The ban of antibiotic growth promoters in many countries necessitate the need for alternatives. This study aimed to assess the growth-promoting potency of nano-phytobiotics (NP) on broiler chickens by using a meta-analysis approach. A systematic search was conducted using online databases. Data of average daily feed intake (ADFI), average daily gain (ADG), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were pooled using a random-effect model and the overall effect size was quantified using mean difference (MD). Heterogeneity among the studies was checked using I2 statistics. A total of 11 studies (31 comparisons) using 3,584 broiler chickens were involved in this meta-analysis. Inclusion of NP had no significant effect on ADFI (MD=-1.20 g/bird/d; P=0.157; I2=32%). However, NP significantly improved ADG (MD=2.16 g/bird/d; P=0.002; I2=90%) and FCR (MD=-0.09; P<0.001; I2=91%). Subgroup analysis revealed that NP significantly improved (P<0.05) ADG when the studies using dose of 45-200 and 1,000-10,000 ppm, as well as 42 d study period. Meta-regression analysis also indicated that ADG improvement significantly associated (P<0.05) with the NP dose and study duration, which could explain 21% and 20% of heterogeneity, respectively. This meta-analysis provides evidence that NP inclusion could improve ADG and FCR without alter ADFI on broiler chickens. However, their efficacy may vary according to the NP dose and study duration.

H7N9 avian influenza has broken out in Chinese poultry 10 times since 2013 and impacted the industry severely. Although the epidemic is currently under control, there is still a latent threat. Epidemiological surveillance data for non-human H7N9 avian influenza from April 2013 to April 2020 were used to analyse the regional distribution and spatial correlations of positivity rates in different months and years and before and after comprehensive immunisation. In addition, positivity rate monitoring data were disaggregated into a low-frequency and a high-frequency trend sequence by wavelet packet decomposition (WPD). The particle swarm optimisation algorithm was adopted to optimise the least squares support-vector machine (LS-SVM) model parameters to predict the low-frequency trend sequence, and the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model was used to predict the high-frequency one. Ultimately, an LS-SVM-ARIMA combined model based on WPD was constructed. The virus positivity rate was the highest in late spring and early summer, and overall it fell significantly after comprehensive immunisation. Except for the year 2015 and the single month of December from 2013 to 2020, there was no significant spatiotemporal clustering in cumulative non-human H7N9 avian influenza virus detections. Compared with the ARIMA and LS-SVM models, the LS-SVM-ARIMA combined model based on WPD had the highest prediction accuracy. The mean absolute and root mean square errors were 2.4% and 2.0%, respectively. Low error measures prove the validity of this new prediction method and the combined model could be used for inference of future H7N9 avian influenza virus cases. Live poultry markets should be closed in late spring and early summer, and comprehensive H7N9 immunisation continued.

Objective: Chicken infectious anemia virus (CIAV) is an economically important emerging infec¬tion of poultry as it causes immunosuppression and reduces egg production. Although it is world¬wide distributed and first reported (single case) in Bangladesh in 2002, no epidemiological and serological investigations have been conducted. The current study aimed to conduct a serologi¬cal investigation on the prevalence of CIAV infection in broiler breeder and layer farms in some selected areas of Bangladesh. Materials and Methods: A total number of 460 sera samples were randomly collected from unvac¬cinated broiler breeder and layer flocks, of which 276 were from 11 broiler breeder farms and 184 from 12 layer farms. The sera samples were subjected to a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit to observe antibodies induced by CIAV. Results: Results demonstrated that the overall prevalence of CIAV was 83.6% among a total of 460 samples. In broiler breeder birds, the prevalence was 89.9%, whereas it was 78.3% in layer birds. A higher number of female birds was found to be seropositive than male birds. However, chickens of all age groups were found to be susceptible to the virus. Conclusions: These results indicate the presence of CIAV in Bangladesh, which may be the sequel of naturally occurring either vertical or horizontal infection in all bird flocks tested without clinical symptoms of the disease. A further epidemiological investigation will be required, followed by molecular isolation and characterization of the virus for suitable vaccine candidate selection and/ or preparation. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2021; 8(2.000): 323-329]

Objective: The influence of the degree of pigmentation, shine, weight, and form index on the hatchability rate of quail eggs (Coturnix coturnix japonica) was examined. Materials and Methods: Three thousand three hundred eggs were incubated after they were classified according to the degree of shell pigmentation: high (HP), medium (MP), and low (LP); shell shine: shiny (SS), and opaque; Egg weight: 13 gm; form index: 78%. The MannWhitney non-parametric test for independent samples was used to evaluate hatching data. Results: Hatchability was best in eggs with HP and SS (p < 0.05): 69.2% and 75.7%, respectively; eggs with MP had the lowest hatchability rate (63.1%). The highest risk of embryo death (17.8%) was observed in eggs containing LP (p < 0.05). Eggs weighing between 12 and 12.9 gm had the highest hatchability rate (p < 0.05) (79.11%). Eggs with a form index >78% had the highest hatch¬ability rate (p < 0.05) (67.62%). Conclusions: HP, MP shell eggs, and SS eggs with a weight of between 12.0 and 12.9 gm and a shape index of greater than 78% have a higher hatchability rate. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2021; 8(4.000): 629-634]

To investigate premium palm kernel cake (PKC) based diet’s effect on amino acid digestibility, this study conducted a feeding trial. Four groups of 150 day-old broiler chickens in every group were given four isocaloric diets using these formulation: Diet 1 - commercial feed for both starter and grower phase Diet 2 - broiler feed that contains 30% PKC for starter phase + commercial grower, Diet 3 - commercial starter + broiler feed that contains 45% PKC for grower phase (and Diet 4 - broiler feed that contains 30% PKC for starter phase + broiler feed that contains 45 % premium PKC for grower phase. During the experiment’s day 31, bird faeces’ samples were collected based on group diets in order to estimate the availability of amino acid as well as the digestibility of amino acids using balance experiment. Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography with photo-diode array detector was used to analyse amino acid. The findings showed no significant difference in digestibility of amino acids with p<0.05 in the feed broiler chickens’ comparison with commercial feed in terms of different levels of PKC based diet. This study shows that by including 30-45% premium PKC in poultry diet, it could contribute as protein source in broiler feed production with suitable supplementation of essential amino acid. Further studies are encouraged to combine the analysis of excreta, ileal digesta and growth performance in order to achieve more concrete findings.

The poultry industry is the most advanced and independent among livestock industry in Malaysia with over 100 percent self-sufficient level (SSL) since 2004. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI) has launched National Agrofood Policy 2021-2030 (DAN 2.0) in October 2021. One of the objectives is to increase the poultry’s SSL to 140.2 % by 2030, an increase from 104.10 % in 2020. The objective of this study was to analyze the production cost of selected commercial broiler farms in Malaysia. The scope of the study was to evaluate the economic assessment of broiler production in order to understand the industry widely and also to identify which segments along the production line need to be improved and at the same time to ensure that this industry remains competitive and productive. Production cost data were obtained from selected commercial broilers via questionnaire forms. The result showed that the average broiler production cost is RM4.40/kg. Small farms have higher total average cost per kg, which is RM4.70, followed by commercial scale farms at RM4.43 and medium-scale farms at RM4.29, respectively. Feed cost contributes 66 % of the total production cost of whole expenditure followed by day-old chick’s cost, 19 %. The average profit estimation is RM0.65/kg based on RM5.05/kg for the ex-farm price of live poultry.