Register for webinar on broiler chick gut health

A balanced and stable gut ensures that broiler chicks have the correct gut microflora to promote early development of the intestine,leading to more efficient use of feed, reduced risk of gut disease and shorter finishing times.
Register athttps://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/136349304 to attend the webinar, “Optimizing the gut environment for improved performance,” sponsored by MSD Animal Health and presented by WATT Global Media, on Thursday, June 19 at 8:30 a.m. CDT.
During this webinar, you will learn:


• How to utilize basic principles of gut flora development for improved performance 
• How to manage the lower gut beyond digestion
• How to rehabilitate intestinal microflora and their environment
• Tools for reducing harmful microflora that can impair performance


Speakers
Dr. Stephen Collett and Fernando Vargas will be the webinar’s featured speakers.
Collett is a clinical associate professor at the Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center (PDRC) in the College of Veterinary Medicine at The University of Georgia. As a clinician at the PDRC, he is primarily responsible for teaching clinical medicine in the Masters in Avian Medicine program and problem solving in the State of Georgia’s enormous poultry industry.
After spending 10 years in private practice, he specialized in poultry, receiving his MMed.Vet. in Poultry, from the University of Pretoria and diplomat status with the American College of Poultry Veterinarians. He gained many years of industry experience as head veterinarian with Rainbow Chicken Farms in South Africa and as director of Alltech Inc.’s North American Poultry Division before joining the UGA in 2004.
Fernando Vargas is a veterinarian with more than 20 years dedicated to the poultry industry in several areas, such as broiler health and management, breeders and hatchery, nutrition and feed milling. He has worked for some of the major Brazilian poultry companies.

US broiler chick placements up 1 million from previous week

United States broiler growers placed 168 million chicks for meat production during the week ending June 8, an increase of 1 million chicks when compared to the previous week. Chick placements were up just slightly when compared to the same week during 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's June 12 Broiler Hatchery report.
USDA's report also showed broiler-type eggs set in the U.S. at 203 million for the week ending June 8, the same amount set during the previous week, but up 1 percent when compared to the same week in 2012.

Aviagen video details chick export system

Millions of chicks, just hours after hatching, travel in comfort and safety to breeder farms throughout the world even as they negotiate stringent border crossings, weather extremes, and other challenges -- thanks to a global export system established by Aviagen, the world’s leading poultry breeding company.
The focus of a new video available for viewing is Aviagen’s animal export operation, which ships day-old chicks to farms in more than 120 countries and is broadly recognized as one the world’s most extensive and welfare compliant animal shipment networks.
Created to educate customers, airline staff, and workers at various transit points on how to quickly and safely transport live birds with the utmost concern for their comfort and well-being, the video depicts a range of Aviagen’s standardized best practices, such as maintaining comfortable temperatures and airflow levels for birds at all stages of transit. It also illustrates how Aviagen meets or exceeds international airline shipment standards for live chick transport.
“To ship millions of healthy chicks a year while meeting global regulatory and animal welfare requirements, we have to pay extraordinary attention to planning, logistics, safety and timing,” said Don Hachen, Aviagen’s director of global planning and distribution. “Different countries have different delivery requirements, but every customer expects a clean and healthy bird, from incubation to final delivery. It’s the right thing to do for the birds, for the customers, and for the food supply chain itself. That’s why Aviagen has established a flexible and reliable infrastructure that delivers every day, while always putting the welfare of the birds first.”
The video shows how Aviagen has established an intricate and carefully monitored export network built to accommodate the realities of transport today. Twenty-four commercial hatcheries are strategically located in the United States, Brazil, Europe, Australia and New Zealand to minimize transportation time to breeder farms around the world. Each shipment has multiple routing options, which gives the Aviagen export team the flexibility to avoid shipping chicks through countries that may be experiencing a disease outbreak, and lets them reroute around severe weather which could impact bird safety as well as customer delivery schedules.

US broiler eggs placed up 2 percent at end of November

U.S. commercial hatcheries in the 19-state weekly program set 198 million broiler eggs in incubators during the week ending December 1, up 2 percent from the eggs set the corresponding week in 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's latest report.
Average hatchability for chicks hatched during the week was 85 percent. Broiler growers in the program placed 160 million chicks for meat production during the week ending December 1, down 1 percent from the comparable week in 2011. Cumulative placements from January 1 through December 1 were 7.76 billion, down 2 percent from the same period in 2011, according to the USDA.
For more information and statistics on U.S. poultry, see www.wattagnet.com/marketdata.html.

UK broiler chicks, slaughterings up in October

UK broiler chick placings were 3.1 percent higher than October 2011, at 90 million birds, and UK turkey placings were 6 percent higher, at 1.3 million birds, according to the latest report from the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs.
UK broiler slaughterings were 2.5 percent higher than October 2011, at 86 million birds, while turkey slaughterings were 8.4 percent higher at 2.4 million birds. Broiler eggs set were also up over October 2011 numbers, at 106 million eggs compared to 102 million eggs. Turkey eggs remained steady at 1.8 million set, according to the report.

Overall poultry meat production was 163 thousand metric tons, the same as October 2011, according to the report.

US egg production, chicks hatched down in April

U.S. egg production totaled 7.58 billion during April, down 1 percent from 2011 numbers, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's latest report, including 6.54 billion table eggs, and 1.04 billion hatching eggs, of which 964 million were broiler-type and 73 million were egg-type.
The total number of layers during April averaged 339 million, down slightly from 2011. April egg production per 100 layers was 2,233 eggs, down slightly from April 2011. All layers in the U.S. on May 1 totaled 338 million, down slightly from the same time in 2011. The 338 million layers consisted of 283 million layers producing table or market type eggs, 52.8 million layers producing broiler-type hatching eggs and 2.98 million layers producing egg-type hatching eggs. Rate of lay per day on May 1 averaged 73.6 eggs per 100 layers, down 1 percent from May 1, 2011.
Egg-type chicks hatched during April totaled 39.7 million, down 8 percent from April 2011, according to the USDA. Eggs in incubators totaled 42 million on May 1, up 4 percent from 2011 numbers. Domestic placements of egg-type pullet chicks for future hatchery supply flocks by leading breeders totaled 172,000 during April, down 40 percent from April 2011.
Broiler-type chicks hatched during April totaled 748 million, down 4 percent from April 2011. Eggs in incubators totaled 619 million on May 1, down 4 percent from 2011 numbers. Leading breeders placed 6.52 million broiler-type pullet chicks for future domestic hatchery supply flocks during April, down 7 percent from April 2011.
For more egg and poultry information and statistics, see www.wattagnet.com/marketdata.html.  

March US egg production up, chicks down

U.S. egg production totaled 7.86 billion during March, up slightly from 2011 numbers, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture report.
Production included 6.8 billion table eggs, and 1.06 billion hatching eggs, of which 981 million were broiler-type and 78 million were egg-type. The total number of layers during March averaged 340 million, down slightly from 2011. March egg production per 100 layers was 2,313 eggs, up 1 percent from March 2011.
All layers in the U.S. on April 1 totaled 341 million, down slightly from 2011 numbers. The 341 million layers consisted of 285 million layers producing table- or market-type eggs, 52.1 million layers producing broiler-type hatching eggs and 3.09 million layers producing egg-type hatching eggs. Rate of lay per day on April 1 averaged 75.2 eggs per 100 layers, up 1 percent from April 1, 2011.
Egg-type chicks hatched during March totaled 40.6 million, down 7 percent from March 2011. Eggs in incubators totaled 39.3 million on April 1, down 5 percent from 2011 numbers. Domestic placements of egg-type pullet chicks for future hatchery supply flocks by leading breeders totaled 210,000 during March, down 17 percent from March 2011, according to the USDA.
Broiler-type chicks hatched during March totaled 764 million, down 4 percent from March 2011. Eggs in incubators totaled 614 million on April 1, down 5 percent from 2011. Leading breeders placed 6.73 million broiler-type pullet chicks for future domestic hatchery supply flocks during March, down 5 percent from March 2011.
For more information and statistics on poultry, see www.wattagnet.com/marketdata.html.  

Oklahoma Supreme Court overturns $10 million verdict in 2008 broiler farmers case against Tyson

Oklahoma's Supreme Court has granted Tyson Foods Inc. a new trial in a 2008 broiler farmer case, overturning a $10 million verdict against the company on allegations of juror misconduct and a mistake interpreting the law. In 2008, 54 growers sued Tyson, claiming that farmers who didn't want to modernize their equipment were given inferior feed and chicks. They claimed that Tyson had favored growers who got better feed and livestock. In 2010 a jury verdict went in favor of the farmers, 9–3. Tyson claimed on appeal that some of the prospective jurors didn't answer questions fully or truthfully on juror questionnaires and that the trial judge didn't allow oral questions on items covered in the forms filled out by the panelists. They also said that the growers weren't covered by the Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act. "[The Supreme Court's] decision affirms our position that the trial in this case was so improperly conducted that the verdict could not stand," said Tyson. "The family farmers who raise our chickens are vital to our business and we want them to be successful. Contrary to the claims made in the case, we abide by the terms of the contracts we have with poultry farmers and we strive to ensure all of them are treated fairly."

Philippines province launches broiler growing project

In the Filipino province of Negros Occidental, Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. announced his plan to turn over a P1.95 million (US$45,500) backyard broiler growing project on February 29 to one dozen families in Sagay City. Each family will be trained on chicken production and will receive 200-208 heads of broiler chicks. The project’s goal is to help low-income residents sustain earnings, according to Anna Leah Silva, project development officer of the Technology and Livelihood Development Center. Sagay City, Manapla, EB Magalona, and Pulupandan are the pilot locations of the project; this will be expanded to other areas once successful and sustainable, Silva said.

US broiler eggs, chicks down last week of November

U.S. commercial hatcheries in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 19-state weekly program set 194 million eggs in incubators during the week ending November 26, down 6% from the eggs set the corresponding week in 2010.
Average hatchability for chicks hatched during the week was 85%. Broiler growers in the program placed 156 million chicks for meat production during the week ending November 26, down 5% from 2010 numbers. Cumulative placements from January 2 through November 26 were 7.76 billion, down 3% from the same period in 2010.
For more information and statistics on U.S. poultry, visit www.wattagnet.com/marketdata.html. 

US broiler eggs, chicks down

Broiler placements were down 4% from 2010 numbers.

U.S. commercial hatcheries in the 19-state weekly program set 196 million eggs in incubators during the week ending July 9, down 5% from the eggs set the corresponding week in 2010, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture report.
Average hatchability for chicks hatched during the week was 85%. Broiler growers in the weekly program placed 166 million chicks for meat production during the week ending July 9. Placements were down 4% from the comparable week in 2010. Cumulative placements from January 2 through July 9 were 4.61 billion, up slightly from the same period in 2010.