years …

Evaluating The Effects Of Exogenous Enzyme Supplementation On Broiler Growth, Victoria E. Ayres

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of exogenous enzymes in poultry diets. In Chapter 4, a study was conducted to determine the effects of a corn-expressed recombinant carbohydrase (AC1) on broiler performance and digesta viscosity in high non-starch polysaccharide (NSP) diets through 21 days of age. One day-old Hubbard × Cobb 500 chicks were assigned to 6 dietary treatments. Each treatment consisted of 12 replicate pens of 10 birds. The positive control diet (PC) was a corn and soybean meal formulation. The negative control diet (NC) included 10% wheat and 10% corn distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS). The …

Fall Field Report, August - November 2019, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

By far the most striking feature of this fall’s report is the large number of lingering migrants, a trend that is continuing and apparently increasing, especially among passerines. Editor Jan Paseka counted 17 uses of the word “tardy” and 43 of “late” or “latest”. It is tempting to relate this to the warmer environment and resulting increased availability of food items at higher latitudes and later dates than in previous years. A sad note: a startling occurrence in Gering, Scotts Bluff 20 Aug was described by Marie Smith: “We had a huge hailstorm around 10:30. The hail was probably pea …

Consumer Perceptions Of Labeling Claims On Poultry Products, Sarah Townley

Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology Undergraduate Honors Theses

An increasing number of consumers wants more knowledge of how the food they eat is produced, and specifically, how animals used in the production of their food are raised. One method consumers use to become more aware of production practices behind the food they purchase and consume is simply reading food labels. Labeling claims can be defined as textual, pictorial, graphic, or symbolic representation that either explicitly states or implies that a food product has a specific set of properties supported by a certification process. The purpose of this study is to gather data regarding consumer knowledge and understanding of …

Sandhill Crane Activity In The Central Platte River Valley In Late May And Early June, Jenna M. Malzahn, Andrew J. Caven, Marin Dettweiler, Joshua D. Wiese

Nebraska Bird Review

In this report we discuss observations of Sandhill Cranes remaining in the Central Platte River Valley until early June 2018 and discuss potential explanations for this extended stay into the breeding season.

We detected two pairs of adult Sandhill Cranes in two different locations on 15 May 2018 (Table 1). We then detected three injured adult Sandhill Cranes in a third location on 16 May 2018 (Table 1). Two of the three Sandhill Cranes each had a missing leg and the third crane’s leg was broken above the tibiotarsal joint; however, all were still capable of foraging and flight. Later, …

Fall Field Report, August - November 2018, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

As far as birds go, this was a relatively quiet season, but, as usual, there was much of interest to chew on. Most important in any report are range changes, major changes in expected numbers or early and late dates, all of which relate directly to the status, positive or negative, of a given species.

Waterfowl in general were only average in numbers; new high counts are rare these days compared with numbers 20 or so years ago. Two winter finches, Common Redpoll and Red Crossbill, that normally arrive in late fall, were virtually unreported. Notable range expansions are under …

The Nebraska Bird Review, Volume 86 December 2018 Number 4

Nebraska Bird Review

Fall Field Report, August - November 2018, by W. Ross Silcock …146-167

Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadius) Nest Box Project: The First Seven Years, by Wayne J. Mollhoff …168-174

Sandhill Crane Activity in the Central Platte River Valley in Late May and Early June, by Jenna Malzahn, Andrew J. Caven, Marin Dettweiler, Joshua D. Wiese .... 175-180

2018 Fall Banding Migration Summary, Chadron State Park, by Chris Murray …181-185

Ainsworth Fall Field Days, Sept. 14-16, 2018, by Janis Paseka …186-190

Index to Volume 86 …191-206

Subscription and Organization Information … 207

Presence Of Antibiotic Resistant Salmonella Spp. In Backyard Poultry And Their Environment, Nicole Land

Master's Theses

As keeping backyard poultry rises, human contact with zoonotic pathogens will increase. One such pathogen that backyard enthusiasts have exposure risks to is Salmonella spp. which may cause a potential public health threat due to its increasing multidrug resistancy. Salmonella spp. were present in 33 of 50 samples collected from 29 sites with backyard poultry coops in San Luis Obispo County during March to May in 2014. Two different Hardy-CHROME™ Salmonella Selective Media plates were used to culture and isolate positive samples of Salmonella spp.. Each positive isolate was tested for antimicrobial sensitivity to 6 standard antibiotics: Ampicillin, Bacitracin, …

Microbiota Metabolic Product Deoxycholic Acid Prevents Campylobacter Jejuni Chicken Colonization Through Modulating Ceca Anaerobes, Bilal Ali Alrubaye

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Campylobacter jejuni is a prevalent infectious enteritis mainly foodborne from chickens. Despite of reducing C. jejuni food contamination dramatically decreases campylobacteriosis, few effective approaches are available for the bacterial reduction in chickens. The aim of this study was to use microbial metabolic product deoxycholic acid (DCA) to reduce C. jejuni chicken colonization. Broiler chicks were fed 0 or 1.5 g/kg DCA, lithocholic acid (LCA), or urodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in diets or orally gavaged with cholic acid (CA, 1.5g/kg body weight). Birds were also transplanted with DCA modulated anaerobes (DCA-Anearo) or aerobes (DCA-Aero). Birds were infected with 109 CFU/bird human clinical …

Relationships Among Biodiversity Dimensions Of Birds In Nebraska, Nadejda Mirochnitchenko

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is a multi-dimensional concept that can be decomposed to measure information about taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional variation within communities. Although the dimensions of biodiversity are interrelated, the assumption that measuring one dimension of diversity can inform about patterns in another dimension does not necessarily follow from theory or empirical study. The relationships among biodiversity dimensions is not well understood, nor how differences among dimensions could influence conservation decision making. Using the avian community as a study system, we explored the relationships of breadth metrics from the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional dimensions among each other and across …

Northern Saw-Whet Owl (Aegolius Acadicus) Nest Box Project: The First Seven Years, Wayne J. Mollhoff

Nebraska Bird Review

This report summarizes the first seven years of the nest box project for the Northern Saw-whet Owl in Nebraska. The project was initiated with several goals in mind: 1) to document breeding in Nebraska, 2) to get an idea of the breeding range of saw-whet owls, and 3) to establish their breeding phenology. The project started in 2012 with the placement of 29 boxes. Six boxes were added in 2015, four more in 2016, and eight in 2017.

This study, along with an ongoing study in South Dakota (Drilling 2015), makes it appear that we share an isolated breeding population. …

2018 Fall Banding Migration Summary, Chadron State Park, Chris Murray

Nebraska Bird Review

In order to better understand wild birds and their migration, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies conducted bird monitoring for the 11th straight year at our fall migration banding station in Chadron State Park within the Pine Ridge Region of Nebraska. Operated in collaboration with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, this station is open to the public and visited by school groups to serve as an outdoor classroom. Among our goals are to enhance the public’s appreciation of birds as well as their understanding of threats to bird survival and the role of science in bird conservation. Serving as an …

Study Of Three Potential Variables That May Impact The Maximum Shear Force And Shear Variation During The Growth And Transport Of Mixed Sex Broilers Grown In Commercial Poultry Houses, Mark Christie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Temperature conditions during the transportation to the processing facility of commercial broilers have a direct impact on the meat texture, specifically maximum shear force and shear variation of cooked breast meat. Analysis of a calendar year of flock data (N=346), reveals that the largest impact of transport conditions, specifically temperature, is on the standard deviation of the flocks range of cooked shear values. The optimal transport temperature that yields broiler breast meat with average flock minimum shear and standard deviation values is approximately 60°F. The shear values for flocks at or near 60°F are on average 1 kg less than …

Evaluation Of Genetic And Environmental Influences On Broiler Meat Quality, Sara Katherine Orlowski

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effect of both genetic and environmental influences on broiler meat quality were evaluated over three experiments. Selection response was assessed for broiler lines selected for high (HBY4) and low (LBY4) four day percentage breast yield which were formed from a random bred control (RAN). A modern random bred population (MRB) created in 2015 was evaluated for differences in 4 day percentage breast yield and the resulting differences in the incidence and severity of the woody breast and white striping myopathies. Additionally, the use of embryonic thermal manipulation to impact cell division and early caloric feed restriction to slow growth …

Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment For Parts, Ground, And Msc Poultry Product Including Intervention Analysis And Exploration Of Enterobacteriaceae As An Indicator Organism In Poultry Processing, Leigh Ann Parette

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Samples collected at five different large bird poultry processing facilities over a period of 7 months from prescald to post debone locations were enumerated for Enterobacteriaceae, Salmonella spp., and Campylobacter spp. and the results were used to create Quantitative Microbial Risk Analyses (QMRA) models for parts, ground, and mechanically separated chicken (MSC) products. Sensitivity analyses indicated the points in the process at which reductions would be most advantageous to the endpoint and simulation models were run to test reductions required to meet the current USDA performance standards.

These data were analyzed to determine the reductions from one node (location) to …

Responsiveness Of Cobb Mv × 700 Broilers To Dietary Amino Acid And Energy Density, Craig William Maynard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As new broiler crosses are introduced to the industry, it is of paramount importance to understand their nutritional digressions from previous and other modern broilers. In particular, amino acids (AA) and dietary energy have been identified as key drivers of live performance and carcass composition. In addition, increased nutrient density in broiler diets have been linked to an increase in breast muscle myopathies such as white striping and woody breast. Therefore, a series of trials were conducted to determine the responsiveness of live performance, carcass characteristics, and breast muscle myopathies of Cobb MV × 700 broilers to dietary AA and …

Effect Of Cooking Method On Meat Texture In Normal And Woody Broiler Breast Fillets Using Instrumental Analysis And Descriptive Sensory Analysis, Lynda D. Combs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few decades, broiler breast meat has changed in terms of meat quality. Meat quality has deteriorated with the rise in the occurrence of muscle myopathies. Conditions such as woody breast, which is described as pale and bulging areas of distinct hardness, compromise both the textural and technological traits that have been associated with breast meat. The Meullenet-Owens Razor Shear (MORS) method is a common method for indirectly assessing poultry meat tenderness. A blunt version of the MORS (BMORS) has been shown to be a more sensitive method at higher degrees of toughness. A slightly larger stainless steel …