Progress 10/01/15 to 05/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this work was poultry producers, poultry breeders and entities interested in food-borne illness and animal health. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Field research opportunities were provided for two Ph.D. students and one postdoctoral researcher. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Environmental factors that influence poultry exposure to parasites and pathogens were characterized for production systems that allow chickens to forage outdoors. This effort was focused on the ongoing transition of the poultry industry from caged and indoor housing to outdoor cage-free systems. The concern is that poultry outdoors will contact the soil and wild birds, which will increase the risk of infectious disease from soil-borne parasites and pathogens, or infectious organisms carried by wild bird species. To determine relative disease risk to poultry in the outdoors, we have been measuring wild bird abundance and diversity among farms with and without livestock. Those wild birds have also been captured and sampled (blood, serum, tracheal swabs and feces). Preliminary data indicate that wild birds are more abundant on farms with livestock, and the proportion of the wild bird population made up of invasive species (e.g. Starlings, House sparrows, Pigeons) is larger on farms with livestock. The screened samples indicate that wild birds and poultry are both infected with the enteric pathogen Campylobacter jejuni. In addition, poultry maintained outdoors are commonly infected with soil-borne parasites such as Coccidia and intestinal worms. These data suggest that poultry transitioned to outdoor production systems have an elevated risk of infectious diseases that are relatively uncommon for indoor production. 2. The effect of poultry immunogenetics on metabolic responses to northern fowl mites was tested. Previous research revealed that layer poultry infested by northern fowl mites (NFM) have reduced feed conversion and lower egg production (Mullens et al. 2009). In addition, the immunological genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are known to affect resistance of poultry to NFM infestations (Owen et al. 2009). Following this work we measured metabolic rates in poultry posessing different MHC haplotypes before and after infestations with NFM. We observed that MHC affected resistance to NFM, but that the immunogenetic effect was only pronounced when ambient temperatures were high. This suggested an environment x gene interaction for host resistance. There were no significant effects of NFM infestation on hen resting metabolic rate. However, infested birds did have lower feed conversion rates, indicating that infestations caused a change in energy and nutrient use of the host birds (Murillo et al. 2016).
Publications
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Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience:Poultry scientists and poultry producers. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training of 1 Ph.D. student and 1 postdoctoral researcher How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Determine environmental factors that influence parasite and pathogen exposure for poultry: This effort is focused on the ongoing industry transition from caged poultry and indoor housing to allowing birds access to the outdoor environment and cage-free maintenance. The concern is that contact of poultry with the soil and wild birds will increase the risk of infectious disease from soil-borne parasites and pathogens, or infectious organisms carried by wild bird species. To determine relative disease risk to poultry in the outdoors, we have been measuring wild bird abundance and diversity among farms with and without livestock. Those wild birds have also been captured and sampled (blood, serum, tracheal swabs and feces). Those samples will be screened for parasites and pathogens infectious to poultry (e.g. respiratory viruses, E. coli and Salmonella). Preliminary data indicate that wild birds are more abundant on farms with livestock (Figure 1), and the proportion of the wild bird population made up of invasive species (e.g. Starlings, House sparrows, Pigeons) is larger on farms with livestock (Figure 2). This is important because invasive species are known to harbor poultry parasites and pathogens (Burns et al. 2012). Testing the effect of poultry MHC on metabolic responses to northern fowl mites: Previous research revealed that layer poultry infested by northern fowl mites (NFM) have reduced feed conversion and lower egg production (Mullens et al. 2009). In addition, the major histocompatibility complex in known to affect resistance of poultry to NFM infestations (Owen et al. 2009). Following this work we measured metabolic rates in poultry with different MHC haplotypes and infested with NFM. We observed that MHC affected resistance to NFM, but that the immunogenetic effect was only pronounced when ambient temperatures were high. This suggested an environment x gene interaction for host resistance. There were no significant effects of NFM infestation on hen resting metabolic rate. However, infested birds did have lower feed conversion rates, indicating that infestations caused a change in energy and nutrient use of the host birds (Murillo et al. 2016). References: Mullens, B.A., Owen, J.P., Kuney, D.R., Szijj, C.E., Klingler, K.A. (2009) Temporal changes in distribution, prevalence, intensity of northern fowl mite (Ornithonyssus sylviarum) parasitism in commercial caged laying hens, with a comprehensive economic analysis of parasite impact. Veterinary Parasitology 160: 116-133. Owen, J.P., Delany, M.E., Cardona, C.J., Bickford, A., Mullens, B.A. (2009) Host inflammatory response governs fitness in an avian ectoparasite, the northern fowl mite (Ornithonyssus sylviarum). International Journal for Parasitology 39 (7): 789-799.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Murillo, A.C., Chappell, M.A., Owen, J.P., Mullens, B.A. (2016) Northern Fowl Mite (Ornithonyssus sylviarum) Effects on Metabolism, Body Temperatures, Skin Condition, and Egg Production as a Function of Hen MHC Haplotype. Poultry Science. 95:25362546.
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