Financial impacts of a housing order on commercial free range egg layers in response to highly pathogenic avian influenza

Recent annual outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) have led to mandatory housing orders on commercial free-range flocks. Indefinite periods of housing, after poultry have had access to range, could have production and financial consequences for free range egg producers. The impact of these housing orders on performance of commercial flocks is seldom explored at a business level, predominantly due to the paucity of commercially sensitive data. The aim of this paper is to assess the financial and production impacts of a housing order on commercial free-range egg layers. We use a unique data set showing weekly performance of layers gathered from 9 UK based farms over the period 2020-2022. These data cover an average of 100,000 laying hens and include two imposed housing orders, in 2020/2021 and in 2021/22. We applied a random intercept linear regression to assess impacts on physical outputs and inputs, bird mortality and the impacts on revenue, feed costs and margin over feed cost. Feed use and feed costs per bird increased during the housing order which is a consequence of increased control over diet intake in housed compared to ranged birds. An increase in revenue was also found, ostensibly due to a higher proportion of large eggs produced, leading to a higher margin over feed cost. Overall, these large commercial poultry sheds were able to mitigate some of the potential adverse economic effects of housing orders. Potential negative impacts may occur dependant on the duration of the housing order and those farms with less control over their input costs

Management and biosecurity practices by small to medium egg producers in Scotland

1. Information about procedures and biosecurity practices used by small and medium egg producers (SMEPs) is scarce. Anecdotal evidence suggests that biosecurity in such enterprises may be poor, as personnel and equipment move freely between sites and this may be compounded by personnel working on commercial units who keep their own poultry. 2. To fill this knowledge gap, a questionnaire was designed and implemented targeting SMEPs in Scotland. Small enterprises were defined as egg producers that have ≥50 laying hens but &lt;350 laying hens; while medium enterprises were defined as egg producers that have ≥350 laying hens but ≤32 000 laying hens. The questionnaire consisted of a total of 56 questions divided into multiple sections, covering the characteristics of the primary keeper, location of the enterprise and size of the flocks, husbandry, marketing of products and health/biosecurity. 3. The questionnaire was posted to 375 holdings at the beginning of March 2017 and the survey remained open until the end of May 2017. In total 90 questionnaires were received by the cut-off date of which 76 questionnaires were from SMEPs. Forty were small enterprises and 36 were medium enterprises. For three questionnaires, it was not possible to identify the enterprise type. 4. Differences were observed between SMEPs in terms of reported biosecurity and management practices, with medium enterprises reporting the adoption of more biosecurity measures than small enterprises. Furthermore, SMEPs behave differently from backyard poultry keepers and large commercial companies in terms of disease risk. 5. In conclusion, it is important to ensure that SMEPs are considered in contingency plans and disease control programmes and that engagement with them is promoted so that the uptake of relevant information, such as awareness of disease control programmes, is optimised.</p

CHAPTER X. ELEVATION OF THE CRATER BOTTOM AND THE FUTURE ACTIVITY OF THE ASAMA-YAMA(THE ERUPTIONS AND EARTHQUAKES OF THE ASAMA-YAMA)

The study evaluated the effect of a novel commercial preparation of natural blend of essential oils from basil, caraway, laurel, lemon, oregano, sage, tea, and thyme (Tecnaroma Herbal Mix PL) on growth performance, blood biochemistry, cecal morphology, and carcass quality of broilers. Six nutritionally adequate wheat and soybean-based diets were generated by the addition of Tecnaroma Herbal Mix PL at 0, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 g/t of feed. The diets were fed as crumbs in the starter phase (d 0–10) and as pellets during the grower (d 10–24) and finisher (d 24–42) phases. Nine hundred sixty 1-d-old chicks were allocated to the 6 dietary treatments each having 8 replicate pens with 20 birds per pen. The data obtained were analyzed using ANOVA with a P < 0.05 level of significance. Birds fed diets supplemented with Tecnaroma Herbal Mix PL had significantly heavier BW and higher (P < 0.05) weight gain and had improved (P < 0.05) feed to gain ratio compared with the control group during grower phase and overall performance. The blood biochemistry results showed no differences (P > 0.05) between treatments. The carcass weight, breast weight, and relative percentage of breast meat increased (P < 0.05) when diets were supplemented with Tecnaroma Herbal Mix PL compared with that from birds fed the control diet. The inclusion level of 300 g of Tecnaroma Herbal Mix PL/t of feed was optimum for enhancing breast meat yield and nutrient utilization as indicated by increased (P < 0.05) cecal villus surface area