The effects of ante-mortem stressors such as stunning, struggling, environmental temperature and feed withdrawal on the biochemical changes of broiler breast muscle are assessed in relation to post-mortem biochemical changes and the subsequent tenderness of broiler breast meat. The findings of investigations concerned with broiler meat are presented alongside more fundamental studies addressing such aspects as Ca2+ release and sequestration, endocrine changes during periods of stress and the role of fatty acids as regulators of membrane bound channels. An attempt is made to assimilate the pertinent facts associated with this topic and to give directions for future research. It is concluded, however, that, whilst tenderness in meat is often associated with a loss of ATP, glycogen breakdown and lactic acid accumulation within muscles, current data are insufficient to enable a definitive decision to be made as to which have adverse effects on broiler meat tenderness.

This is a review of the work undertaken to establish the nutrient requirements of, and feeding practices suitable for, quail under tropical and subtropical conditions. Three types of diet are recommended during commercial rearing as follows: a starter up to two weeks of age, a grower from three to five weeks and a layer mash for birds of more than six weeks of age. For optimum growth of quail broilers, a diet containing 27% protein with 11.72 MJ metabolisable energy (ME)/kg is recommended up to two weeks of age and a diet containing 24% protein with the same energy for birds from three to five weeks. The diet for layer type starter quail should contain 24% protein with an energy concentration of 11.72 MJ ME/kg. Dietary protein contents of 20% for growers and 19% for both layers and breeders appear adequate. Experiments with particular reference to lysine, methionine, vitamin A, calcium, phosphorus, manganese and zinc were also conducted. Based on these trials and those of others, practical dietary concentrations of nutrients for various age groups and production purposes are proposed.

The high incidence of disease is one of the major constraints to smallholder poultry production systems in Africa. In order to control various poultry diseases, ethnoveterinary medicine is widely practised by poor village farmers. Natural products, especially those which are locally available, are generally used. The use of ethnoveterinary medicine can be considered sustainable as it is economical, culturally acceptable and ecologically sound. Although village poultry farmers claim that these practices are effective, there is an urgent need for applied research to substantiate their assertions.

Poultry and poultry products have repeatedly been implicated as a source of foodborne infection for humans. The significant increase in the number of reported foodborne disease outbreaks worldwide has altered opinions on food safety. It has become clear that current legislation alone is inadequate, and that industry must accept a greater share of responsibility for the quality and safety of the food it produces. The fact that processing plants are not able to reduce the incidence of pathogenic bacteria effectively in poultry products means that every effort must be made to reduce infection in and/or contamination of the live birds with foodborne pathogens before dispatch to processing plants. The main control strategy should include the following: cleaning the production pyramid from the top, as in the case of Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella typhimurium, by destroying infected flocks (with compensation), sanitising hatching eggs and limiting the introduction and spread of pathogens at the farm through Good Animal Husbandry Practices (GAHPs). To achieve GAHPs, effective measures of hygiene should be applied to poultry houses and the feed. Reducing salmonella colonisation by using antimicrobial feed additives, competitive exclusion treatment or vaccines is worth consideration. Fur-thermore, hygienic systems for catching and transporting live poultry must be included. To reduce carcass contamination during processing, thorough schedules for cleaning and disinfection of the equipment and plant are essential. Machine design must permit easy and thorough cleaning. Because the success of any food safety programme on the farm and in the processing plant depends on the hygiene practices of the staff, it is essential to incorporate education programmes for all people involved in the poultry production chain. In the farm-to-fork concept, post-processing food handling is also a very important factor in reducing foodborne infections. Finally, the development and application of acceptable methods for end product decontamination and preservation in the processing plant must be pursued.

A total of 2083 Culicoides spp. were collected in an ultraviolet light trap hung from the rafters of a laying chicken house at a location in Sebele, giving a mean daily catch of 208.3 biting midges. C. imicola was the most abundant and constituted 57.5% of the total catch. C. leucosticus and C. engubandei constituted 20.5% and 14.770, respectively, of the catch. A comprehensive questionnaire conducted at three sites in the village indicated that many chickens in the homesteads in this location had died as a result of fowl pox. A high incidence of Haemoproteus columbae gametocytes was also found in the cytoplasm of erythrocytes of domestic pigeons (Colurnbiae livia domestica).

The goose is one of the most ancient of domesticated birds now bred commercially. Whereas the greatest concentration of the world's geese is to be found in Asia, there is considerable breed diversity in Europe. Geese enterprises are most successful with highly productive breeds well adapted to local conditions. Economically useful traits, such as body weight, liveability, egg production, hatchability, feather formation and ability to be fed for the production of fat livers, need to be more clearly identified. Knowledge of the genetic differences between and within breeds in reproductive or production traits and of the heritability values of these traits are essential if the artificial selection of geese is to be successful. In the commercial crossing of breeds it is customary and preferable to use dam and male strains selected for reproductive and meat traits, respectively. Implementing modern DNA techniques would facilitate the detection of quantitative trait loci (QTL) and the introduction of marker-assisted selection. Progress with and results from other avian species would help to compensate for the current lack of specific markers and other molecular tools in geese. An important feature of geese is their ability to consume green forages and other cheap components of crops and to maintain productivity on diets with low protein contents; they are also frequently able to make effective use of novel local feed resources. Geese are at present usually raised on deep litter, on free range, in cages or on slats, using short days, diminishing light intensity or fluorescent light, and over one or two cycles of lay. To improve the efficiency of production of geese their biological and economic features need to be more actively studied. There is an urgent need to integrate genetic, nutritional, reproductive and management information and approaches so that present production systems can be adjusted and the genetic potential of geese more fully realised.

Battery cages for laying birds were banned in Switzerland in 1981. Several new systems were developed in the years that followed, but to date only the deep litter and aviary systems have complied with both the regulations of the Swiss Animal Welfare Act and given satisfactory production results. The ways in which layer replacements are reared has been found to be crucial if they are to be able to cope optimally with the new aviary system. For this reason, the Federal Veterinary Office commissioned a survey to investigate how layer replacement pullets were reared in Switzerland. Sixty six out of a total of 155 farms that had facilities to rear 500 or more chicks at one time were visited between April and December 1997. Data were gathered on the type of housing system, management methods and the prevalence of feather pecking. The results of the survey are presented in a descriptive way and discussed in relation to the conditions during the laying period.

The problem of assessing welfare in poultry has been exacerbated by three widespread but erroneous assumptions. These are (1) that there are general indicators of welfare that apply to all situations, (2) that indicators of good welfare and those of reduced welfare are distinct from one another and (3) that any change in a welfare ‘indicator’ reflects a change in the welfare state of the animal. These three assumptions are challenged and replaced with a more evolutionary view of the behavioural and physiological responses of the domestic fowl to its environment. Apart from physical health, which is the Cornerstone of all good welfare, the most important additional component of poultry welfare is psychological health or ‘contentment’, which can be most reliably accessed through the birds' own choice behaviour.