Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The small and medium scale poultry farming is a significant subset of the poultry industry that plays a pivotal role in household poverty reduction, community development, food security and maintaining the biodiversity of the birds. However, small and medium scale poultry farming faces several challenges, including reduced production efficiency, disease management, and market competition. This multi-regional, multi-institutional, and multi-disciplinary proposal integrating research, extension and education aims to improve poultry farming practices by introducing an economical, user-friendly, and scalable strategy of incorporating oxygen nanobubbles into poultry drinking water. The effect of enhanced oxygen supplementation via drinking water will be studied in four broad research area namely (1) gut health and production efficiency, (2) disease management focusing on Necrotic Enteritis, (3) carcass/meat quality, and (4) cost-benefit analysis of the invention. Project results will be disseminated to scientific groups, farmers, stakeholders and community through workshops, social media, webinars and conference presentations. Moreover, research findings from the grant will be included in current university curriculum to train the next generation of the workforce after the life of the grant. The program staff consists of a combination of young, mid-career, and senior scientists with expertise in poultry production, disease management, microbiology, meat quality, poultry economics, extension and education. Successful completion of this project will translate into increased sustainability and profitability for small and medium scale poultry farmers.
Animal Health Component
80%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
80%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Our long-term goal is to help small and medium farmers in developing a profitable and sustainable poultry production system by providing them with easy to use and effective oxygen nanobubble technology. We plan to adopt a hypothesis driven and science-based approach to validate the efficacy of oxygen nanobubble technology in improving the production, meat quality and disease resistance of broiler chickens. Moreover, the efficacy of oxygen nanobubble supplementation will be developed, tested and evaluated in collaboration with farmers from different regions of the U.S. Although scientific aspects of nanobubble technology appear complex, the technology is economical and easy to adopt on small and medium farms.To ensure project success and a wide outreach, we have formed a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional and multi-regional team of researchers, educators and extension faculty. We have preliminary data confirming the efficacy of oxygen nanobubbles in improving poultry performance, prior experience working with poultry and developing and delivering team-based extension programs for small and medium scale poultry farmers.Successful completion of the proposed project will provide poultry farmers with an easy to use, effective and economical invention that empowers their business and boosts profitability. Moreover, our education component will provide training to the next generation of workforce (farmers, students) through our university curriculum and extension programs. Specific objectives are described below.Objective 1. Improve gut health and production parameters in broiler chickens by supplementation of oxygen nanobubbles in poultry drinking water.Objective 2.Control Necrotic Enteritis in broiler chickens by supplementation of oxygen nanobubbles in poultry drinking water.Objective 3.Study meat quality and consumer acceptability of broiler carcass obtained from poultry supplemented with oxygen nanobubbles in drinking water.Objective 4: Conduct a cost/benefit analysis on the research, extension and education efforts of the project.Objective 5. Enhancing farmer knowledge and engagement through extension, outreach and training.Objective 6: Develop instructional materials and incorporate into existing university curriculum.
Project Methods
Objective 1. Improve gut health and production parameters in broiler chickens by supplementation of oxygen nanobubbles in poultry drinking water.We will use the high-pressure air-water shearing method for generating oxygen nanobubbles. A total of 240 Cornish cross chicks (1-day-old) will be procured from a local hatchery and randomly assigned to 2 treatment groups: control group (basal diet, normal water, ad libitum), and oxygen nanobubble group (basal diet, water infused with oxygen nanobubbles). Each treatment group will have 4 replicates (30 chicks/replicate). After the experimental period of 6 weeks, birds will be sacrificed followed by necropsy, sample collection and analysis. The study will be repeated two times. The feed and water intake of broiler chickens within each replicate will be recorded daily to calculate the average daily feed intake by the group. Feed conversion rate (total feed intake/total body weight gain within each replicate) will be calculated. After euthanasia and processing, the carcass and internal organs (gizzard, liver, abdominal fat, heart, spleen, bursa) will be weighed and expressed as a percentage from the broilers' live weight. Dressed weight will be calculated as (Carcass weight + giblets weight)/ Live body weight. The serum will be collected from the birds and analyzed for urea, creatinine, total protein, albumin, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity using commercially available kit. Duodenum, jejunum, and ileum samples will be collection using buffered formalin saline (10%) and processed using standard histological procedure. Villus to crypt ratio, villus length and depth of the crypt will be measured to access intestinal health. Cecal contents will be collected aseptically and subjected to microbiome analysis on the Illumina MiSeq platform using v2 2x250 base pair kit (Illumina, Inc.). Duodenum, Jejunum and ileum samples from the control and oxygen nanobubble treatment groups will be processed for transcriptome analysis. The metabolome of duodenum, jejunum and ileum digesta from birds will be analyzed via the untargeted LC-MS-based metabolomics approach.Objective 2. Control Necrotic Enteritis in broiler chickens by supplementation of oxygen nanobubbles in poultry drinking water.The preparation and characterization of oxygen nanobubble water will be conducted as described in objective 1. One-day-old broiler chicks (Cornish cross, all females; n=240) will be procured from a local hatchery and divided into 4 treatments with 2 replicates per treatment and 30 birds per replicate. The 4 treatments are as follows: 1) Challenged-control: Birds challenged with Clostridium perfringens, fed normal feed and water. 2) Non-challenged control: Birds not challenged with the pathogen, fed normal feed and water. 3) Challenged-oxygen nanobubble group: Birds challenged with Clostridium perfringens, fed normal feed but water with oxygen nanobubbles from day 1. 4) Non-challenged-oxygen nanobubble group: Birds not challenged with the pathogen, fed normal feed but water with oxygen nanobubbles from day 1. On day 14, the birds in the challenge groups will be orally gavage with 15,000 sporulated Eimeria maxima M6 oocysts. On Day 24, birds will be orally infected with a 3-strain mixture of 9 log CFU of C. perfringens. The Clostridium isolates that we will use is confirmed to be cpa and netB positive. Following challenge, a subset of birds (n=10 out of 30/timepoint) will be sacrificed on day 26, 36, and 46 to collect ileal tissue and digesta to analyze the histopathology, pathogen colonization, and inflammation markers. The body weight of birds will be measure on day 1, 7, 14, 24, 26, 36 and 46. The study will be repeated two times.Objective 3. Study meat quality and consumer acceptability of broiler carcass obtained from poultry supplemented with oxygen nanobubbles in drinking water.The design of the study is same as described in objective 1. After 6 weeks of age, following a 10 h period of feed withdrawal, broilers will be processed at the University of Connecticut, meat processing lab using standard commercial procedures. Chilled carcasses will be cut-up and deboned at 3 h post-mortem. Breast yield will be determined, and all samples will be evaluated for meat quality and yield. Quantitative quality and sensory testing will be conducted on products.Objective 4: Conduct a cost/benefit analysis on the research, extension and education efforts of the project.We will perform a cost/benefit analysis that will allow for the comparison of the benefits of administration of the oxygen nanobubble treatments, versus the cost of such applications. We will develop a mathematical production function, which maps categories of inputs (oxygen nanobubble supplementation, machine cost, labor, etc.) to productive outputs (reduction in Necrotic Enteritis, Improvement in production, and meat quality). The benefits will be directly observed from the objectives. The costs will include the costs of the supplement, estimates for labor time and the cost associated with rapid screening using infection model proposed in objective 2.Objective 5. Enhancing farmer knowledge and engagement through extension, outreach and training.We will conduct outreach to the small and medium poultry farming community, extension specialists and interested stakeholders through conferences, focus group meetings, social media and workshops. We will measure the impact of outreach efforts through surveys and post program evaluations at UConn, UKY, and TSU. These will help understand the impact of our outreach through various methods and how the stakeholders, and farming community envisions the project overall. Follow-up assessments such as post-program evaluations will be distributed to participants at meetings and other direct contact programs. These would include conferences, workshops, on-farm demonstrations, and focus group meetings. These evaluations will help determine if their knowledge/practices have changed as a result of the educational effort. It is expected that poultry producers would increase their knowledge on benefits and new practices in poultry production. A logic model depicting the key components of the proposed study and its impact is included.Objective 6: Develop instructional materials and incorporate into existing university curriculum.?We will focus on developing poultry sustainability topics that this grant addresses. The research conducted from obj #1-4, will provide additional material on impact of novel strategies on small and medium scale poultry production. The research data will be developed into teachable curriculum and integrated into current poultry focuses courses (ANSC 2271-Principles of Poultry Science, 3 credits; SAAS 271-Introduction to the Poultry Industry, 3 credits; SAAS 375- Management Skills and Practices- Poultry, 1 credit) taught by Dr. Abhi Upadhyay at the University of Connecticut. In addition, we will share our teaching experiences in topics related to small and medium scale poultry production research in a presentation or poster at the Poultry Science Association annual meeting or International Production and Processing Expo (Georgia), or the Midwest Poultry Federation convention (Minneapolis). Select undergraduate and graduate students will also be trained in these specialized topics.