Scientist changing nutrition of hens to breed more robust chickens

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Chicken is Australia's favourite protein and the regulations governing our poultry industry are some of the best in the world. Now, scientists are exploring new ways to make the industry more sustainable and chickens more robust.

Transcript

00:00These chickens are robust, possibly more robust than your average bird.

00:08What makes them so is years of research.

00:13The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation Research Institute

00:17is part of a consortium that, for the past five years,

00:21has been looking at the nutrition of hens and broiler breeders.

00:25Professor Eugenie Rorra is heading up the project.

00:31We're looking at mother-hand nutrition.

00:36We want to understand how we can improve that nutrition of the parental generation

00:42and how that has an impact on the broiler progeny,

00:48the broilers that ultimately will be grown for me.

00:55The aim of the project is to see if, by changing the nutrition of the mother hens,

01:03will it make a transgenerational step and increase the robustness of day-old chicks.

01:11So why are they interested?

01:12The one-day-old chick, the chick that has just hatched,

01:17that is the most vulnerable of their lifetime.

01:22So we want that chick to be as robust as possible,

01:26good development of the immune system, of the digestive system,

01:31because they have to endure at that hatching time,

01:35they have to endure a very harsh environment sometimes.

01:38The environment refers to the natural life cycle of the chicks.

01:45Changing from a yolk-based, liquid-based diet to solid feed,

01:48that transition can be harsh for the chicks.

01:52The hatching of the egg exposes the animal to the external environment,

01:56introducing potential bacteria and pathogens,

01:58with chicks most vulnerable to infections such as E. coli.

02:02The percentage of deaths can vary a lot between farms.

02:07Management and hygiene practices help determine the final incidence.

02:12But it is low.

02:14There's a mortality rate below 1% in the first week

02:17in modern commercial production systems.

02:20So there's a number of big steps for a baby chick of 45 to 50 grams to endure,

02:25and to have a good start on their life.

02:28The genetics of the broiler chickens together with the optimised practices

02:34that we see in commercial practice,

02:36that's what makes the industry so successful, in my view.

02:40that's what makes the big difference.

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