Initiatives goal to enhance situations for laying hens and geese
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – School members in Purdue College’s Department of Animal Sciences have obtained $1.4 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture for analysis on safeguarding animal welfare. Each tasks pertain to poultry manufacturing, a serious contributor to the U.S. and Indiana economies.
Marisa Erasmus, affiliate professor of animal sciences, obtained a four-year, $793,000 grant to plan strategies for bettering laying-hen welfare in opposition to a parasite referred to as the northern fowl mite. Gregory Fraley, the Terry and Sandra Tucker Endowed Chair of Poultry Science, has obtained a four-year, $647,000 grant to analyze the best way to enhance poultry welfare by means of a greater understanding of the visible system in geese. Their grants are amongst 13 awards totaling $7.5 million allotted to 11 universities and the USDA Agricultural Analysis Service.
“One of many main well being points for laying hens is exterior parasites, however hens don’t all reply to parasites in the identical manner,” Erasmus stated. “Though they appear very comparable, chickens have particular person responses, and a few are extra vulnerable to parasites than others.”
Erasmus is collaborating on her venture with Luiz Brito, affiliate professor of animal sciences at Purdue, and Purdue alumna Amy Murillo, assistant professor of entomology on the College of California, Riverside. The staff is also working intently with Hy-Line Worldwide, the world chief in egg-laying hen breeding, to deal with the problem.
“Indiana is a large poultry state. We’re uniquely located right here to work intently with our poultry collaborators and trade stakeholders,” Erasmus stated. “We’ll deal with the issue from completely different angles and hopefully present some steerage as to what the trade can do to cut back the impacts of those exterior parasites.”
The northern fowl mite is essentially the most economically expensive to the nation’s egg trade, inflicting decreased welfare and misplaced manufacturing in thousands and thousands of laying hens. Present strategies to combat this scourge are restricted, nonetheless.
A staff led by Purdue College’s Marisa Erasmus has a grant from the USDA’s Nationwide
Institute of Meals and Agriculture to enhance the well being and welfare of laying hens. The staff
will deal with figuring out genetic traits that might defend the hens from mite infestations.
(Photograph supplied by Marisa Erasmus, Purdue College)
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The appreciable particular person variation amongst laying hens probably affords genetic or genomic options to the issue. The Purdue-UC Riverside staff is combining its experience in animal conduct, genetics and genomics, and entomology to holistically perceive how particular person hens differ of their capacity to withstand mite infestations. Can chickens be bred, for instance, to have sure traits that can make them extra immune to exterior parasites?
One other facet of the analysis is the trade changeover from housing egg-laying chickens in cages to cage-free housing techniques.
“Controlling pests in cage-free techniques is extra difficult and difficult than cages,” Erasmus noticed. “A lot of these parasites are immune to some pesticides. And we’re restricted as to pesticides that can be utilized whereas making a product that’s going to be meals for human consumption.”
Fraley is collaborating on his venture with Darrin Karcher, affiliate professor of animal sciences, and Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, professor of biological sciences. Indiana is the most important duck-producing state within the nation, which is the world’s third-largest duck producer. Poor welfare and undesirable behaviors can result in productiveness losses that value the duck trade thousands and thousands of {dollars} a yr.
Fraley’s staff is working with two trade companions, Maple Leaf Farms and Culver Duck.
“These two firms are the 2 largest duck producers in america,” Fraley stated. “They’ve been completely incredible companions, and so they’re very excited about what we’re doing.”
All poultry species are seasonal breeders, which means that they want lengthy days to develop and lay eggs. “Aside from that, little or no consideration has ever been given to the lighting,” Fraley stated. “A lot of the lighting techniques are designed for the advantage of the folks that work with the animals, not likely bearing in mind the way it might have an effect on the animals’ notion of their setting.”
Mammals, together with people, have three various kinds of coloration receptors and a grayscale receptor of their eyes. Hen eyes, in the meantime, have 4 or maybe 5 various kinds of coloration receptors. Additionally they have a double cone, a sort of coloration receptor of unknown perform. Scientists do know, nonetheless, that birds can see ultraviolet colours and doubtless some infrared.
“There’s completely nothing in our human expertise that may put together us to know how a hen visualizes its setting,” Fraley stated.
Geese, like chickens, usually lay their eggs outdoors of their nest containers, the place they turn into coated in excrement and must be thrown away.
“Possibly the lighting is such that they will’t actually see their nest containers in the event that they’re far sufficient away. We don’t know what the issues are, however we’re attempting to remove these undesirable behaviors that actually value the poultry trade thousands and thousands of {dollars} a yr,” he stated.
Author: Steve Koppes
Media contact: Maureen Manier, mmanier@purdue.edu
Sources: Marisa Erasmus, merasmus@purdue.edu; Greg Fraley, gfraley@purdue.edu.
Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;
Maureen Manier, Division Head, mmanier@purdue.edu
