Intro to AniSci --Dairy, July 31st

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Poultry, Friday, July 10th

Larger bird= more meat for deboning
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Broilers
Body weight at market age 6.6#
Feed consumed to reach that weight 11.22#

Feed conversion ratio
11.22/6.6= 1.70:1

Feed efficiency

6.6/11.22= .588= 58.8%

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If mortality is to occur, the younger the better so not so much money is wasted.

less than 4 wks = bone & muscle (a lot of water)
more than 4 wks = fat

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There are 60 breeds of chickens
Three main purposes: MEATS, EGGS, ORNAMENTALS (pets)
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Primary breeders genetically select and sell chickens
"the heart of today's poultry industry"
No other animal industry has the degree of centralization that the poultry industry has

GOAL: To improve genetic performance capabilities of different strains & to maintain sufficient numbers.

Very high biosecurity -----------------Elite

GGPs

GPS

Parent Stock

Low biosecurity ---------- Commercial Broilers & Layers

Elite & GGPs - major genetic selection for "desired traits"
GPs & Parent Stock- US & UK provide breeding stock
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Broiler houses have no cages/laying boxes because the birds never make it to sexual maturity. We harvest them young.
Broiler Breeder houses do have cages/laying boxes because we want their eggs to hatch to produce the next generation of broiler roosters & hens. These are chickens that have desired genetics and we wish to keep the genetic strain going.

Meat birds will reach sexual maturity at 23 weeks
Egg layer birds reach sexual maturity at 18-19 weeks

AT THE HATCHERY
Fertilized eggs are collected and placed in setting trays. These trays do not have sides.
At 18 days, the eggs will be moved to hatching trays (have sides).

AT THE CHICKEN HOUSE
Partial house brooding. "Brood" is German for supplemental heat.
Wood shavings are "bedding" when clean & "litter" when dirty.
Litter is composted, not bedding (bedding is clean)!
A serviceperson is the inspector/representative for the poultry company.

Beef cattle can eat poultry litter. Good for the grass too. High in nitrogen. Can be burnt as well but burning it "is a waste." Composting @ temps of 140-160*F kills all pathogens. Compost is a biologically stable organic matter; it is no longer excrement.


----- Chicken House Facts

• 45,000 broilers average
• 264,000# of live birds
• 440,000# of feed consumed
• 160,000 gallons of H2O consumed
• 66,000 of manure produced
• 2009 = 9 BILLION BROILERS!

Accounting for inflation, broilers cost 1/2 of the 1966 price.
...why? better breeding, birds, health, equipment, mgmt, processing, marketing, & nutrition. All around better.

1955- 95% of birds were sold whole @ $2/lb
2008- 95% of birds are sold cut up @ <$1/lb when on sale

THREE A's (KNOW!!)
Affordability
Appealing
Available everywhere

Poultry accounts for 1/3 of all meat consumed per year.
There are no age, cultural, or religious barriers when it comes to poultry.

"Broiler Belt"-- Broilers are produced in the SOUTHEAST
Three companies produce 40% of the broilers
1. Pilgrim's Pride =280# per second 24/7/365
2. Tyson Foods
3. Perdue Farms

Tyson uses 12million tons of feed per year. They eat corn for energy and soybean meal for protein

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Broiler- Contract Farms
Referred to as Broiler "GROWERS"
Average broiler house is 40x400ft
VERTICAL INTEGRATION describes the structure of the broiler industry

Who is responsible for what?
Grower
Land
Labor
Broiler house
Equipment
Litter

Company
Hatchery
Birds
Feed
Service person
Processing plant
Marketing
Final product distribution

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Layers
A layer should produce 300 eggs per year
When they are young, they are called "pullets"
When they mature, they are called "layers"
The comb size & color changes when they reach maturity
Egg size is related to the size (body weight) of the bird. As a young layer, the bird will produce small eggs. As the bird ages, the eggs will get bigger.

Poultry, Wednesday, July 8th (Jessie)

Chalazae holds the yolk in the center if the egg since the yolk is a lipid and it would float up.
The germinal disk ("germ spot") carries the female's reproductive information.
The airspace gets larger during incubation. At day 18, 1/4th of the egg is airspace.

Incubation Times (KNOW!)
Chicken 21 days
Turkey 28 days (baby turkey is a poult, not a chick)
Duck 28 days
Quail 24 days (makes "bob white" call)

At day One, the germ spot looks like a doughnut.
Day 15/16, feathers appear.
any yolk remaining at hatching equals disease.

Protein consumption per capita/per day
Developed countries: 65 grams
UnDeveloped countries: 15 grams

On the growth curve, broilers are killed during juvenile stage (7-9 weeks). Laying Hens are kept for 300-400 days.

Chickens are either used for meat or eggs.
Meat ("broilers") chickens or turkeys. Turkeys are white in captivity and brown in the wild.
Eggs come from either a White Leghorn or a Brown Egg Layer.

Nutritionally there is no difference between white or brown eggs. Also, the idea of paying more for fertile eggs is ridiculous. Fertile eggs can be purchased at flea markets and roadside stands. They are not allowed to be sold commercially.

Europe & Asia are big duck regions. Bejing used to be called Peking, which is where Peking Duck came from. Also, Guinea Fowl is popular. Has very colorful head.


There are 3 points to harvest at all within the Juvenile stage.
1. Cornish game hen. A 4-week old broiler harvested for the specialty market.
2. Fast food, cut-up, portion tray pack. Like the trays at Publix. Harvested at 36-42 days.
3. Further processing. Harvested at 55-60 days. In the future this may be 70 days.

At 4 weeks, the growth takes off, so there is quite a bit of difference between the cornish and the further processing chicken.

Broiler Parents (their eggs are hatched and chicks are grown as broilers) are expected to produce 160 eggs per year. There are 10 hens to 1 rooster.

The feather color and egg color don't coordinate. A brown chicken won't necessarily lay brown eggs. If you check the hens ear you can tell what color egg she lays- correct 90% of the time. White lobe= white egg... brown/red lobe= brown egg.

Chicken Pox; "fowl pox," mosquito vector. Can be wet (in eyes, often fatal) or dry (like kid chicken pox).

Broiler Breeding

Male (selected for growth) Breeder Pullet (selected for eggs)
\________________________________________/
^
Broiler

Target Broiler Breeder Female
- little fat
- max eggs
- normal size ova/eggs
- medium muscling
- 100% of bone established
- meets needs of vital organs and maintenance

Broiler Breeder Males
Rooster semen cannot be frozen although it can be collected and used for AI fresh.
Want lean. Use restricted feeding; 150-170 grams of feed/day.

For processing UNIFORMITY is key. The process is so mechanized that an overly large chicken would mess up the process. Bird must fit in shackle. Line speed of 2 birds per second is typical.

In 1992 it took 52 days to get a bird to 5lbs. In 2007, it only took 45-ish days.
In 1994, 15% of the bird was breast. In 2006, 21% of the bird was breast.

Historically there has been an increase in livability and a decrease in field condemnation. (We're getting better at this)

Poultry, Monday, July 6th (Sean)

Structure of the Poultry Industry

(There is more known about the nutritional requirements of chickens than any other species, including humans.)

Hormone Myth: Birds are big because of hormones.
There are 2 types of Hormones
Steroid- anabolic; testosterone & estrogen
Polypeptide- human insulin (must be injected because if taken orally it will be digested), growth hormone

Eight Reasons Why We Don't Use Hormones
1. Their use is illegal. The FDA does not allow hormones in any type of poultry.
2. No firm sells hormones for poultry. There is no market, so there is no producer.
3. Their cost is prohibitive. It would be very expensive to develop and market an illegal drug.
4. Administration is difficult. If given orally, steroids would be digested. Would need to be injected repeatedly. Costly labor-wise. With 9 billion broilers being produced every year, this would be impossible.
5. They impact performance "negatively." Even without steroids, the bird can "outgrow its legs & feathering," "living on the edge as is." Sometimes feed must be restricted or the feed's nutrient density has to be adjusted.
6. They do not act like "steroids." Steroid use requires exercise to gain muscle mass. We do not want these chickens to use energy. We want them to sit, stand, eat, and rest; that is all. Any energy use beyond that is a waste of feed. No exercise = No benefit from anabolic steroids. (Breast muscles haven't been used for flying for thousands of years)
7. They're not 100% effective. We want a large breast. Steroid use will not target the breast only. Plus adding any hormones to the chicken interrupts the growth cascade. Growth has to happen in a specific order, at a specific rate. Any interruption to the growth cascade can ruin the chicken.
8. They're simply not needed. We have excellent genetics. These birds are selected for their high feed intake which spurs the rapid growth. Chickens have the best feed conversion ratio of all land animals (1.8-1.9 lb of feed per lb of body weight).

Most commonly asked question... "Why does the Poultry Industry use hormones?"
...not "Does the Poultry Industry use hormones?"
Chickens are NEVER fed hormones. The only hormones you will find in the chicken are the ones that occur naturally.

EGG ----------------> BROILER
takes 7 weeks

a finished broiler will be 100x it's hatch weight
at 4 wks old, problems may start occurring, especially if hot

Genetically speaking, domestic chickens originated from Red Jungle Fowl (be able to recognize).

Documented use in India 3200 BC, China 1400 BC. They were brought to Europe for cockfighting. Then to the Caribbean (& south Florida, Mexico, etc) for religious rituals like voodoo.

The "Real" Beginning
All Birds came from reptiles. Feathers are modified scales.

Archaeoteryx (know how to spell!)
means "ancient wing"

Nine have been discovered so far. In 1861 the first one was discovered in Bavaria, Germany. They are about 2 feet tall and about 1lb. They might not have been able to fly but they could have soared from trees and ledges.

Commercial Poultry
Chick hatches using an egg tooth.
Egg tooth is made out of keratin.
Your heel is soft keratin; nails are hard keratin.
If you add more sulfur to your diet you keratin will get stronger. (why burning hair, nails, skin, smells like sulfur)

cysteine- disulfide bridge -cysteine

Insulin also has a disulfide bridge

== Copied from internet but sums up what he said ==
keratin: Fibrous structural protein of hair, nails, hooves, wool, feathers, and skin. A quarter of the amino acids in keratin are cystine, whose ability to form strong bridging (disulfide) bonds with other cystine units accounts for keratin's great stability.========


Hen Reproduction



<--- ova is just a yolk


<--- sperm gland at base of infundibulum


<--- Magnum- Albumen white is added


<--- Isthmus- membrane & chalazae are added



<--- Uterus- shell gland (starts to lay shell, takes 20 hours)

<--- sperm gland at entrance to vagina

<--- cloaca means sewer

• Chalazae (2) are tightly bound protein spirals that are at each end of the yolk to keep the yolk in the center. A large chalazae indicates a fresh egg.

• Sperm glands ("nests") are crevices where the sperm can hide out for up to 10 days if there is an egg blocking the way to the infundibulum.

• 3 tracts meet at the end of the repro system; digestive, reproduction, & urinary (the white stuff in bird poo) After the egg is layed, it takes 21 days to hatch.

Wednesday July 1- Animal Science- Aquaculture

Fish
Egg (36-48h) --> Larvae (48h-38d) --> Fry --> Marketable Sub-Adult --> Spawners (2-4y)

Precocial- born with enough energy to get up and go; just like birds. From yolk.

Transition from endogenous to exogenous feeding.

It is physically hard to feed a larvae. Their mouths are too small. There is a big industry raising rotifers.

Sturgeon can take up to 30 years to reach sexual maturity.
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Mollusks
Egg (0-24h) --> Veliger (1-6d) --> Later Veliger (7-14d) --> Eyed Veliger (14-21d) --> Young Spat (21d, once settled it develops a shell) --> Adult (1-3y)

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Crustaceans

from top center clockwise:
egg (0-14hrs)
protozoa (48h-8d)
mysis (8d-12d)
postlarvae (12d-45d)
juvenile (45d-120d)
reproductive adult (1-2yrs)















There is the debate that crustaceans are simply harvested and never actually "belong" to anyone, so are they really AqC.

Life Stage Rearing Stage
Brood Stock domestication
Eggs hatchery
Larvae hatchery
Post-larvae/juvenile nursery
Juvenile/adult grow out

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THE UNDERWATER ENVIRONMENT

Sunlight --------------------Waste from man & natural inputs
\/ ------ \/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Algae, O2, FISH
Feed, NH3,
pH, Salts, Deposition & detritus,
Fecal Solids, CO2


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Kidneys regulate water.
Osmosis of fluids is the reason freshwater fish can't go in salt water & vice versa.

There is very little oxygen in water.
Parasites attach to the gills because that is the soft area of the fish.
Airstones don't oxygenate the water; they blow off the CO2.

Biological

crowding, handling
transportation
therapy (disease treatment)
bacteria (BOC, FC)
Plankton (chlorophyll)

Chemical
salinity, hardness, conductivity, pH, alkalinity
oxygen, CO2, dissolved gas, supersaturation, H2S, chlorine
ammonia, nitrate, nitrites
nitrogen, phosphorous

Physical
temperature
flow regime
water level
TSS/clarity
light
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Closed systems (where the water is recirculated) are 2x more costly than open systems.
Pond- catfish $.71
Recycled- tilapia $1.48

Common AqC species
channel catfish
tilapia
koi/carp (only a handful of domesticated species)
pearls
algae
shrimp

Monday June 29- Animal Science- Aquaculture

Aquaculture (shortened to AqC in these notes)

• AqC is the propagation, cultivation, & marketing of fish, shellfish, & plants from fresh, brackish, & salt water.
• AqC is agriculture: Farming in the water. Fishing is hunting. AgC is about domestication, where breeding is controlled and organisms are selected for particular traits & qualities.
• AqC production is acheived by human intervention involving physical control of the organism at some point in it's life cycle other than at harvest.
• Farming implies indiviual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated.

AqC goes beyond just harvesting. In 1996 AqC was recognized as agriculture therefore offering the same protection against "crop failures" that other farmers have.

AqC is the most efficient method of producing protein. In response to the starvation issues abroad in the 1940's (post-WWII), the US taught the countries how to use AqC to feed their populations.

AqC includes:

1. Finfish- fish with fins and usually scales. Includes all freshwater, marine, & brackish.
2. Shellfish- crustaceans; invertebrates that molt. Mollusks; invertebrates with large shells.
3. Seaweed- brown, red, & green algae
4. Other [didn't have enough time to copy from powerpoint]

AqC Applications

• food for direct human consumption
• as food for other AqC species
• bait for sport fishing
• recreational fishing (pond stocking)
• for restoration of wild stock
• experimental use
• biological control
• production of biofuel & biogas (seaweed)
• wastewater treatment
• misc market products; production of chemicals, skins, sponges, pearls
• ornamental or aquarium species

Benefits of AqC
- the supply of seafood no longer seems inexhaustable
- 40% of the world's seafood is from AqC

Feed Conversion Ratios (lb feed/lb meat)
cattle 7-8
swine 3-4
poultry 2 <-- most efficient land animal
catfish 1.5-2.0
salmon 1.1-2.1

*** feeding is the most expensive aspect of any food production industry***

Fish have better feed conversion because of they are cold blooded and do not have to regulate their temp. Also, the can float effortlessly and don't have gravity to impair their locomotion.

-The average person eats 15lbs of fish per year
-40% of today's shrimp is from AqC

When you look at a chart of how beef, poultry, fish, pork has been consumed:

• poultry has always been the most popular protein
• fish & poultry have never had any negative growth
• fish is consistently growing but never has steep changes like the other proteins do

-In the 1990's only catfish was AqC
-In 2006, most species are being produced by AqC
-Statistically, Asia produces the most fish through AqC (China #1, US #12 and falling lower every year)
-Chile has no naturally occuring salmon but is now the #1 producer of salmon
-Worldwide, carp is the #1 AqC species. It is hardy and low on the food chain.
-In the US catfish, trout, & salmon are the main AqC species

IN FLORIDA:
Tropical fish are the most lucretive AqC @ $115,645 per hectacre (~$50,000 acre)
Strawberries are about $3,000/acre