Evaluation of Selected Nuproxa Feed Additives for protection against lameness and improving the wellbeing of broilers in a lameness challenge model

A common concern in commercial industries profiting from broiler chickens is their inability to yield a completely healthy flock. Bacterial Chondronecrosis with Osteomyelitis poses a threat to these companies by impairing the birds\u27 proximal and distal tibial and femoral heads. In 2000, roughly 17.3% of broiler chickens were affected by Bacterial Chondronecrosis with Osteomyelitis which caused a substantial economic loss in the industry (McNammee et al., 2000). BCO cannot be tied to a particular bacterial species; this experiment focuses on evaluating the efficacy of certain commercial feed additives while determining the bacterial species causing BCO in this set of the flock by process of induction of the disease, manipulation, and maintenance of flock lifestyle, and eventual necropsy of the chickens. The farm setup where this experiment was conducted consisted of 26 pens and 1560 male chicks. Of the 26 pens, 2 of the pens were wire floored to create physical stress on the lower extremities, while the other 24 pens were litter floored. The pens were arranged in two rows of 13 and were 5*10 feet squared. The initial two pens of each row, pens 1 and 14, were the wire floored pens. Each pen began with 60 chicks and was eventually culled down to 50 chicks per pen on day 14. The pens received standard feed starter in crumbles from days 1-34 and then were switched to a finisher given through pellets from days 35-56. The six different treatment groups were distributed over the 26 pens and consisted of varying amounts of Nuproxa feed additives. Pens 1 and 14 were designated under treatment one and were the pens used to induce lameness through wire flooring and a standard diet without additives. A further detailed description of the treatments can be found in Table 1. Beginning on day 22, the birds were weighed and diagnosed as lameness began to appear. On day 56, the remaining birds underwent an extensive necropsy on the last day of the trial. They were weighed, their tibia and femurs were evaluated, samples of their lesions on their tibia and femur were taken, and Inflammasome and FITC-D analysis was completed

Bases del diseño de un dispositivo para la evaluación no destructiva de la textura en frutos y hortalizas.

Se estudia la utilidad de un dispositivo para la determinación objetiva de la textura, en su aspecto mecánico, de frutos en movimiento en una posible línea de clasificación. Se establecen las especificaciones del funcionamiento del posible dispositivo para su diseño, así como los aspectos del mismo que han de ser aún estudiados para los diversos frutos de interés