VTechWorks staff will be away for the Thanksgiving holiday beginning at noon on Wednesday, November 27, through Friday, November 29. We will resume normal operations on Monday, December 2. Thank you for your patience.
 

The Effects of Beak Trimming and Claw Reduction on Growing and Early Laying Parameters, Fearfulness, and Heterophil to Lymphocyte Ratios

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorHonaker, Christa Fersten
dc.contributor.committeechairRuszler, Paul L.en
dc.contributor.committeememberDenbow, D. Michaelen
dc.contributor.committeememberReaves, Dixie Wattsen
dc.contributor.committeememberMcElroy, Audrey P.en
dc.contributor.departmentAnimal and Poultry Sciencesen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T21:36:56Zen
dc.date.adate2003-07-10en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T21:36:56Zen
dc.date.issued2003-05-26en
dc.date.rdate2004-07-10en
dc.date.sdate2003-06-06en
dc.description.abstractCommercial equipment used by the turkey industry at hatch sterilizes the germinal tissue of the claw with microwave energy and the beak tissue with infrared energy. This effectively claw and beak trims the birds. To test this technique on chickens, one-half of two strains of 1,200 Leghorn chicks were each subjected to the claw reduction (RC) technique at hatch, while one-half retained intact claws (IC). The beaks of one-third of these treatments were reduced at hatch using the infrared technique (1-day), one-third were precision trimmed at 7 d of age (7-day), and one-third were not trimmed (IB). Body weight, weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion, mortality, and fearfulness were measured. Rearing followed standard commercial feeding and husbandry procedures. During the preliminary experiment, heterophil to lymphocyte ratios did not consistently differ significantly between treatments. The RC birds had significantly lower body weight, except from 3 to 6 wk and had significantly lower feed consumption from 8 to 18 wk. The 1-day beak trimmed (BT) birds had significantly lower body weight from 3 to 14 wk and ate less total feed by 4 wk. Subjective evaluation showed that the RC birds exhibited less fearfulness during the growing period than the IC birds. Throughout lay, the body weight of RC and BT birds was significantly affected. Feed consumption was not lessened for RC birds, but was for BT birds throughout lay. Egg production, egg quality, and mortality were not affected by either treatment.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-06062003-141516en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-06062003-141516/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/42866en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartetd.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectheterophilen
dc.subjectlymphocyteen
dc.subjectclawen
dc.subjectbeaken
dc.subjectfearfulnessen
dc.titleThe Effects of Beak Trimming and Claw Reduction on Growing and Early Laying Parameters, Fearfulness, and Heterophil to Lymphocyte Ratiosen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineAnimal and Poultry Sciencesen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
etd.pdf
Size:
380.18 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Masters Theses