Real Science Exchange-Dairy

Guests: Dr. Limin Kung, University of Delaware, and guest Bonni Kowalke, Stem Ag Consulting

Our Real Science Exchange pubcast always has leading scientists and industry professionals discussing the latest ideas and trends, and tonight, we have two distinguished guests. Dr. Limin Kung and Bonni Kowalke join us to discuss wild yeasts in silage.

Dr. Kung begins by giving an overview of the impacts of wild yeast on silage, where they're either going to anaerobically ferment sugars to ethanol or aerobically; these wild yeasts can lead to spoiled silages and spoiled TMR. (8:32)

Bonni and Limin then go on to detail management strategies and practices for reducing the impacts of wild yeast on silage and TMR, including harvest speed, silage moisture content, pack density, feed-out rate, and additives. (10:59)

Bonni gives her perspective as a consultant about how she works with clients ahead of silage harvest to be able to prevent wild yeast infestation or any other problems. Most of her notes come right after harvest is finished with a list of things the farm wants to do differently next time, which she likens to a game plan for a team sport. (18:09)

Dr. Kung describes how to determine if you have an issue with wild yeast in silage. Primarily, one would see aerobic instability via heating and perhaps molding. There will be a distinct telltale odor as well. Unfortunately, there is no on-farm test; samples must be sent to the lab for analysis. (23:10)

Limin and Bonni give their top issues in regard to silage quality that they see in the field, along with ways to help producers get the very best quality silage off their fields each year. (26:40)

This takes a turn into a discussion about how drone technology could be used in the future for perfecting silage moisture content predictions in the field before chopping. (32:02)

Scott asks Bonni and Limin about the addition of NPN (such as urea or anhydrous ammonia) or sugar sources (such as molasses) to silage and what kind of impact that might have on silage quality. (37:24)

Bonni gives an overview of silage inoculants and additives. (47:13)

Limin and Bonni conclude by comparing the stability of legume silages and corn silages, an overview of inoculation best practices, and their take-home messages to ensure high-quality silage. (51:28)

As mentioned in the show, Bonni Kowalke’s contact information at Stem Ag Consulting is [email protected].

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Guests: Dr. Alex Bach, ICREA (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies), and Dr. Bill Weiss, The Ohio State University

In this journal club episode, Dr. Alex  Bach with the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies joins Dr. Bill Weiss from the Ohio State University. 

Dr. Weiss introduces the paper as one that's immediately applicable to the industry and answers a question he received a lot during his Extension career: What's the cost of moving cows? This research gives us some real data to help producers on cow management. (3:49)

Dr. Bach states that grouping cows is necessary, and the goal is to feed cows as close to their requirements as possible. But in a practical world, that can be difficult, and producers may resist moving cows due to the increased work and perceived drop in milk production. Dr. Bach gathered data from the field to see if that's the case or not by evaluating three farms with different diets and evaluating income over feed cost. (4:33)

Dr. Bach goes on to describe the farms and the methods his team used for estimating individual cow intakes in a group pen setting. Cow pen/group changes coincided with a diet change. Individual farms made their own ration decisions and pen movement decisions. (8:17)

In general, cows moved from a high to a medium to a low diet over the course of lactation. Primiparous cows moved from the fresh pen to the medium diet. If diet differences were adequate between groups, the loss in milk was compensated by the lower cost ration, and producers made an additional 20-30 cents per cow per day in income over feed costs. However, if the diets were more similar, lower feed costs did not compensate for the loss in milk production. (15:30)  

Dr. Weiss asks Dr. Bach if he could only build two rations, a high and a low, how would he do that? Dr. Bach’s approach is to look at a histogram of milk production in the pen and split that into quantiles. His goal is to make a ration that satisfies at least 70% of the animals in the pen for the high diet and around 60% of the animals in the pen for the low diet. (24:36)

Dr. Bach also ran a sensitivity analysis evaluating how results would change if milk prices or feed costs (or both) went up or down. He found that the higher the milk price, the more resilient a farm will be to a single diet and that feed cost is the opposite. The most interesting scenario is high feed costs and low milk prices - that's where it's almost mandatory to make groups, if you want to survive on a dairy. (27:23)

Dr. Bach evaluated the change in nutrient intake for the diet switch and projected the milk production change from that nutrient change compared to how the cows actually performed. The cows always lost less milk production than predicted. Dr. Bach thinks the main reason is that the cows were overfed before moving. (37:46)

Dr. Bach invites the audience to experiment a little bit with grouping cows. Don't be afraid of losing milk, and look beyond milk. Put in place mechanisms on the farm that allow you to measure income over feed costs as the ultimate goal. Cows are flexible, so don't be afraid of making a mistake. If something goes wrong, it will go wrong for a short period of time. You can correct it. You can change the diet right away, and the cows will recover. (46:14)

You can find this episode’s journal club paper here: https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-22875

Author: Dr. Alex Bach

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Guest: Dr. Bill Weiss, The Ohio State University

In this episode, we welcome back the fan-favorite journal club podcast. Dr. Bill Weiss joins Scott and Clay for this episode, discussing a large study from Germany evaluating the time spent in the pre-fresh group and its impacts on health and production. 

Dr. Weiss begins with a description of the study’s overall research question of “How long should a cow stay in the pre-fresh pen?” - and the researchers’ hypothesis that time periods too short or too long would be detrimental to both cow health and production. (3:14)

The study had a wide range of days in the pre-fresh pen, ranging from around seven days to about a month, with a mean of 18 days. This is similar to the general industry recommendation of 21 days. (7:16)

Diets were typical of a U.S. diet, although DCAD concentrations would be considered moderate. (9:42)

The longer heifers were in the pre-fresh pen, the higher their milk production was. A quadratic effect was observed in the multiparous cows, where too short was detrimental to milk production, and too long was detrimental to milk production. (11:56)

If the time spent in the pre-fresh pen was less than seven days, both cows and heifers were at higher risk for retained placenta. (14:30)

On the other hand, more extended periods of time in the pre-fresh pen were related to higher incidences of clinical hypocalcemia. (16:40)

Metritis and ketosis were also higher for cows who spent shorter periods of time in the pre-fresh pen, with three weeks best for these health issues. (19:26)

From these results, Dr. Weiss recommended that if calcium metabolism is an issue on a farm, leaning toward a shorter pre-fresh period of around two weeks may be beneficial. On the other hand, if other issues like mastitis, metritis, and retained placentas are an issue, leaning toward three weeks may be most appropriate. Regardless, don’t put cows in the pre-fresh pen for less than a week or more than 35 days. (20:37)

Dr. Weiss suggested an interesting next-step study would be to feed a DCAD diet for the full dry period to both cows and heifers. (28:32)

Dr. Weiss detailed some of the differences observed between cows and heifers in this study and how more research needs to be done around first-lactation cows because heifers are not just little cows. (35:35)

You can find this episode’s journal club paper here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030223002230

Authors: P.L. Venjakob, W. Heuwiese, S. Borchardt

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Guests: Dr. Pete Hansen, University of Florida

To conclude this mini series, Dr. Pete Hansen of the University of Florida presents on the topic of using methyl donors to regulate an early embryo and create an epigenetic effect. This talk was given at the 2022 Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference, and is the fourth part of this series.

Beginning his presentation, Dr. Hansen highlights how nutrition can cause epigenetic reprogramming of the fetus. Methyl groups can be added to increase the pattern of DNA methylation in cells and change the phenotype. 3:55

To elaborate on DNA methylation, Dr. Hansen gives the example of placenta vs. embryo cells. A micrograph of both cell types shows that placenta cells have much larger amounts of methylation than embryo cells, indicating that placenta cells are specifically programmed while methylation of embryo cells can still be influenced by the environment. 4:57

Continuing on the topic of methylation, Dr. Hansen discusses how DNA methylation silences specific genes, such as in skin cells or mammary glands. The methylation in the dam can be recapitulated in offspring, representing an epigenetic pattern. 14:42

Opportunities to increase DNA methylation exist. Dr. Hansen points out that altering the environment of an embryo by growing it in vitro for just seven days changes the phenotype. 23:10

How can this knowledge be used to the advantage of the dairy industry?

Seeking to answer this question, Dr. Hansen and his graduate students added large amounts of choline (excellent source of methyl groups) to cultured embryos. They found the addition of choline to increase triglyceride accumulation and DNA methylation. 31:45

After allowing the choline-treated embryos to mature in the recipient cattle, Dr. Hansen and his colleagues found the dams to have longer gestation lengths. This likely led to the higher birth weight of the calves which persisted into weaning. While a high birth weight is not particularly beneficial, a higher weaning weight certainly can be. 36:30

Finishing up his presentation, Dr. Hansen refers to the common animal science equation: phenotype = genetics + environment. He praises the dairy industry’s proficiency in using genetic selection to create better offspring, but he states that improvements could be made in the environment, suggesting that more focus be placed on the prenatal environment. 41:37

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Guest: Dr. Eric Ciappio, Balchem Corporation

Part three of the podcast series from the 2022 Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference is Dr. Eric Ciappio’s presentation about the importance of choline in prenatal human nutrition. Dr. Ciappio is with Balchem Corporation.

Dr. Ciappio begins with an overview of one of the main roles of choline in the body: supporting overall brain health and cognitive function, primarily through its role as a precursor to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. (3:20)

Eric then reviews several key pieces of research from the literature, beginning with a prospective cohort study looking at choline intake of the mother during pregnancy and the visual-spatial memory of their child seven years later. Moms who were in the highest quartiles of choline intake were correlated with significant improvement in visual-spatial memory of their children measured seven years later. (5:45)

Researchers at Cornell investigated two levels of choline supplementation for pregnant women during the second and third trimester. One group received low choline, 25 milligrams, or 550 milligrams a day of choline, slightly more than the daily recommended intake for pregnant women. Women in the high choline group had higher blood choline throughout the experiment and that increased choline was also observed in cord blood at delivery. (6:48)

Another Cornell study compared two groups of pregnant women, one who received approximately the recommended daily intake for choline and one who received roughly twice the recommended daily intake of choline during the third trimester. These were achieved through a controlled diet prepared in a metabolic kitchen plus supplemental choline. Once babies were delivered, cognitive testing was performed regularly from four months to 13 months. Babies born to mothers who consumed the higher dietary choline level had significantly faster visual processing speed compared to those born to the lower dietary group of women. Additionally, the number of days of prenatal exposure to choline was actually significantly associated with a faster reaction time, even within the lower choline intake group. (8:39)

These same children were followed up at seven years of age with no additional intervention and subjected to a sustained attention test. Children born to the high choline-supplemented group of women had a significantly higher score overall on the sustained attention test. The beneficial effects of maternal choline supplementation during the third trimester of pregnancy are still present at age seven. (14:46)

Choline also has a second important role in lipid metabolism, primarily to help generate phosphocholine and phosphatidylcholine which play both structural and functional roles: a structural component in the overall cell membranes and helps to transport specific lipids throughout the body. In particular, choline is critical for DHA transport. DHA is critical for maternal nutrition, as it is implicated in reduction of risk of preterm birth and overall support of the development of the eye and the brain (19:54)

In the study with 25 vs 550 milligrams of choline supplementation during the second and third trimesters (6:46), the researchers also supplemented the two groups with DHA. Supplementation with choline plus DHA during pregnancy improved DHA status better than just supplementing with DHA alone. (22:48) 

In large dietary intake surveys of choline across the United States, just 6% of adult women in the United States get enough choline in their diet. Less than one in 20 pregnant women are getting enough choline in their diet relative to the daily recommended intake. Reviewers of the dietary guidelines showed that many prenatal supplements do not contain choline or only contain small amounts inadequate to meet recommendations. Similar observations have been reported worldwide. Furthermore, DHA inadequacy is common in pregnant and lactating women. (24:11)

Dr. Ciappio concludes his presentation with the reminder that choline is an essential nutrient that helps support the growth and development of the brain and supports brain health throughout the lifespan. Despite these benefits, just 4% of pregnant women in the United States get enough choline in their diet. Expert groups are calling on manufacturers to increase the amount of choline in prenatal supplements. (26:25) 

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Guests: Dr. Jimena Laporta, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Covering the topic of Fetal Hyperthermia, Dr. Jimena Laporta of the University of Wisconsin is the second podcast at the 2022 Tri-State Dairy Conference. This makes up part two of the conference series.

Heat stress is known to be a significant issue for dairy cattle with both global temperatures and sensitivity of dairy cattle to heat rising. Dr. Laporta adds that negative effects of heat stress last for multiple generations and lactations. 1:16

While heat stress affects all cattle, Dr. Laporta focuses on dry cows and their offspring, to provide a more holistic view of its effects. Beginning with the dry cow, she notes that heat stress lessens milk production, as it derails involution and redevelopment. 3:59

Epigenetics play a role in fetal development in the dry cow - fetal hyperthermia creates changes in the DNA of the fetus, altering the epigenome. 11:22

What are the effects of fetal hyperthermia short term and long term, as well as across generations?

Dr. Laporta details many short term hallmarks of prenatal heat stress: the dam experiences a reduction in gestation length leading to a premature calf that has organ alterations, less of an immune response, less feed intake, and a higher core body temperature. 16:31

Analyzing a large data set of cattle affected by fetal hyperthermia, Dr. Laporta finds long term effects. The daughters had lower survival rates and less production each lactation, which carried over to the next 2-3 generations. Heat stress effects cost the dairy industry $1.4 billion. 23:08

Turning her focus to the molecular signature of heat stress, Dr. Laporta discusses her findings from inspecting a mammary gland, concluding that heat stress causes a lower cell proliferative capacity and negatively impacts protein synthesis. Both lead to compromised milk storage and synthetic capacity. 29:28

Wrapping up, Dr. Laporta states that heat stress negatively affects growth, organ development, immune function, survival, longevity, and milk yield for multiple generations. However, she believes that management and nutritional intervention can reduce such effects. 36:58

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Guests: Dr. Jack Britt, Jack H Britt Consulting

This is the first in a series of presentations given at the 2022 Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference. Epigenetics of different environments and reactions is the topic at hand, presented by Dr. Jack Britt of Jack H Britt Consulting.

Dr. Britt begins by clarifying that epigenetics (transmittable changes in genetic behavior of an individual), are only beginning to be understood. This is partly due to the intricacies of DNA. For instance, the expression of DNA can vary greatly and the process of synthesizing a protein is much more complex than DNA to RNA to protein. 5:32

The tendency of DNA to change over time is the focus of epigenetics, creating positive DNA changes is the focus of multiple dairy cattle studies discussed.

After pointing out that epigenetics is mainly influenced by environment and management, Dr. Britt discusses its implications by giving an example of the pregnant cow. Each pregnant cow represents three separate generations at one time: the cow, fetus, and ovaries in the fetus. 8:34

Genes multiply to produce new life and continue multiplying after birth in various types of cells. Thus, Dr. Britt notes that a change in a gene, such as when a methyl group alters DNA expression, that alteration multiplies along with the gene, creating an epigenetic effect. 11:25

Studying epigenetics is commonly done in twins, Dr. Britt gives the example of his identical twin brother. His brother died of Parkinson’s disease a few years ago, demonstrating that the disease is an epigenetic (due to environmental change) disease instead of a genetic one. 14:56

What are areas where epigenetics have significantly impacted the production of dairy cattle?

Numerous cases are detailed by Dr. Britt, one being the decrease in fertility that correlates with a body condition score loss after calving. An oocyte matures in approximately 101 days, meaning it begins to develop soon after calving, when the cow is potentially at the lowest weight. The egg produced by this cow typically dies 4-5 days after fertilization. 23:07

Technology has created improvements in environment and management factors. Dr. Britt references the University of Guelph, where a new technology is being used to monitor and distribute calves’ energy intake to ensure they consistently gain weight during weaning. 28:57

Concluding his talk, Dr. Britt poses the question: How can technology be used to create a reputable activity score of important factors among each herd? Such a score would allow for long term comparison across herds, allowing for epigenetics to estimate performance. 33:45

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Guests: Dr. Jim Drackley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Dr. Mike Van Amburgh, Cornell University & Dr. Jim Quigley, Cargill

Our Real Science Exchange pubcast always has leading scientists and industry professionals discussing the latest ideas and trends, and tonight we have three distinguished guests. Dr. Jim Drackley, Dr. Mike Van Amburgh, and Dr. Jim Quigley join us to discuss the weaning period and why it can be so traumatic for dairy calves.

Dr. Drackley leads off by describing that this topic is popular because it's still a problem. The advantages of feeding more milk during the milk feeding period are clear, but there can be system failure around the weaning transition from large amounts of milk to starter. There's often some slump in growth or even calf loss in some cases. (04:40)

Dr. Drackley emphasizes the importance of a properly texturized feed, starch content in calf starter, weaning age, and feeding too much hay which leads into a discussion about the importance of butyrate over propionate in rumen development. (05:31) 

Dr. Quigley tackles the idea of weaning age and rumen development, stating that research has found NDF digestibility isn’t mature until the calf has reached a threshold of about 15 kilograms of cumulative NFC intake. The latest NAHMS study suggested a typical weaning age in the industry of about nine weeks and this usually coincides with the NFC threshold (10:39)

Dr. Van Amburgh suggests that patience may be lacking when it comes to the weaning transition. Research shows taking more time to transition from milk to solid feed in a stepwise manner can lessen or remove the post-weaning performance lag. (19:41)

Dr. Van Amburgh goes on to reiterate the importance of butyrate production in rumen development and that the inclusion of simple sugars into calf starters rather than high levels of starch are beneficial. (21:26)

Dr. Drackley then reaffirms the importance of a gradual transition from milk given the cow’s natural lactation curve. A calf would be receiving less and less milk each day, not an abrupt shift to a different diet which often is not mimicked in weaning transition programs. (25:18)

Dr. Morrow gives the veterinarian perspective and agrees with the panel that a proper weaning transition program could take away a lot of the respiratory disease impacts on post-weaning performance. (27:14)

The panel shifts to speak to the long term impacts of a poor weaning transition program. Dr. Drackley emphasizes calves who experience disease have both lower longevity and lower milk production in the herd. (29:26)

Dr. Van Amburgh cites European research that showed if nutrition from weaning on didn’t achieve target body weights at certain stages of physiological development, reproductive efficiency was decreased as a heifer and as a lactating cow. (30:13)  

Each panelist gives an overview of the “perfect” calf weaning program. Dr. Quigley emphasizes a slow transition with high diet quality before and after weaning (32:46)

Dr. Van Amburgh further underlines the importance of calf starter diet quality, focusing on simple sugars and amino acids, rather than starch and crude protein (37:29)

Dr. Drackley focuses on the fact that digestive tract development is allometric during this time in the calf’s life, where the digestive tract develops at a faster rate than the rest of the body. Ensuring the calf has adequate nutrition to support this growth is imperative, and is an important focus for future research. (41:37)

Dr. Van Amburgh suggests that changing the way starter is presented to calves so they know it’s feed is critical because they may not be in an environment where they can learn from others. (48:18)

The panel wraps up with one piece of advice for calf weaning programs: be patient! (50:33)

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Guests: Emmillie Boot and Dr. Ramon Malheiros, North Carolina State University; Catherine Fudge, University of Georgia; Dr. Lisa Bielke, North Carolina State University; Kyle Venter, University of Pretoria; Letecia Orellana Galindo, Auburn University; and Dr. Ken Macklin, Mississippi State University; Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia, PA; Cara Cash and Dr. Giri Athrey, Texas A&M University.

Today’s episode was filmed at the 2023 Poultry Science Association Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA and is the second podcast of two from PSA. Balchem’s technical team chose abstracts of interest from the meeting and those researchers are our guests today. 

We kick off the show with Emmillie Boot and Dr. Ramon Malheiros from North Carolina State University. Emmillie’s research compared bell drinkers and gender-specific (different lines for roosters and hens) nipple-type drinkers for broiler breeders. She looked at the differences between egg production, egg fertility, and rooster fertility between nipple drinker lines and bell drinker lines. The major takeaway was that egg fertility was higher in the nipple drinker lines at the end of the flock cycle. (01:46)

Emmillie’s abstract is titled: “Comparison of bell drinkers and gender-specific nipple type drinkers, without catch cups, on broiler breeder fertility and egg production”

Our next guest is Catherine Fudge from the University of Georgia. Catherine is working to develop a histomoniasis infectious model for broiler breeders. Her lab is an Extension lab and a grower made an interesting observation that whenever he would place cedar shavings in his house, he noticed a drop in his insect population, and insects carry histomoniasis into chicken or turkey houses by way of a vector. Catherine began to evaluate this via benchtop experiments investigating the ability of cedar shavings and cedar extract to repel darkling beetles. (07:20)

Catherine’s abstract is titled: “Evaluation of cedar products against Histomonas meleagridis in vitro”

Next up is Dr. Lisa Bielke from North Carolina State University. Dr. Bielke presented research about the use of feed additives such as probiotics, symbiotics, organic acids, or essential oils as a way to prevent disease in poultry with the result being less antibiotic use. She emphasized that if birds are sick, and antibiotics are needed, then the birds should be treated with antibiotics, but that prevention is also key to bird health. (15:18)

Lisa’s abstract is titled: “Role of Feed Additives for Improving Health and Controlling Disease in Poultry”

Our fourth guest is Kyle Venter from the University of Pretoria. His research focuses on reducing dependence on rock phosphate by improving the digestibility of phosphorus in feed ingredients. Kyle pointed out that once phosphorus digestibility has been maximized from the diet, then one should formulate to the bird’s actual calcium and phosphorus requirements on a digestible basis, rather than using a total calcium, available phosphorus system. (23:12)

Kyle’s abstract is titled: “Evaluating the efficacy of three commercial phytase enzymes based on broiler performance and production economics” 

Next in the lineup are Leticia Orellana Galindo from Auburn University, and Dr. Ken Macklin from Mississippi State University. Their research evaluates egg translucency and color intensity with egg quality parameters. Hatchability is a major issue in the broiler industry and previous research found that less translucent eggs had higher hatchability and darker color intensity eggs also had higher hatchability. In this abstract, Leticia evaluated the relationship between translucency and color intensity with internal and external egg quality parameters. 

(31:05)

Letecia’s abstract is titled: “Relationship between eggshell translucency and color intensity with egg quality parameters on broiler eggs”

When in Philadelphia, what better guest to have than Dr. Benjamin Franklin? Ben tells us about his scientific research regarding electricity and lightning and gives a perspective on agriculture in his day. (45:23)

Our final guests are Cara Cash and Dr. Giri Athrey from Texas A&M University. Cara’s research is data analysis based and she modeled the impact that decreasing broiler breeder fertility could have on broiler production, the climate, and the economy. Her model predicts that declining fertility could result in large increases in the amount of feed required for broiler production and the amount of greenhouse gasses created by broiler production. (49:14)

Cara’s abstract is titled: “The Effects of Broiler Breeder Fertility on Global Food Security”

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Guests:  Andy Vance, PSA; Dr. John Halley, J. Halley Poultry Consulting; Addison Elstner, Texas A&M University; Dr. Chasity Pender, DSM Nutritional Products; Dr. Valentina Caputi, USDA-ARS Poultry Production and Product Safety Research Unit; and Dimitri Malheiros and Dr. Ken Anderson, North Carolina State University

Today’s episode was filmed at the 2023 Poultry Science Association Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. Balchem’s technical team chose abstracts of interest from the meeting and those researchers are our guests today. 

We kick off the show with Andy Vance, Executive Director of the Poultry Science Association. Andy speaks to the growth of the conference, the presentations and attendance and reinforces that the Poultry Science Association exists to advance science in the poultry industry. (01:20)

Our second guest is Dr. John Halley with J. Halley Poultry Consulting. John conducted an industry survey about how companies handle data. Are companies digitizing data or just staying with what they’ve been doing? John’s presentation covered how data flows through poultry companies today, as well as where we may be going in the future. (05:56)

John’s abstract was titled: “Current Data Insights and Practices for a Poultry Nutritionist”

Next on the guest roster is Addison Elstner from Texas A&M University. Addison’s research objective was to use a different basal diet than traditional corn and soy to stress birds with high inclusions of other cereal grains. This effort was to create a preliminary model of different cereal diets and their impact on intestinal health, performance and animal welfare. This preliminary work builds a foundation for the addition of feed additives and enzymes to those nontraditional diets in the future. (12:04)

Addison’s abstract was titled: “Phase ingredients change in the diet formulation as a possible model to test feed additive efficacy in broiler chickens” 

Our fourth guest is Dr. Chasity Pender from DSM Nutritional Products. Her abstract presented data compiled over the past year for vitamin A recovery levels. The DSM internal laboratory had samples of broiler, broiler breeder vitamin premixes, and broiler and broiler breeder feeds. With those samples, they measured vitamin A recovery levels and evaluated the variation in the different feedstuffs. (15:09)

Chastity’s abstract was titled: “Evaluation of Vitamin A Recoveries in Broiler and Broiler Breeder Premixes and Finished Feeds”

The next guest in our lineup is Dr. Valentina Caputi with the USDA-ARS Poultry Production and Product Safety Research Unit in Fayetteville, Arkansas.The main objective of her research is to look for alternatives to antibiotics to fight the carriage of foodborne pathogens in the poultry industry. Dr. Caputi’s specific expertise is the study of the enteric nervous system, which is the nervous system that is intrinsic on the gut wall and is distributed throughout the overall gastrointestinal tract. Her abstract evaluated how heat stress during the pre-harvest stage of poultry production affects the enteric nervous system, the intestinal microbiota, and overall gut health and how this can predispose the animal to be susceptible to colonization by a food pathogen, such as salmonella or campylobacter. (21:34)

Valentina’s abstract was titled: “Heat stress induces regional-dependent modulation of aquaporin 4 expression in the enteric nervous system of broiler chickens”

Lastly, we are joined by Dimitri Malheiros and Dr. Ken Anderson, from North Carolina State University. Dimitri’s research assessed cage densities during the pullet rearing phase. While other previous studies focused on increased stocking densities, Dimitri and Dr. Anderson wanted to focus on lower stocking densities to evaluate if pullet welfare would be improved in less dense cages. (32:42)

Dimitri’s abstract was titled: “Influence of cage rearing density on pullet growth parameters and fearfulness.”

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