EFFECT OF PERINATAL NUTRITION AND FEED FORMULATION ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND HEALTH OF POULTRY

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1010897
• Project Start Date: Nov 1, 2016
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2021
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV
(N/A)
RALEIGH,NC 27695

Performing Department
Poultry Science

Non Technical Summary
The food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations lists 4 primary challenges for the future: 1) increased demand for poultry products; 2) threat of disease epidemics; 3) environment and climate change; and 4) competition for feed sources (http://www.fao.org). North Carolina and the USA are major players in the global efforts to meet these challenges, particularly as the demand for poultry products will increase significantly as the world population approaches 9 billion within the next generation. These four future challenges will be addressed by some aspect of this project. As genetic selection for rapid growth in broilers and turkeys progress in attempt to meet the rapidly increasing world demand for poultry meat, the period of embryonic and neonatal development is becoming an increasing proportion of the productive life of poultry. Perinatal nutrition is especially becoming a constraint on the growth performance and welfare of meat-type poultry. This perinatal period is also critical time for the establishment of a "healthy" gut microflora that resists the colonization of pathogens that may risk animal welfare and human food safety. As the demand for poultry raised without antibiotics increases, finding strategically sustainable alternatives is a high priority as the poultry industry strives to maintain the efficiency of nutrient utilization, productivity, and environmental and biological sustainability. Therefore, this project will focus on two primary areas: early nutrition, and feed formulation/manufacturing technologies to achieve the following general objectives: 1) enhance perinatal development of the enteric ecosystem of broilers and turkeys by a novel technology developed in our laboratory called "in ovo feeding"; 2) improve the efficiency of nutrient utilization from feeds by the use of feed additives and feed manufacturing technology; and 3) enhance enteric health of poultry without development of antimicrobial resistance of enteric pathogens by nutritional manipulation.

Animal Health Component

60%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

30%

Applied

60%

Developmental

10%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
302	3220	1010	20%
302	3230	1010	20%
315	3299	1010	20%
308	3220	1010	10%
308	3230	1010	10%
306	3299	1050	10%
307	3220	1060	10%

Knowledge Area
302 - Nutrient Utilization in Animals; 308 - Improved Animal Products (Before Harvest); 306 - Environmental Stress in Animals; 307 - Animal Management Systems; 315 - Animal Welfare/Well-Being and Protection;

Subject Of Investigation
3220 - Meat-type chicken, live animal; 3299 - Poultry, general/other; 3230 - Turkey, live animal;

Field Of Science
1060 - Biology (whole systems); 1010 - Nutrition and metabolism; 1050 - Developmental biology;

Keywords

broilers

turkeys

perinatal nutrition

feed ingredients and supplements

feed manufacturing

enteric health

animal health and welfare

antimicrobial resistance

muscle and skeletal development

poultry meat quality

Goals / Objectives
The food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations lists 4 primary challenges for the future: 1) increased demand for poultry products; 2) threat of disease epidemics; 3) environment and climate change; and 4) competition for feed sources (Besedes et al., 2007). North Carolina and the USA are major players in the global efforts to meet these challenges, particularly as the demand for poultry products will increase significantly as the world population approaches 9 billion within the next generation. These four future challenges will be addressed by some aspect of this project. As genetic selection for rapid growth in broilers and turkeys progress in attempt to meet the rapidly increasing world demand for poultry meat, the period of embryonic and neonatal development is becoming an increasing proportion of the productive life of poultry. Perinatal nutrition is especially becoming a constraint on the growth performance and welfare of meat-type poultry. This perinatal period is also critical time for the establishment of a "healthy" gut microflora that resists the colonization of pathogens that may risk animal welfare and human food safety. As the demand for poultry raised without antibiotics increases, finding strategically sustainable alternatives is a high priority as the poultry industry strives to maintain the efficiency of nutrient utilization, productivity, and environmental and biological sustainability. Therefore, this project will focus on two primary areas: early nutrition, and feed formulation/manufacturing technologies.The general objectives of this project with turkeys and broilers is as follows:Enhance perinatal development of the enteric ecosystem of broilers and turkeys by in ovo feedingImprove the efficiency of nutrient utilization from feeds by the use of feed additives and feed manufacturing technologyEnhance enteric health without development of antimicrobial resistance of enteric pathogens by nutritional manipulation: study the relationship between enteric microflora and nutrition in young turkeys and broilers.

Project Methods
Enhance the early development of broilers and turkeys by in ovo feedingA series of experiments will be conducted to evaluate various in ovo feeding solution formulations on early development of broilers and turkeys. As described in Uni et al. (2004), the in-ovo feed solutions will be prepared and administered to broiler and turkey embryos during the last quarter of incubation (E17-18 days and E22-24 day of incubation for broilers and turkey, respectively). Each experimental treatment group will comprise of at least 100 eggs according to similar weight distributions. The eggs will be injected with the in ovo feeding solutions manually or robotically using a specially designed needle developed by Embrex, Inc. (Durham, NC). The eggs will then be returned to the incubator and normal hatchery protocol followed through hatch. All IOF solutions will be evaluated for microbial stability, osmotic pressure, pH, and viscosity prior to injection into the eggs. Depending on the experimental objectives, the measurements will be made to evaluate enteric histochemistry (Foye, 2005), brush-border enzyme activity, glucose and peptide transporters, (Tako et al., 2005), and expression of genes related to carbohydrate metabolism and hormone action using transcriptome analysis of critical tissues (intestinal mucosa, cecal tonsils, spleen, liver, and breast and thigh muscle) using Chicken Gene 1.1 ST Array Strip (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA, USA). Microbiota composition of the ileum and ceca will be determined at 16 and 19 days of incubation and at 1, 7, 14, and 21 days post-hatch, using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing analysis, and the resulting data demultiplexted, quality-filtered, and analyzed using QIIME (Caporaso et al. 2010; Fasina et al., 2016; Medina et al. 2016). Glycogen status of the hatchling (liver and yolk sac [glycogen]) will be determined using a modification of a method reported by Dreiling et al. (1987), and blood glucose will be measured by a method reported by Donaldson and Christensen (1991). In ovo feeding treatments that show the greatest positive response will be further evaluated in growth performance trials using floor-pen or battery cage facilities. Each treatment group will be replicated by at least 8 pens containing at least 10 birds per pen. Growth performance measurements include body weight gain, feed intake, mortality and morbidity rate. Birds that will be raised to market age will be sampled to determine carcass and meat yield.This research project will proceed as three phases of research. Phase 1 will address optimum on nutrient concentration and volume tolerance of IOF solutions to enhance enteric development and digestive capacity in broilers and turkeys. IOF solutions containing a proprietary blend of carbohydrates (maltodextrin), amino acids, vitamins, and trace minerals will be prepared to deliver the following treatments: T1 = 250 mOsm IOF at 0.60 ml/egg; T2 = 250 mOsm IOF at 0.3 ml/egg; T3 = 250 mOsm at 0.15 ml/egg; T4 = 250 mOsm at 0.075 ml/egg; T5 = 500 mOsm at 0.3 ml/egg; T6 = 750 mOsm at 0.15 ml/egg; T7 = 1000 mOsm at 0.075 ml/egg; and T8 = negative control sham injected. These treatments will help us identify the optimum IOF concentration and injection volume for subsequent studies.Phase 2 will evaluate the effect of different IOF solution supplements on the subsequent development of the enteric microbial ecosystem of and mucosal immunity of broilers and turkeys.Broiler embryos at 18E will be injected with IOF treatment solutions containing various amounts of prebiotic compounds(i.e.galactooligossacharide,mannanoligosaccharide,inulin) and compounds that inhibit bacterial conjugation (i.e.P1-12G,P1-8F,ODN07, andβ-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate. Phase 3 will evaluate the efficacy of the optimum IOF solutions determined in previous phases to enhance the resistance of broilers and turkeys to enteric pathogens. Treatments consisting of a factorial arrangement of these bioactive compoundsin an IOF solution will besubjected tomicrobiome evaluation as before, and mucosal immune function will be determined bythe expression levels of selected cytokine genes (IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNF a, IL-1 a/b IFN-g, Il-17 with GAPDH as the housekeeping gene) by CFX96 Real-Time PCR Detection System (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA) from tissues collected from the ileum mucosa, bursa, and cecal tonsils.Improve nutrient utilization from feeds by the use of feed additives and feed manufacturing technologyCommercial turkeys and broilers will serve as the test animals.The short-term growth and nutrient balancetrials may utilize 4 to 8 replicate pens of 6 to 8 animals for each dietary treatment. The long-term trials to determine dietary treatment effects on growth performance and health characteristics will require 4 to 12 replicate floor pens containing about 15 turkeys or 30 broilers. Each growth trial will evaluate 4 to 12 treatments arranged as factorial factors related to nutrient levels (i.e. AME, amino acids, minerals, vitamin, etc.), feed manufacturing treatment (i.e. feed form, particle grind size, feed conditioning temperature), and feed additive type or level (i.e. enzymes, organic trace minerals, emulsifiers, etc.).Enhance enteric health and pathogen colonization resistance by nutritional manipulationNutritional regimens or dietary treatments will be tested for their ability to improve gut health and stabilize gut microflora (increased diversity) so as to reduce the risk of enteric pathogen colonization and reduce mucosal inflammation. Experiments will be designed to evaluate four different nutritional applications that have been shown by previous work in our laboratory to reduce the colonization of enteric pathogens and enhance enteric health. These four types of nutritional applications include: 1) oligosaccharides and non-starch polysaccharides that are fermented by symbiotic enteric microflora, but by the host bird or enteric pathogens; 2) supplemental enzymes that may alter microbial substrate availability and thus stabilize the enteric microflora; 3) supplementation dietary compounds (e.g., immunoglobulins, organic acids, and essential oils) to enhance gut associated lymphatic tissue (gut immunity); and 4) feed form and feed manufacturing processes (particle size, whole grains, heat processing, etc.). Each experiment will evaluate 4 to 12 treatments consisting of Statistical AnalysisAll data will be analyzed using the general linear models procedure for analysis of variance (ANOVA) (SAS, 1996). Cage or pen means will serve as the experimental units for statistical analysis, unless otherwise stated. Variables having a significant F-test will be compared using the least-squares-means (lsmeans) function of SAS (SAS, 1996), and will be considered to be significant at P<0.05. All percentage data will be transformed to arc sine of the square root before analysis. Measures of central tendency for banding pattern frequency distribution will be calculated using the Data Analysis package from Microsoft Excel (McCracken et al., 2001). Large scale comparative analysis of the research results from the microbial ecology analysis will be combined with multiple linear regression (MLR) and principal-component analyses (PCA). MLR models reveal the most significant sources of variation in the relative abundance within a given bacterial profile by using SYSTAT14 (Apajalahti et al., 2001). PCA analysis uses a multivariate approach wherein linear correlation between all variables will be calculated simultaneously. Calculations will be carried out using SIMCA-P (Apajalahti et al., 2001).Animal EthicsAll experiments proposed herein will be conducted according to the guidelines of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at North Carolina State University. All husbandry practices and euthanasia will be done with full consideration of animal welfare.

Progress 11/01/16 to 09/30/21

Outputs
Target Audience:Poultry and animal scientists; Poultry Industry Personnel;Animal Agriculture affiliates of the State of North Carolina and the greater USA; Feed Scientists and Feed Industry Personnel; feed ingredient suppliers; animal nutritionists; animal health professionals; food safety professionals; environmental sustainability interest groups; animal welfare interest groups; international agriculturalists with interest in USA agriculture relations; Extension specialists and agents. Governmental policy makers, agriculture and food regulators;students of North Carolina State University. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the course of this project we provided training and professional development of 4 undergraduates students, 25 graduate students (15 MS and 10 PhD), and one post-doctoral research associate. These students have advanced in their professional skills, experience, and knowledge proficiency in the field of animal and poultry nutrition, feed formulation, feed manufacturing, experimental design, laboratory analysis, statistical analysis, data management, oral presentation, technical writing, project leadership, and teaching and mentoring. The training activities included assisting the project director or associate mentors in the designed and conducting of experiments, sample and data collection, laboratory and information analysis, courses related to nutrition, physiology, biotechnology, feed manufacturing and quality assurance, and poultry production management. Professional development and communication skills were also encouraged by participation in workshops, conferences, seminars, case studies, and industry meetings and extension demonstrations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of this project has been disseminated by a variety of means to academic and industry scientists, university students, poultry industry stakeholders, federal and state government employees, extension specialist, poultry allied industry representatives, and general public consumers of poultry products. The means of information dissemination included peer-reviewed journal publications, popular press releases, presentation at scientific and industry conferences, extension education print and electronic releases, webinars and seminars, and short-courses. High-impact information dissemination vehicles included the Carolina Poultry Nutrition Conference, The Carolina Feed Industry Annual Convention, The International Poultry Production Short Course, the International Symposium on Emerging Issues in Poultry Nutrition and Meat Production, the International Poultry Exposition, The Latin American Poultry Conference, The Asian Poultry Summit, The Alltech Idea Symposium, the Poultry Science Association Meeting, and the Southern Poultry Society Meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This project will continue to conduct research and train young scientists and future poultry industry leaders to address the three major objectives towards enhancing nutrient utilization and health of turkeys and broilers. The perinatal nutrition work with poultry will focus on developing in ovo feeding solutions that are optimized for automated delivery in commercial broilers. We also plan evaluate the efficacy of administering prebiotic compounds (Mannanoligosaccharides, Galactooligosaccharides, and fructooligosaccharides) and probiotic microorganisms via in ovo feeding and post-hatch gel supplements, thus increasing the resistance of enteric pathogen colonization in poultry and thus reduce the risk of food-borne pathogens from poultry. Several studies will also investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of enzymes, organic acids, and organic trace minerals on nutrient utilization and enteric health of turkey and broilers. Finally, we plan to continue our work on the effect of feed manufacturing and particle grind size on the nutrient utilization of poorly-digested feed ingredients, particularly in combination with enzymes supplementation. These research activities will be conducted in conjunction with the training of undergraduate and graduate students, visiting scholars, and post-doctoral fellows, and the results will be disseminated as part of academic lectures, extension short-courses, scientific and industry meetings, and academic and popular press.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? To address objective 1, techniques were developed to enhance the nutrition of perinatal poultry by in ovo feeding (IOF) formulations and post-hatch supplements. Automated delivery techniques for IOF were developed to advance the development of perinatal broilers and turkeys by 2 to 3 days and increase growth rate and the efficiency of nutrient utilization by up to 4% through to market age. These results were confirmed by students and scientists who were able to determine favorable changes morphological development of the gut and the expression of genes regulating digestion, nutrient transport, immunity, and metabolism. A nutritionally-enhanced supplement containing over 90% water was developed as a non-wetting gel for post-hatch chicks and poults to help them overcome dehydration and transportation distress, and improve subsequent welfare and growth. Students learned the methodology of product development and field demonstrations. A commercial gel hatchling supplement product is now available and is being used by several commercial turkey and chicken hatcheries for delivery of cocci vaccines, probiotics, and nutrients. If adopted by the global poultry industry, perinatal nutrition technology would result in savings of several million dollars per year based on an estimated cost savings of $0.05 to $0.10 per bird. This research has inspired many young scientists to pursue the budding new field of how early nutrition can program metabolic and physiological responses later in life, as evidenced by a rise in similar published works at other institutions. Several commercial companies are developing applications of perinatal nutrition and early nutritional programming. @font-face { panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic- mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face { panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic- mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-469750017 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; ; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast- mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi- mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; ; mso-fareast-}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast- mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi- mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSect By partnering with White Dog Labs (New Castle, DE) we tested several poultry gastrointestinal tract derived Clostridium libraries as probiotic inoculants for in ovo amnion delivery on hatchability of broiler embryos and observed IOF of gas consuming microbes resulted in better hatchability than controls, whereas gas producing microbes significantly reduced hatchability. Subsequently, Clostridium libraries consisting of 4 gas consuming microbes was evaluated to identify the IOF inoculation optimum dose. Regression analysis revealed that 104 and 106 cfu/egg resulted in the best hatchability rate, and significant (P ≤ 0.05) higher relative free-yolk embryo weight (g), less late embryonic dead rate, less embryonic loss after external pipping, shorter hatch window (reduced the hatch window 5 hours), higher daily weight gain (g/d) from 0-14 day post-hatch, higher 2-week-body weight (g) and less mortality rate at the first week. In addition, 106 cfu/egg had the lowest 0-21d mortality rate, and 104 cfu/egg had lowest FCR (g/g) from 7-14 day. In ovo administration of 104 and 106 cfu gas consuming Clostridium sp/egg of into the amnion of the chicken embryos improved hatch performance and early growth performance and had long lasting effect on the gut health in broilers. Subsequent studies revealed 105 CFU/mL dosage had greater proliferation of the Clostridiale strains in the cecum. Butyrate was detected in samples analyzed for the 105 CFU/mL dosage with average concentration of 0.14 mg/g cecum material. These data suggest that in ovo administration of 105 CFU/mL per egg into the amnion of the chicken embryos can modulate the microbiome that may maintain gut health. To address objectives 2 and 3, several experiments evaluated the dietary inclusion of feed additives and feed manufacturing techniques that improve nutrient utilization by enhancing gut health without the use of pharmaceutical feed additives. Dietary supplementation of enzymes (carbohydrases, proteases, and phytases), direct-fed microbials, organic acids, functional oils, mannanoligosaccharides, and organic trace minerals have been shown to improve enteric health, significantly improve growth performance and/or feed nutrient efficiency, and serve as a cost-effective alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. Dietary supplementation of enzymes was demonstrated to significantly improve caloric efficiency, thus allowing for lower energy diets without compromising growth performance. Depending on the cost of dietary energy (determined by the commodity price of corn), dietary enzyme supplementation can result in feed costs savings of $10 to $20/tonne. Use of highly bioavailable organic trace minerals in place of inorganic forms was found to reduce dietary mineral inclusion or mineral emissions by 75% without adversely affecting growth performance yet still improve meat quality. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of functional oils containing cashew nutshell and castor oil on turkey performance and intestinal morphology. Hatchlings were randomly placed in 15 replicate floor pens, (13 poults/pen) with recycled litter and provided feed and waterad libitum. Birds were randomly assigned to 3 dietary treatments from 1 to 12wk: nonmedicated control, 0.15% functional oils, and 66-ppm monensin. From wk 13 to 20, each initial treatment group was further divided into 3 treatments--control (no additive), 0.15% of functional oils, or 20ppm of virginiamycin to produce 9 different treatments, 5 replicate pens per treatment.toms fed monensin or functional oils were 10.5 and 4.5% heavier (P<0.05), respectively, than the controls at 12wk. Birds fed monensin had a 4% improvement (P<0.05) in feed conversion as compared to the other treatments. Neither virginiamycin nor the functional oils affected bird performance when fed from 13 to 20wk. The jejunum villi surface area at 3wk was most enhanced (P<0.05) for the poults fed monensin. Supplementation with functional oils significantly reduced leg yield and thiobarbituric-acid reactive substances of white meat after 7D of storage (P<0.05).Functional oils in the diet of turkey toms may be a viable alternative to antibiotic growth promotants. Finally, several research trials conducted by students demonstrated that increasing particle grind size of a portion of the dietary corn or other ingredients, significantly improved nutrient utilization and enteric health, reduced ammonia emission, and reduce feed manufacturing costs. After aggressively distributing our knowledge about the importance of particle size in pelleted poultry feeds through scientific publication, presentations at scientific and industry conferences, and conducting of national and international short-courses, all poultry producers in NC and many in other parts of the world have made changes in their poultry feed manufacturing to capture the value of research efforts.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ferket, P.R., 2017. The potential of perinatal nutrition: in ovo and prestarter feeding. Proceedings of the 21st European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition. Pp 64-69. Ed. Francesch, M., Torrallardona, D., and Brufau, J. Wagenengen Academic Publishers, ISBN 978-90-8686-306-8. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-851-3
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Xu, Y., Y.M. Lin, C.R., Stark, P.R. Ferket, C.M. Williams, and J. Brake, 2017. Effects of dietary coarsely ground corn and 3 bedding floor types on broiler live performance, litter characteristics, gizzard and proventriculus weight, and nutrient digestibility. J. Poultry Science 96(7):2110-2119. DOI: 10.3382/ps/pew485
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Park, I. T. Pasquetti, R.D. Malheiros, P.R. Ferket, and S.W. Kim, 2017. Effects of supplemental L-methionine on growth performance and redox status of turkey poults compared with the use of DL-methionine. Poultry Science 97(1):102-109. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pex259
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Herchler, M., S. Black, V. Schramm, R. Crivellari, R. Malheiros, and P. Ferket, 2017. The effects of Hostazym� and Optiphos� super dosing in combination with Azomite� on growth performance in market turkey hens. Poultry Science 96(e-Suppl. 1):275
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Black, S., M. Herchler, V. Schramm, R. Crivellari, R. Malheiros, and P. Ferket, 2017. Effect of poult hatch weight on their subsequent growth response to dietary energy, phosphorus, calcium and Azomite. Poultry Science 96(e-Suppl. 1):275
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Moreira Filho, A.L.B., P.R. Ferket, and R.D. Malheiros, C.J.B. Oliveira, P.C. Aristimunha, D.E. Wilsmann, and P.E.N. Givisiez, 2019. Enrichment of the amnion with threonine in chicken embryos affects the small intestine development, ileal gene expression, and performance of broilers between 1 and 21 days of age. Poultry Science 98(3): 1363-1370. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey461
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Toomer, O. M. Livingston, B. Wall, E. Sanders, T. Vu, R. Malheiros, K. Livingston, L. Carvalho, and P. Ferket, 2019. Meat quality and sensory attributes of meat produced from broiler chickens fed a high oleic peanut diet. Poultry Science 98(10):5188-5197. http://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pez258
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Livingston, M., P. Ferket, J. Brake, K. Livingston (2018).Blood physiology of broilers presented with breast myopathies and supplemented with dietary glutamine and arginine. Poultry Science 97 (E-Suppl. 1): 267.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Herchler, M., S. Black, M. Warren, R. Malheiros, P. Ferket (2018). The effects of phytase super-dosing in combination with xylanase on the ileal microbial profile of market turkey hens. Poultry Science 97(E-Suppl. 1): 273.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Chadwick, E., R. Malheiros, P. Ferket, and R. Beckstead (2018). Microbiota, growth performance, and processing characteristics of broilers fed a standard vs low vitamin and trace mineral diet. 97(E-Suppl. 1): 287.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jababu, Y, C . Blue, P. Ferket, S . Ibrahim, R . Gyawali, and Y . Fasina (2018). Influence of dietary spray dried plasma on fecal micro- biota in broiler chickens. 97(E-Suppl. 1): 154
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Malheiros, D., V. Moraes, P. Ferket, K. Anderson, and R. Malheiros (2018).Effect of use of annatto (Bixa orellana) on the internal quality of eggs. 97(E-Suppl. 1): 177.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Fasina, Y., P. Ferket, C. Blue, Y. Jababu, A. Hooks, and R. Noble (2018). Dietary spray-dried plasma influences early intestinal development and broiler chick growth. 97(E-Suppl. 1): 185
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Wedegaertner, O., A. Fahrenholtz, and P. Ferket (2018). Correlation of feed ingredient characteristics with flow- ability as measured by angle of repose. 97(E-Suppl. 1): 199.
• Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: BLACK, SAMANTHA ANN. Performance and Economic Impacts of Hatchery and Post- Hatch Constraints on Poult Quality. (Under the direction of Dr. Peter Ferket and Dr. Robert Beckstead).
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ramos de Meja, L. J. Camacho, H. Ugalde, M. Menjivar, E. Cura, and P. Ferket, 2019. Effect of dietary calcium to non-phytate phosphorus ratio on growth performance of broilers raised under low and high heat stress tropical conditions. 2019 International Poultry Scientific Forum Abstracts http://www.southernpoultrysciencesociety.org/pdfs/19-SPSS-Abstract-Book.pdf p37.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: 9. Wedegaertner, O., A. Farhrenholz, J.C. Bodin, J. Fountaine, and P. Ferket, 2019. Feed ingredient handling characteristic evaluation of lipid encapsulated versus non-encapsulated poultry vitamin and trace mineral premixes. 2019 International Poultry Scientific Forum Abstracts http://www.southernpoultrysciencesociety.org/pdfs/19-SPSS-Abstract-Book.pdf p27.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Sanders, E., Livingston, M., Wall, B., Vu, T. Malheiros, R., Livingston, K., Carvalho, L. Ferket, P., and Toomer, O. 2019. The effects of feeding high-oleic peanuts on the growth performance of broilers. Poultry Science 98(E-Suppl.1):75.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Moreira Filho, A.L.B., P.R. Ferket, and R.D. Malheiros, C.J.B. Oliveira, P.C. Aristimunha, D.E. Wilsmann, and P.E.N. Givisiez, 2019. Enrichment of the amnion with threonine in chicken embryos affects the small intestine development, ileal gene expression, and performance of broilers between 1 and 21 days of age. Poultry Science 98(3): 1363-1370. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey461.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Toomer, O. M. Livingston, B. Wall, E. Sanders, T. Vu, R. Malheiros, K. Livingston, L. Carvalho, and P. Ferket, 2019. Meat quality and sensory attributes of meat produced from broiler chickens fed a high oleic peanut diet. Poultry Science 98(10):5188-5197. http://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pez258
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Livingston, M, P. Ferket, J. Brake, and K. Livingston, 2019. Dietary amino acids under hypoxic conditions exacerbates muscle myopathies including wooden breast and white stripping. Poultry Science 98(3):1517-1527. http://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey463.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ward, N.E., A.W. Levy, R.D. Malheiros, and P.R. Ferket, 2019. Impact of Balancius supplementation on broiler performance. 2019 International Poultry Scientific Forum Abstracts http://www.southernpoultrysciencesociety.org/pdfs/19-SPSS-Abstract-Book.pdf p99.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Abousaad, S., P. Ferket, R. Malheiros, S. Jones, and B. Tracy, 2019. In ovo feeding dose response of probiotic Clostridium species on hatch performance and hatchling quality of broilers. http://www.southernpoultrysciencesociety.org/pdfs/19-SPSS-Abstract-Book.pdf p82.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Redhead, A., and P. Ferket, 2019. The animal food and nutrition consortium established to fund pre-competitive research, outreach, and career development. 2019 International Poultry Scientific Forum Abstracts http://www.southernpoultrysciencesociety.org/pdfs/19-SPSS-Abstract-Book.pdf p60.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Abousaad, S., Malheiros, R., Jones, S., Tracy, B., Ferket, P. 2019. In ovo feeding dose response of Clostrideale strains on hatch and early growth performance. Poultry Science 98(E-Suppl. 1):55.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Wedegaertner, O, Chadwick, E., Beckstead, R., Santin, E., Bodin, J.C. Fontaine, J. and Ferket, P., 2019. Economically important production traits and enteric health of broilers fed free or lipid matrix-encapsulated vitamin and trace mineral elements at recommended and reduced levels. Poultry Science 98(E-Suppl. 1):6.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Alig, B., R. Malheiros, P. Ferket, and K. Anderson, 2020. The effect of housing environment on commercial brown egg layer performance. 2020 International Poultry Scientific Forum. https://www.ippexpo.org/ipsf/docs/2020-IPSF-Abstract-Book.pdf p. 38.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Alig, B., P. Ferket, R. Malheiros , and K. Anderson, 2020. The effect of housing environment on commercial white egg layer performance. Poultry Science Association 109th Annual Meeting. Poultry Science 99: (E-Suppl. 1):51.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Anderson, K.A., Alig, B.N., Ferket, P.R., Malheiros, R.D., 2020. Effect of housing environment and hen age on white shell egg solids and quality. Poultry Science Association 109th Annual Meeting. Poultry Science 99: (E-Suppl. 1):52.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Alig, B.N., Ferket, P.R., Malheiros, R.D., and Anderson, K.A., 2020. The effect of housing environment on egg quality and solids of commercial brown egg layers. Poultry Science Association 109th Annual Meeting. Poultry Science 99: (E-Suppl. 1):53.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Abousaad, S.M., Malheiros, R.D., and Ferket, P.R., 2020. In ovo feeding of clostridiale strains modulate gut microbiome. Poultry Science Association 109th Annual Meeting. Poultry Science 99:(E-Suppl. 1):130.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Ferket P.R., Malheiros R.D., Moraes V.M.B., Ayoola A.A., Barasch I., Toomer, O.T. & Torrent J., 2020. Effects of Functional Oils on the Growth, Carcass and Meat Characteristics, and Intestinal Morphology of Commercial Toms. Poultry Science (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2020.03.050 .
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Aristimunha, P. C., R. D. Malheiros, P. R. Ferket, K. M. Cardinal, A. L. B., Moreira Filho, E. T. Santos, D. T. Cavlcante, and A. M. L. Ribeiro, 2020. Effect of dietary organic acids and humic substance supplementation on performance, immune response and gut morphology of broiler chickens. J. of Applied Poultry Research January 2020.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Toomer, O.T., E. Sanders, T.C. Vu, M.L. Livingston, B. Wall, R.D. Malheiros, L. V. Carvalho, K.A. Livingston, P.R. Ferket, and K.A. Anderson, 2020. Potential transfer of peanut and/or soy proteins from poultry feed to meat and/or eggs produced. ACS Omega 5:1080-1085. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b03218
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Vieira, R., P. Ferket, R. Malheiros, M. Hannas, R. Crivellari, V. Moraes, and S. Elliott, 2020. Feeding low dietary levels of organic trace minerals improves broiler performance and reduces excretion of minerals in in litter. British Poultry Science. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071668.2020.1764908
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Jababu, Y., Ferket, P.R., Fasina, Y.O., 2020. Comparative effects of spray-dried plasma and bacitracin methylene disalicylate on intestinal development in broiler chicks. International Journal of Poultry Science 19(4):161-168. https://doi.org/10.3923/ijps.2020.161.168 .
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Jazi, V., Farahi, M., Khajali, F., Abousaad, S., Ferket, P., Soumeh, E.A., 2020. Effect of dietary supplementation of whey powder and Bacillus subtilis on growth performance, gut and hepatic function, and muscle antioxidant capacity of Japanese quail. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr. 2020;00:112. https://DOI.org/10.1111/jpn.13323 .
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Fasina, O.Y., Obanla, T.O., Ferket, P.R., Shah, D.H., 2021. Comparative efficacy of spar-dried plasma and bacitracin methylene disalicylate in reducing cecal colonization by Salmonella Enteritidis in broiler chickens. Poultry Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2021.101134
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Tedeschi, L.O., Bureau, D.P, Ferket, P.R., and Trottier, N.L., 2021. ASAS-NANP Symposium: Mathematical modeling in animal nutrition: training the future generation in data and predictive analytics for sustainable development. A Summary. J. Animal Science 99(2):1-2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jas/skab023

Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Poultry and animal scientists; Poultry Industry Personnel; Animal Agriculture affiliates of the State of North Carolina and the greater USA; Feed Scientists and Feed Industry Personnel; feed ingredient suppliers; animal nutritionists; animal health professionals; food safety professionals; environmental sustainability interest groups; animal welfare interest groups; international agriculturalists with interest in USA agriculture relations; Extension specialists and agents. Governmental policy makers, agriculture and food regulators; students of North Carolina State University. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provided training and professional development of 2 undergraduates students and 16 graduate students (11 MS and 5 PhD). These students have advanced in their professional skills, experience, and knowledge proficiency in the field of animal and poultry nutrition, feed formulation, feed manufacturing, experimental design, laboratory analysis, statistical analysis, data management, oral presentation, technical writing, project leadership, and teaching and mentoring. The training activities included assisting the project director or associate mentors in the designed and conducting of experiments, sample and data collection, laboratory and information analysis, courses related to nutrition, physiology, biotechnology, feed manufacturing and quality assurance, and poultry production management. Professional development and communication skills were also encouraged by participation in workshops, conferences, seminars, case studies, and industry meetings and extension demonstrations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of this project have been disseminated by a variety of means to academic and industry scientists, university students, poultry industry stakeholders, federal and state government employees, extension specialist, poultry allied industry representatives, and general public consumers of poultry products. The means of information dissemination included peer reviewed journal publications, popular press releases, presentation at scientific and industry conferences, extension education print and electronic releases, webinars and seminars, and short-courses. High-impact information dissemination vehicles included the Carolina Poultry Nutrition Conference, The Carolina Feed Industry Annual Convention, The International Poultry Production Short Course, the International Symposium on Emerging Issues in Poultry Nutrition and Meat Production, the International Poultry Exposition, The Latin American Poultry Conference, , the Poultry Science Association Meeting, and the Southern Poultry Society Meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This project will continue to conduct research and train young scientists and future poultry industry leaders to address the three major objectives towards enhancing nutrient utilization and health of turkeys and broilers. The perinatal nutrition work with poultry will focus on developing IOF solutions that are optimized using current in ovo delivery technology commonly used in commercial broilers. More efforts will be directed toward evaluating IOF delivery of biologic compounds that enhance innate immunity, resistance to enteric disease and food-borne pathogens, and improve early growth and development. Several studies will also investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of enzymes (especially phytases), organic acids, organic trace minerals, and microencapsulated vitamins and minerals on nutrient utilization and enteric health of turkey and broilers. Finally, we plan to continue our work on the effect of feed manufacturing and particle grind size on the nutrient utilization of poorly-digested feed ingredients, particularly in combination with enzymes supplementation. These research activities will be conducted in conjunction with the training of undergraduate and graduate students, visiting scholars, and post-doctoral fellows, and the results will be disseminated as part of academic lectures, extension short-courses, scientific and industry meetings, and academic and popular press.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? To address objective 1, techniques were developed to enhance the nutrition of perinatal poultry by in ovo feeding (IOF) formulations and post-hatch supplements. Automated delivery techniques for IOF were developed to advance the development of perinatal broilers and turkeys by 2 to 3 days and increase growth rate and the efficiency of nutrient utilization by up to 4% through to market age. These results were confirmed by students and scientists who were able to determine favorable changes morphological development of the gut and the expression of genes regulating digestion, nutrient transport, immunity, and metabolism. The use of live microorganisms to manage enteric health is becoming a feasible practice, especially when administered early in a broiler's productive life. Strains within the Clostridiale order, including many butyric acid-producing anaerobes, are found in the intestines of healthy animals have been shown to promote growth performance and improve gut health. A novel mixture of unique Clostridiale strains, which may have beneficial effects on the microbiome development of perinatal poultry, was constructed. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of this mixture delivered by in ovo feeding (IOF) on gut health. Two experiments were conducted to measure the effect on gut microbiome of broiler chickens. Viable eggs of equal weight (± 0.5 std.) were segregated for different experimental treatments. At ~17 day of incubation, 100 µL of either 101, 103, 105, 107 or 109 CFU /mL was administrated into the embryonic amnion. In both studies, a saline control was also injected, and a sham control (i.e., no injection) was used in one of the studies. Cecal material from 21 d old chicks were obtained and microbiome metabolites were subjected to analysis using GC for quantification of acetate, lactate, and butyrate. Analysis for the microbiome profiles showed significant difference for both 105 CFU/mL and 107 CFU/mL from the saline control. The 105 CFU/mL dosage had greater proliferation of the Clostridiale strains in the cecum. Butyrate was detected in samples analyzed for the 105 CFU/mL dosage with average concentration of 0.14 mg/g cecum material. These data suggest that the Clostridiale mixture influences the microbiome and volatile fatty acid profile of the cecum in broiler chickens. In conclusion, in ovo administration of 105 CFU/mL per egg into the amnion of the chicken embryos can modulate the microbiome that may maintain gut health. Further analyses of gut microbiomes, morphology, gene expression, and immune function will be pursued in future studies. To address objectives 2 and 3, several experiments evaluated the dietary inclusion of feed additives and feed manufacturing techniques that improve nutrient utilization by enhancing gut health without the use of pharmaceutical feed additives. Dietary supplementation of enzymes (carbohydrases, proteases, and phytases), direct-fed microbials, organic acids, functional oils, mannanoligosaccharides, and organic trace minerals have been shown to improve enteric health, significantly improve growth performance and/or feed nutrient efficiency, and serve as a cost-effective alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. Dietary supplementation of enzymes was demonstrated to significantly improve caloric efficiency, thus allowing for lower energy diets without compromising growth performance. Depending on the cost of dietary energy (determined by the commodity price of corn), dietary enzyme supplementation can result in feed costs savings of $10 to $20/tonne. Use of highly bioavailable organic trace minerals in place of inorganic forms was found to reduce dietary mineral inclusion or mineral emissions by 75% without adversely affecting growth performance yet still improve meat quality. A novel microencapsulation of vitamins and minerals was developed in our lab (Ferket et al., 2016; US Patent Application No. 030871-9063-US00) was demonstrated significantly improve handling properties and stability during storage and feed manufacturing. The slow release in the digestive tract to allowed for 70% reduction in vitamin and mineral supplementation level, yet improve growth performance, meat quality, and gut health indicators. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of functional oils containing cashew nutshell and castor oil on turkey performance and intestinal morphology. Hatchlings were randomly placed in 15 replicate floor pens, (13 poults/pen) with recycled litter and provided feed and waterad libitum. Birds were randomly assigned to 3 dietary treatments from 1 to 12wk: nonmedicated control, 0.15% functional oils, and 66-ppm monensin. From wk 13 to 20, each initial treatment group was further divided into 3 treatments--control (no additive), 0.15% of functional oils, or 20ppm of virginiamycin to produce 9 different treatments, 5 replicate pens per treatment.toms fed monensin or functional oils were 10.5 and 4.5% heavier (P<0.05), respectively, than the controls at 12wk. Birds fed monensin had a 4% improvement (P<0.05) in feed conversion as compared to the other treatments. Neither virginiamycin nor the functional oils affected bird performance when fed from 13 to 20wk. The jejunum villi surface area at 3wk was most enhanced (P<0.05) for the poults fed monensin. Supplementation with functional oils significantly reduced leg yield and thiobarbituric-acid reactive substances of white meat after 7D of storage (P<0.05).Functional oils in the diet of turkey toms may be a viable alternative to antibiotic growth promotants. Finally, several research trials conducted by students demonstrated that increasing particle grind size of a portion of the dietary corn or other ingredients, significantly improved nutrient utilization and enteric health, reduced ammonia emission, and reduce feed manufacturing costs. After aggressively distributing our knowledge about the importance of particle size in pelleted poultry feeds through scientific publication, presentations at scientific and industry conferences, and conducting of national and international short-courses, all poultry producers in NC and many in other parts of the world have made changes in their poultry feed manufacturing to capture the value of research efforts.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Vieira, R., Ferket, P., Malheiros, R., Hannas, M., Crivellari, R., Moraes, V., & Elliott, S. (2020). Feeding low dietary levels of organic trace minerals improves broiler performance and reduces excretion of minerals in litter. BRITISH POULTRY SCIENCE. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071668.2020.1764908
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Givisiez, P. E. N., Moreira Filho, A. L. B., Santos, M. R. B., Oliveira, H. B., Ferket, P. R., Oliveira, C. J. B., & Malheiros, R. D. (2020). Chicken embryo development: metabolic and morphological basis for in ovo feeding technology. POULTRY SCIENCE, 99(12), 6774⿿6782. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2020.09.074
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Toomer, O. T., Sanders, E., Vu, T. C., Malheiros, R. D., Redhead, A. K., Livingston, M. L., ⿦ Ferket, P. R. (2020). The effects of high-oleic peanuts as an alternative feed ingredient on broiler performance, ileal digestibility, apparent metabolizable energy, and histology of the intestine. TRANSLATIONAL ANIMAL SCIENCE, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txaa137
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Alig, B., R. Malheiros, P. Ferket, and K. Anderson (2020). The effect of housing environment on commercial brown egg layer performance. 2020 International Poultry Scientific Forum, 38
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Tedeschi, L.O., Bureau, D.P, Ferket, P.R., and Trottier, N.L. (2020). ASAS-NANP Symposium: Mathematical modeling in animal nutrition: training the future generation in data and predictive analytics for sustainable development. A Summary.. Journal of Animal Science, 99(2), 1-2,
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Anderson, K.A., Alig, B.N., Ferket, P.R., Malheiros, R.D. (2020). Effect of housing environment and hen age on white shell egg solids and quality.. Poultry Science Association 109th Annual Meeting Abstracts., 99:E-Supp.1, 52
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Alig, B.N., Ferket, P.R., Malheiros, R.D., and Anderson, K.A. (2020). The effect of housing environment on egg quality and solids of commercial brown egg layers.. Poultry Science Association 109th Annual Meeting Abstracts., 99:E-Supp.1, 53
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Abousaad, S.M., Malheiros, R.D., and Ferket, P.R. (2020). In ovo feeding of clostridiale strains modulate gut microbiome. Poultry Science Association 109th Annual Meeting Abstracts., 99:E-Supp.1, 130
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Alig, B., P. Ferket, R. Malheiros , and K. Anderson (2020). The effect of housing environment on commercial white egg layer performance.. Poultry Science Association 109th Annual Meeting Abstracts., 99:E-Supp.1, 51
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Brown, H.C., and Fu, J (2020). Covid-19 has closed major meat plants across the U.S. What happens to farmers, livestock, prices, and supply? Your questions, answered. The Counter, https://thecounter.org/covid-19-shutters-meatpacking-plants-meat-shortages-smithfield-south-dakota/, ,
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Toomer, O. T., Sanders, E., Vu, T. C., Livingston, M. L., Wall, B., Malheiros, R. D., ⿦ Anderson, K. E. (2020). Potential Transfer of Peanut and/or Soy Proteins from Poultry Feed to the Meat and/or Eggs Produced. ACS OMEGA, 5(2), 1080⿿1085. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b03218
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Aristimunha, P. C., Mallheiros, R. D., Ferket, P. R., Cardinal, K. M., Moreira Filho, A. L. B., Santos, E. T., Ribeiro, A. M. L. (2020). Effect of Dietary Organic Acids and Humic Substance Supplementation on Performance, Immune Response and Gut Morphology of Broiler Chickens. JOURNAL OF APPLIED POULTRY RESEARCH, 29(1), 85⿿94. https://doi.org/10.3382/japr/pfz031
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Jazi, V., Farahi, M., Khajali, F., Abousaad, S., Ferket, P., & Soumeh, E. A. (2020). Effect of dietary supplementation of whey powder and Bacillus subtilis on growth performance, gut and hepatic function, and muscle antioxidant capacity of Japanese quail. JOURNAL OF ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY AND ANIMAL NUTRITION. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpn.13323
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Ferket, P. R., Malheiros, R. D., Moraes, V. M. B., Ayoola, A. A., Barasch, I., Toomer, O. T., & Torrent, J. (2020). Effects of functional oils on the growth, carcass and meat characteristics, and intestinal morphology of commercial turkey toms. POULTRY SCIENCE, 99(7), 3752⿿3760. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2020.03.050 5).
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Mollie Rappe (2020). Faculty Focus: Ferket works with companies to improve poultry health and growth. CALS News, https://cals.ncsu.edu/news/faculty-focus-ferket-works-with-companies-to-improve-poultry-health-and-growth/,

Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Poultry and animal scientists; Poultry Industry Personnel; Animal Agriculture affiliates of the State of North Carolina and the greater USA; Feed Scientists and Feed Industry Personnel; feed ingredient suppliers; animal nutritionists; animal health professionals; food safety professionals; environmental sustainability interest groups; animal welfare interest groups; international agriculturalists with interest in USA agriculture relations; Extension specialists and agents. Governmental policy makers, agriculture and food regulators; students of North Carolina State University. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provided training and professional development of 2 undergraduates students, 20 graduate students (12 MS and 8 PhD), and 2 post-doctoral research associate. These students have advanced in their professional skills, experience, and knowledge proficiency in the field of animal and poultry nutrition, feed formulation, feed manufacturing, experimental design, laboratory analysis, statistical analysis, data management, oral presentation, technical writing, project leadership, and teaching and mentoring. The training activities included assisting the project director or associate mentors in the designed and conducting of experiments, sample and data collection, laboratory and information analysis, courses related to nutrition, physiology, biotechnology, feed manufacturing and quality assurance, and poultry production management. Professional development and communication skills were also encouraged by participation in workshops, conferences, seminars, case studies, and industry meetings and extension demonstrations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of this project have been disseminated by a variety of means to academic and industry scientists, university students, poultry industry stakeholders, federal and state government employees, extension specialist, poultry allied industry representatives, and general public consumers of poultry products. The means of information dissemination included peer reviewed journal publications, popular press releases, presentation at scientific and industry conferences, extension education print and electronic releases, webinars and seminars, and short-courses. High-impact information dissemination vehicles included the Carolina Poultry Nutrition Conference, The Carolina Feed Industry Annual Convention, The International Poultry Production Short Course, the International Symposium on Emerging Issues in Poultry Nutrition and Meat Production, the International Poultry Exposition, The Latin American Poultry Conference, The Asian Poultry Summit, The Alltech Idea Symposium, the Poultry Science Association Meeting, and the Southern Poultry Society Meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This project will continue to conduct research and train young scientists and future poultry industry leaders to address the three major objectives towards enhancing nutrient utilization and health of turkeys and broilers. The perinatal nutrition work with poultry will focus on developing IOF solutions that are optimized using current in ovo delivery technology commonly used in commercial broilers. More efforts will be directed toward evaluating IOF delivery of biologic compounds that enhance innate immunity, resistance to enteric disease and food-borne pathogens, and improve early growth and development. Several studies will also investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of enzymes (especially phytases), organic acids, organic trace minerals, and microencapsulated vitamins and minerals on nutrient utilization and enteric health of turkey and broilers. Finally, we plan to continue our work on the effect of feed manufacturing and particle grind size on the nutrient utilization of poorly-digested feed ingredients, particularly in combination with enzymes supplementation. These research activities will be conducted in conjunction with the training of undergraduate and graduate students, visiting scholars, and post-doctoral fellows, and the results will be disseminated as part of academic lectures, extension short-courses, scientific and industry meetings, and academic and popular press.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? To address objective 1, techniques were developed to enhance the nutrition of perinatal poultry by in ovo feeding (IOF) formulations and post-hatch supplements. Automated delivery techniques for IOF were developed to advance the development of perinatal broilers and turkeys by 2 to 3 days and increase growth rate and the efficiency of nutrient utilization by up to 4% through to market age. These results were confirmed by students and scientists who were able to determine favorable changes morphological development of the gut and the expression of genes regulating digestion, nutrient transport, immunity, and metabolism. As a follow-up to previous studies, in ovo feeding (17.5 days of incubation) of a Threonine at 10.5, 21, 31.5, and 42 mg/egg was evaluated on ileal gene expression of mucin (MUC2), peptide transporter (PepT1), aminopeptidase enzyme (APN), intestinal morphometric traits, and growth performance were evaluated on day of hatch until 21 d. As the in ovo feeding level of threonine increased, 21 d body increased linearly 1.7g/mg threaonine, and feed/gain ratio decreaed 0.02/mg threonine. Threonine levels affected beneficially the villus height, vilus:crypt ratio and villus area on day of hatch and at 21 d. At hatch, all Thr levels increased the expression of MUC2and PepT1 as compared to the control group. In ovo feeding of threonine beneficially affected the morphological and functional development of the intestinal mucosa, which ensured improved performance of chicks at hatch and at 21 d. By partnering with White Dog Labs (New Castle, DE) we tested several poultry gastrointestinal tract derived Clostridium libraries as probiotic inoculants for in ovo amnion delivery on hatchability of broiler embryos and observed IOF of gas consuming microbes resulted in better hatchability than controls, whereas gas producing microbes significantly reduced hatchability. Subsequently, Clostridium libraries consisting of 4 gas consuming microbes was evaluated to identify the IOF inoculation optimum dose (100 µL of either anaerobic control solution or 101, 103, 105, 107, 109 cfu/ml) on hatch performance, hatch window, early growth performance and microbiome. Regression analysis revealed that 104 and 106 cfu/egg resulted in the best hatchability rate, and significant (P ≤ 0.05) higher relative free-yolk embryo weight (g), less late embryonic dead rate, less embryonic loss after external pipping, shorter hatch window (reduced the hatch window 5 hours), higher daily weight gain (g/d) from 0-14 day post-hatch, higher 2-week-body weight (g) and less mortality rate at the first week. In addition, 106 cfu/egg had the lowest 0-21d mortality rate, and 104 cfu/egg had lowest FCR (g/g) from 7-14 day. The microbiomes in 1 and 21d chicks via high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene indicated one of the 4 microbes inoculated by IOF at 106 cfu/egg was established in the cecal contents along with greater microbial diversity. In ovo administration of 104 and 106 cfu gas consuming Clostridium sp/egg of into the amnion of the chicken embryos improved hatch performance and early growth performance and had long lasting effect on the gut health in broilers. Further analyses of gut microbiomes, morphology, gene expression, and immune function will be pursued in future studies. To address objectives 2 and 3, several experiments evaluated the dietary inclusion of feed additives and feed manufacturing techniques that improve nutrient utilization by enhancing gut health without the use of pharmaceutical feed additives. Dietary supplementation of enzymes (carbohydrases, proteases, and phytases), direct-fed microbials, organic acids, functional oils, mannanoligosaccharides, and organic trace minerals have been shown to improve enteric health, significantly improve growth performance and/or feed nutrient efficiency, and serve as a cost-effective alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. Dietary supplementation of enzymes was demonstrated to significantly improve caloric efficiency, thus allowing for lower energy diets without compromising growth performance. Depending on the cost of dietary energy (determined by the commodity price of corn), dietary enzyme supplementation can result in feed costs savings of $10 to $20/tonne. Use of highly bioavailable organic trace minerals in place of inorganic forms was found to reduce dietary mineral inclusion or mineral emissions by 75% without adversely affecting growth performance yet still improve meat quality. A novel microencapsulation of vitamins and minerals was developed in our lab (Ferket et al., 2016; US Patent Application No. 030871-9063-US00) was demonstrated significantly improve handling properties and stability during storage and feed manufacturing. The slow release in the digestive tract to allowed for 70% reduction in vitamin and mineral supplementation level, yet improve growth performance, meat quality, and gut health indicators. Finally, several research trials conducted by students demonstrated that increasing particle grind size of a portion of the dietary corn or other ingredients, significantly improved nutrient utilization and enteric health, reduced ammonia emission, and reduce feed manufacturing costs. After aggressively distributing our knowledge about the importance of particle size in pelleted poultry feeds through scientific publication, presentations at scientific and industry conferences, and conducting of national and international short-courses, all poultry producers in NC and many in other parts of the world have made changes in their poultry feed manufacturing to capture the value of research efforts.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ramos de Meja, L. J. Camacho, H. Ugalde, M. Menjivar, E. Cura, and P. Ferket, 2019. Effect of dietary calcium to non-phytate phosphorus ratio on growth performance of broilers raised under low and high heat stress tropical conditions. 2019 International Poultry Scientific Forum Abstracts http://www.southernpoultrysciencesociety.org/pdfs/19-SPSS-Abstract-Book.pdf p37.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Wedegaertner, O., A. Farhrenholz, J.C. Bodin, J. Fountaine, and P. Ferket, 2019. Feed ingredient handling characteristic evaluation of lipid encapsulated versus non-encapsulated poultry vitamin and trace mineral premixes. 2019 International Poultry Scientific Forum Abstracts http://www.southernpoultrysciencesociety.org/pdfs/19-SPSS-Abstract-Book.pdf p27.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Sanders, E., Livingston, M., Wall, B., Vu, T. Malheiros, R., Livingston, K., Carvalho, L. Ferket, P., and Toomer, O. 2019. The effects of feeding high-oleic peanuts on the growth performance of broilers. Poultry Science 98(E-Suppl.1):75.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Abousaad, S., Malheiros, R., Jones, S., Tracy, B., Ferket, P. 2019. In ovo feeding dose response of Clostrideale strains on hatch and early growth performance. Poultry Science 98(E-Suppl. 1):55.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Wedegaertner, O, Chadwick, E., Beckstead, R., Santin, E., Bodin, J.C. Fontaine, J. and Ferket, P., 2019. Economically important production traits and enteric health of broilers fed free or lipid matrix-encapsulated vitamin and trace mineral elements at recommended and reduced levels. Poultry Science 98(E-Suppl. 1):6.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ferket, P.R., 2019. How to manage the enteric ecosystem for optimum gut health. Proceedings XXIst WVPAC 2019, September 16-20, Bangkok, Thailand.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ferket, P.R., 2019. Effect of early nutrition to improve the development of enteric disease. Proceedings XXIst WVPAC 2019, September 16-20, Bangkok, Thailand.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Moreira Filho, A.L.B., P.R. Ferket, and R.D. Malheiros, C.J.B. Oliveira, P.C. Aristimunha, D.E. Wilsmann, and P.E.N. Givisiez, 2019. Enrichment of the amnion with threonine in chicken embryos affects the small intestine development, ileal gene expression, and performance of broilers between 1 and 21 days of age. Poultry Science 98(3): 1363-1370. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey461
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Toomer, O. M. Livingston, B. Wall, E. Sanders, T. Vu, R. Malheiros, K. Livingston, L. Carvalho, and P. Ferket, 2019. Meat quality and sensory attributes of meat produced from broiler chickens fed a high oleic peanut diet. Poultry Science 98(10):5188-5197. http://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pez258
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Livingston, M, P. Ferket, J. Brake, and K. Livingston, 2019. Dietary amino acids under hypoxic conditions exacerbates muscle myopathies including wooden breast and white stripping. Poultry Science 98(3):1517-1527. http://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey463.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ward, N.E., A.W. Levy, R.D. Malheiros, and P.R. Ferket, 2019. Impact of Balancius supplementation on broiler performance. 2019 International Poultry Scientific Forum Abstracts http://www.southernpoultrysciencesociety.org/pdfs/19-SPSS-Abstract-Book.pdf p99.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Abousaad, S., P. Ferket, R. Malheiros, S. Jones, and B. Tracy, 2019. In ovo feeding dose response of probiotic Clostridium species on hatch performance and hatchling quality of broilers. http://www.southernpoultrysciencesociety.org/pdfs/19-SPSS-Abstract-Book.pdf p82.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Redhead, A., and P. Ferket, 2019. The animal food and nutrition consortium established to fund pre-competitive research, outreach, and career development. 2019 International Poultry Scientific Forum Abstracts http://www.southernpoultrysciencesociety.org/pdfs/19-SPSS-Abstract-Book.pdf p60.

Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience: Poultry and animal scientists; Poultry Industry Personnel;?Animal Agriculture affiliates of the State of North Carolina and the greater USA; Feed Scientists and Feed Industry Personnel; feed ingredient suppliers; animal nutritionists; animal health professionals; food safety professionals; environmental sustainability interest groups; animal welfare interest groups; international agriculturalists with interest in USA agriculture relations; Extension specialists and agents.? Governmental policy makers, agriculture and food regulators;?students of North Carolina State University. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project provided training and professional development of 7 undergraduates students,11 graduate students (5 MS and 6 PhD), and two post-doctoral research associates. These students have advanced in their professional skills, experience, and knowledge proficiency in the field of animal and poultry nutrition, feed formulation, feed manufacturing, experimental design, laboratory analysis, statistical analysis, data management, oral presentation, technical writing, project leadership, and teaching and mentoring. The training activities included assisting the project director or associate mentors in the designed and conducting of experiments, sample and data collection, laboratory and information analysis, courses related to nutrition, physiology, biotechnology, feed manufacturing and quality assurance, and poultry production management. Professional development and communication skills were also encouraged by participation in workshops, conferences, seminars, case studies, and industry meetings and extension demonstrations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results of this project has been disseminated by a variety of means to academic and industry scientists, university students, poultry industry stakeholders, federal and state government employees, extension specialist, poultry allied industry representatives, and general public consumers of poultry products. The means of information dissemination included peer-reviewed journal publications, popular press releases, presentation at scientific and industry conferences, extension education print and electronic releases, webinars and seminars, and short-courses. High-impact information dissemination vehicles included the Carolina Poultry Nutrition Conference, The Carolina Feed Industry Annual Convention, The International Poultry Production Short Course, the Gut Health Summit, the International Poultry Exposition, The Latin American Poultry Conference, The Asian Poultry Summit, The Alltech Idea Symposium, the Poultry Science Association Meeting, and the Southern Poultry Society Meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? This project will continue to conduct research and train young scientists and future poultry industry leaders to address the three major objectives towards enhancing nutrient utilization and health of turkeys and broilers. The perinatal nutrition work with poultry will focus on developing in ovo feeding solutions that are optimized for automated delivery in commercial broilers. We also plan evaluate the efficacy of administering probiotic cultures originating from poultry (clustridia butyricum strain) via in ovo feeding and post-hatch gel supplements, thus increasing the resistance of enteric pathogen colonization in poultry and thus reduce the risk of food-borne pathogens from poultry. Several studies will also investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of enzymes, organic acids, and organic trace minerals on nutrient utilization and enteric health of turkey and broilers. Finally, we plan to continue our work on the effect of feed manufacturing, particle grind size, and microencapsulation of concentrated nutrients (vitamins, trace minerals, amino acids, and other bioactive compounds) on the nutrient utilization of poorly-digested feed ingredients, particularly in combination with enzymes supplementation. These research activities will be conducted in conjunction with the training of undergraduate and graduate students, visiting scholars, and post-doctoral fellows, and the results will be disseminated as part of academic lectures, extension short-courses, scientific and industry meetings, and academic and popular press.?

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Poultry meat and eggs is among the most wholesome, nutritious, and affordable protein sources of the human diet; and it is produced more resource efficiently with less negative environmental impact than other food animals. Consequently, consumption of poultry meat has increased by over 5% per year world-wide during the past 3 decades and will continue into the future as advancements in genetic selection and meat and egg production efficiency continue. North Carolina ranks among the leading states in poultry production. As the leading agricultural commodity group, the poultry industry's economic impact for NC exceeds $37.3 billion annually. This project is focused on maintaining the sustainability and global competitiveness of this robust poultry industry by advancing and distributing knowledge related to the efficient use of dietary nutrients in feed and food by-products used in feeds, while enhancing animal welfare to product safe and wholesome poultry food products. This goal is accomplished as faculty scientists and students conducted research and field demonstrations that addressed at least one of three objectives: 1) enhance the early development and nutrigenomic programming of broilers and turkeys by in ovo feeding (the administration of nutrients and other GRAS compounds into the amnion of late-term embryos) and post-hatch feed (from hatch to 10 days of age); 2) use of feed additives and feedstuffs or feed manufacturing methods to improve nutrient utilization and reduce nutrient emissions; and 3) use of non-pharmaceutical methods to enhance enteric health and pathogen colonization resistance. The positive outcomes of this work included research knowledge advancements in each of the objectives areas, training of future scientists, and technology knowledge distribution and extension outreach to the poultry and food industries. Some of the technologies were rapidly adopted, while others are being considered for commercialization. To address objective 1, techniques were developed to enhance the nutrition of perinatal poultry by in ovo feeding (IOF) formulations, probiotic cultures, and post-hatch supplements. Automated delivery techniques for IOF were developed to advance the development of perinatal broilers and turkeys by 2 to 3 days and increase growth rate and the efficiency of nutrient utilization by up to 4% through to market age. Probiotic strain libraries of clostridia butyricum were also delivered by IOF applications to determine optimum strains and dosage to improve hatchability rate and chick quality. These results were confirmed by students and scientists who were able to determine favorable changes morphological development of the gut and the expression of genes regulating digestion, nutrient transport, immunity, and metabolism. A nutritionally-enhanced supplement containing over 90% water was developed as a non-wetting gel for post-hatch chicks and poults to help them overcome dehydration and transportation distress, and improve subsequent welfare and growth. Students learned the methodology of product development and field demonstrations. A commercial gel hatchling supplement product is now available and is being used by several commercial turkey and chicken hatcheries for delivery of cocci vaccines, probiotics, and nutrients. If adopted by the global poultry industry, perinatal nutrition technology would result in savings of several million dollars per year based on an estimated cost savings of $0.05 to $0.10 per bird. Efforts are now focused on the transfer of in ovo feeding and hatchery gel supplement technology for commercial applications. This research has inspired many young scientists to pursue the budding new field of how early nutrition can program metabolic and physiological responses later in life, as evidenced by a rise in similar published works at other institutions. Several commercial companies are developing applications of perinatal nutrition and early nutritional programming. To address objectives 2 and 3, several experiments evaluated the dietary inclusion of feed additives and feed manufacturing techniques that improve nutrient utilization by enhancing gut health without the use of pharmaceutical feed additives. Dietary supplementation of enzymes (carbohydrases, proteases, and phytases), direct-fed microbials, organic acids, functional oils, mannanoligosaccharides, and organic trace minerals have been shown to improve enteric health, significantly improve growth performance and/or feed nutrient efficiency, and serve as a cost-effective alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. Dietary supplementation of enzymes was demonstrated to significantly improve caloric efficiency, thus allowing for lower energy diets without compromising growth performance. Depending on the cost of dietary energy (determined by the commodity price of corn), dietary enzyme supplementation can result in feed costs savings of $10 to $20/tonne. Use of highly bioavailable organic trace minerals in place of inorganic forms was found to reduce dietary mineral inclusion or mineral emissions by 75% without adversely affecting growth performance yet still improve meat quality. Several research trials conducted by students demonstrated that increasing particle grind size of a portion of the dietary corn or other ingredients, significantly improved nutrient utilization and enteric health, reduced ammonia emission, and reduce feed manufacturing costs. After aggressively distributing our knowledge about the importance of particle size in pelleted poultry feeds through scientific publication, presentations at scientific and industry conferences, and conducting of national and international short-courses, all poultry producers in NC and many in other parts of the world have made changes in their poultry feed manufacturing to capture the value of research efforts. Finally, a series of experiments with broilers and broiler breeders were done to test the effect of vitamin and trace mineral premix microencaspulation in hydrogenated vegetable oil. The vitamin and trace mineral delivery technology greatly improves the stability and handling characteristics, and the slow release of nutrients by this technology during digestion allows for a reduction of dietary inclusion by about 60 -70% without adverse effects on growth performance, and also resulted in a more symbiotic gut microflora that benefits enteric health and nutrient utilization.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Moreira Filho, A.L.B., P.R. Ferket, and R.D. Malheiros, C.J.B. Oliveira, P.C. Aristimunha, D.E. Wilsmann, and P.E.N. Givisiez, 2018. Enrichment of the amnion with threonine in chicken embryos affects the small intestine development, ileal gene expression,and performance of broilers between 1 and 21 days of age. Poultry Science 0:1-8. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey461.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Livingston, M.L., P.R. Ferket, and K.A. Livingston, 2018. Dietary amino acids under hyposic conditions exacerbates muscle myopathies including wooden breast and white stripping. Poultry Science 0:1-11. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey463
• Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: BLACK, SAMANTHA ANN. Performance and Economic Impacts of Hatchery and Post- Hatch Constraints on Poult Quality. (Under the direction of Dr. Peter Ferket and Dr. Robert Beckstead).
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Livingston, M., P. Ferket, J. Brake, K. Livingston, 2018. Blood physiology of broilers presented with breast myopathies and supplemented with dietary glutamine and arginine. Poultry Science 97(E-Suppl. 1):267.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Herchler, M., S. Black, M. Warren, R. Malheiros, P. Ferket 2018. The effects of phytase super-dosing in combination with xylanase on the ileal microbial profile of market turkey hens. Poultry Science 97(E-Suppl. 1):273.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Chadwick, E., R. Malheiros, P. Ferket, and R. Beckstead, 2018. Microbiota, growth performance, and processing characteristics of broilers fed a standard vs low vitamin and trace mineral diet. Poultry Science 97(E-Suppl. 1):287.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jababu, Y, C . Blue, P. Ferket, S . Ibrahim, R . Gyawali, and Y . Fasina, 2018. Influence of dietary spray dried plasma on fecal microbiota in broiler chickens. Poultry Science 97(E-Suppl. 1):154.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Ferket, P., 2018. In ovo feeding solution volume and osmolality is critical for optimum hatchability. Poultry Science 97(E-Suppl. 1):164.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Malheiros, D., V. Moraes, P. Ferket, K. Anderson, and R. Malheiros, 2018. Effect of use of annatto (Bixa orellana) on the internal quality of eggs. Poultry Science 97(E-Suppl. 1):177.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Fasina, Y., P. Ferket, C. Blue, Y. Jababu, A. Hooks, and R. Noble, 2018. Dietary spray-dried plasma influences early intestinal development and broiler chick growth. Poultry Science 97(E-Suppl. 1):185.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Wedegaertner, O., A. Fahrenholtz, and P. Ferket, 2018. Correlation of feed ingredient characteristics with flow- ability as measured by angle of repose. Poultry Science 97(E-Suppl. 1):199.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ferket, P.R., 2017. The potential of perinatal nutrition: in ovo and prestarter feeding. Proceedings of the 21st European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition. Pp64-69. Wagenengen Academic Publishers. Eds. Francesch, M., Torrallardona, D., and Bureau, J. ISBN: 978-90-8686-306-8.

Progress 11/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Poultry and animal scientists; Poultry Industry Personnel;Animal Agriculture affiliates of the State of North Carolina and the greater USA; Feed Scientists and Feed Industry Personnel; feed ingredient suppliers; animal nutritionists; animal health professionals; food safety professionals; environmental sustainability interest groups; animal welfare interest groups; international agriculturalists with interest in USA agriculture relations; Extension specialists and agents. Governmental policy makers, agriculture and food regulators;students of North Carolina State University. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provided training and professional development of 2 undergraduates students, 5 graduate students (2 MS and 3 PhD), and one post-doctoral research associate. These students have advanced in their professional skills, experience, and knowledge proficiency in the field of animal and poultry nutrition, feed formulation, feed manufacturing, experimental design, laboratory analysis, statistical analysis, data management, oral presentation, technical writing, project leadership, and teaching and mentoring. The training activities included assisting the project director or associate mentors in the designed and conducting of experiments, sample and data collection, laboratory and information analysis, courses related to nutrition, physiology, biotechnology, feed manufacturing and quality assurance, and poultry production management. Professional development and communication skills were also encouraged by participation in workshops, conferences, seminars, case studies, and industry meetings and extension demonstrations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of this project has been disseminated by a variety of means to academic and industry scientists, university students, poultry industry stakeholders, federal and state government employees, extension specialist, poultry allied industry representatives, and general public consumers of poultry products. The means of information dissemination included peer-reviewed journal publications, popular press releases, presentation at scientific and industry conferences, extension education print and electronic releases, webinars and seminars, and short-courses. High-impact information dissemination vehicles included the Carolina Poultry Nutrition Conference, The Carolina Feed Industry Annual Convention, The International Poultry Production Short Course, the International Symposium on Emerging Issues in Poultry Nutrition and Meat Production, the International Poultry Exposition, The Latin American Poultry Conference, The Asian Poultry Summit, The Alltech Idea Symposium, the Poultry Science Association Meeting, and the Southern Poultry Society Meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This project will continue to conduct research and train young scientists and future poultry industry leaders to address the three major objectives towards enhancing nutrient utilization and health of turkeys and broilers. The perinatal nutrition work with poultry will focus on developing in ovo feeding solutions that are optimized for automated delivery in commercial broilers. We also plan evaluate the efficacy of administering prebiotic compounds (Mannanoligosaccharides, Galactooligosaccharides, and fructooligosaccharides) and probiotic microorganisms via in ovo feeding and post-hatch gel supplements, thus increasing the resistance of enteric pathogen colonization in poultry and thus reduce the risk of food-borne pathogens from poultry. Several studies will also investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of enzymes, organic acids, and organic trace minerals on nutrient utilization and enteric health of turkey and broilers. Finally, we plan to continue our work on the effect of feed manufacturing and particle grind size on the nutrient utilization of poorly-digested feed ingredients, particularly in combination with enzymes supplementation. These research activities will be conducted in conjunction with the training of undergraduate and graduate students, visiting scholars, and post-doctoral fellows, and the results will be disseminated as part of academic lectures, extension short-courses, scientific and industry meetings, and academic and popular press.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? To address objective 1, techniques were developed to enhance the nutrition of perinatal poultry by in ovo feeding (IOF) formulations and post-hatch supplements. Automated delivery techniques for IOF were developed to advance the development of perinatal broilers and turkeys by 2 to 3 days and increase growth rate and the efficiency of nutrient utilization by up to 4% through to market age. These results were confirmed by students and scientists who were able to determine favorable changes morphological development of the gut and the expression of genes regulating digestion, nutrient transport, immunity, and metabolism. A nutritionally-enhanced supplement containing over 90% water was developed as a non-wetting gel for post-hatch chicks and poults to help them overcome dehydration and transportation distress, and improve subsequent welfare and growth. Students learned the methodology of product development and field demonstrations. A commercial gel hatchling supplement product is now available and is being used by several commercial turkey and chicken hatcheries for delivery of cocci vaccines, probiotics, and nutrients. If adopted by the global poultry industry, perinatal nutrition technology would result in savings of several million dollars per year based on an estimated cost savings of $0.05 to $0.10 per bird. Efforts are now focused on the transfer of in ovo feeding and hatchery gel supplement technology for commercial applications. This research has inspired many young scientists to pursue the budding new field of how early nutrition can program metabolic and physiological responses later in life, as evidenced by a rise in similar published works at other institutions. Several commercial companies are developing applications of perinatal nutrition and early nutritional programming. To address objectives 2 and 3, several experiments evaluated the dietary inclusion of feed additives and feed manufacturing techniques that improve nutrient utilization by enhancing gut health without the use of pharmaceutical feed additives. Dietary supplementation of enzymes (carbohydrases, proteases, and phytases), direct-fed microbials, organic acids, functional oils, mannanoligosaccharides, and organic trace minerals have been shown to improve enteric health, significantly improve growth performance and/or feed nutrient efficiency, and serve as a cost-effective alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. Dietary supplementation of enzymes was demonstrated to significantly improve caloric efficiency, thus allowing for lower energy diets without compromising growth performance. Depending on the cost of dietary energy (determined by the commodity price of corn), dietary enzyme supplementation can result in feed costs savings of $10 to $20/tonne. Use of highly bioavailable organic trace minerals in place of inorganic forms was found to reduce dietary mineral inclusion or mineral emissions by 75% without adversely affecting growth performance yet still improve meat quality. Finally, several research trials conducted by students demonstrated that increasing particle grind size of a portion of the dietary corn or other ingredients, significantly improved nutrient utilization and enteric health, reduced ammonia emission, and reduce feed manufacturing costs. After aggressively distributing our knowledge about the importance of particle size in pelleted poultry feeds through scientific publication, presentations at scientific and industry conferences, and conducting of national and international short-courses, all poultry producers in NC and many in other parts of the world have made changes in their poultry feed manufacturing to capture the value of research efforts.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Park, I. T. Pasquetti, R.D. Malheiros, P.R. Ferket, and S.W. Kim, 2017. Effects of supplemental L-methionine on growth performance and redox status of turkey poults compared with the use of DL-methionine. Poultry Science 97(1):102-109. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pex259
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ferket, P.R., 2017. The potential of perinatal nutrition: in ovo and prestarter feeding. Proceedings of the 21st European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition. Pp 64-69. Ed. Francesch, M., Torrallardona, D., and Brufau, J. Wagenengen Academic Publishers, ISBN 978-90-8686-306-8. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-851-3
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Xu, Y., Y.M. Lin, C.R., Stark, P.R. Ferket, C.M. Williams, and J. Brake, 2017. Effects of dietary coarsely ground corn and 3 bedding floor types on broiler live performance, litter characteristics, gizzard and proventriculus weight, and nutrient digestibility. J. Poultry Science 96(7):2110-2119. DOI: 10.3382/ps/pew485
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Herchler, M., S. Black, V. Schramm, R. Crivellari, R. Malheiros, and P. Ferket, 2017. The effects of Hostazym� and Optiphos� super dosing in combination with Azomite� on growth performance in market turkey hens. Poultry Science 96(e-Suppl. 1):275
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Black, S., M. Herchler, V. Schramm, R. Crivellari, R. Malheiros, and P. Ferket, 2017. Effect of poult hatch weight on their subsequent growth response to dietary energy, phosphorus, calcium and Azomite. Poultry Science 96(e-Suppl. 1):275