(NAPSI)-The plucky rooster that is the mascot for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Biosecurity For Birds campaign needs a name. He's loud and proud. He has everything going for him: a nice home, a bevy of admiring hens and good health...everything but a name. From now through October 2010, bird enthusiasts can submit their name suggestions for the mascot, who headlines USDA's campaign that offers tips and information to poultry owners on how to protect their birds from infectious poultry diseases. The contest is sponsored by USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Biosecurity For Birds campaign.
"I know all my chickens have names, and our mascot certainly should have one," said Andy Schneider, The Chicken Whisperer and national spokesperson for the campaign. "I urge all my fans and bird lovers to log on to the website, participate in the contest and give this healthy bird a name."
Contest Details
Contestants may submit their suggestions by logging on to http://healthybirds.aphis.usda.gov. A panel of poultry enthusiasts and marketing experts will review the nominations and select three top choices that will be posted on the Biosecurity for Birds website. Bird lovers will then have two weeks to vote for their favorite name.
The winning name and the person who submits it will be announced during Bird Health Awareness Week in November. The winning contestant will receive a deluxe duffel bag and will be interviewed and featured on the Biosecurity For Birds website.
Tips For Bird Owners
Biosecurity For Birds is a public awareness campaign that seeks to educate both new and experienced poultry owners about important steps to take to protect their flock. Poultry owners can help keep disease away from their farms and backyard pens by keeping things clean and watching for signs of infectious poultry diseases such as avian influenza, or "bird flu." Schneider reminds bird owners to "clean your shoes, clean your cages and equipment, and wash your hands before and after working with your birds." Plus, bird owners should not borrow or share bird supplies. If they must, items should be cleaned and disinfected before being brought home.
For more safety tips and to enter the contest, visit the Biosecurity For Birds website at http://healthybirds.aphis.usda.gov.
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Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts
Monday, August 23, 2010
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Helping Backyard Bird Owners Raise Healthy Flocks
(NAPSI)-A unique calendar could help many of America's backyard poultry owners keep their birds safe from diseases such as avian influenza.
The free 2010 calendar is offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). As hobby farming and raising poultry grow in popularity, experts say it's become increasingly important for poultry owners to protect their birds from diseases. In addition to featuring vivid photos of poultry and wild birds-along with text in English and Spanish-USDA's 2010 Backyard Biosecurity calendar provides useful tips and information to help owners do just that.
Avian influenza (AI) viruses can infect chickens, turkeys, pheasants, quail, ducks, geese and guinea fowl, as well as other birds. By practicing good hygiene when taking care of birds and poultry, owners can reduce the risk of disease-causing germs going to or coming from their farm or home.
Such things as thoroughly washing your hands before entering your bird area and before working with your birds, and cleaning and disinfecting equipment that comes in contact with your birds, will help keep disease away.
The calendar has information on spotting signs of sick birds and photos of birds with AI. Avian influenza can strike poultry quickly, and knowing what to look for will help bird owners: A lack of energy and appetite; decreased egg production or soft-shelled or misshapen eggs; swelling of the head, eyelids, comb, wattles and hocks; purple discoloration of the wattles, combs and legs; nasal discharge; coughing and sneezing; stumbling or diarrhea could indicate AI.
To protect the U.S. poultry population, USDA quarantines and tests live birds imported into the United States to ensure that they do not have any foreign animal diseases.
The Backyard Biosecurity calendar is available free of charge. Interested poultry owners can order online at http://healthybirds.aphis.usda.gov.
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The free 2010 calendar is offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). As hobby farming and raising poultry grow in popularity, experts say it's become increasingly important for poultry owners to protect their birds from diseases. In addition to featuring vivid photos of poultry and wild birds-along with text in English and Spanish-USDA's 2010 Backyard Biosecurity calendar provides useful tips and information to help owners do just that.
Avian influenza (AI) viruses can infect chickens, turkeys, pheasants, quail, ducks, geese and guinea fowl, as well as other birds. By practicing good hygiene when taking care of birds and poultry, owners can reduce the risk of disease-causing germs going to or coming from their farm or home.
Such things as thoroughly washing your hands before entering your bird area and before working with your birds, and cleaning and disinfecting equipment that comes in contact with your birds, will help keep disease away.
The calendar has information on spotting signs of sick birds and photos of birds with AI. Avian influenza can strike poultry quickly, and knowing what to look for will help bird owners: A lack of energy and appetite; decreased egg production or soft-shelled or misshapen eggs; swelling of the head, eyelids, comb, wattles and hocks; purple discoloration of the wattles, combs and legs; nasal discharge; coughing and sneezing; stumbling or diarrhea could indicate AI.
To protect the U.S. poultry population, USDA quarantines and tests live birds imported into the United States to ensure that they do not have any foreign animal diseases.
The Backyard Biosecurity calendar is available free of charge. Interested poultry owners can order online at http://healthybirds.aphis.usda.gov.
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Friday, August 7, 2009
Male or female? The chicken industry cares
Chickens, like most animals, typically produce equal numbers of males and females. But this natural sex ratio doesn’t always work in the poultry industry’s economic favor. A University of Georgia researcher is working on ways to skew the chicken’s sex ratio to help the industry streamline production and make more money.
Chickens are big business in Georgia, worth $4.9 billion in 2008, or 41 percent of the state’s total agricultural value. The industry is split into two areas: meat production and egg production.
Chickens raised for meat are called broilers. For this part of the industry, the females of this breed are less profitable. On average, male broilers weigh half a pound more than females at market age, and they eat 5 percent less feed.
For the egg-laying breed, females are prized over males, obviously, because males can’t grow up to produce eggs.
Kristen Navara, a poultry scientist with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is trying to determine how to control avian sex ratios.
“In nature, it is a necessary strategy to adjust offspring sex in relation to the environment,” she said. “Humans, rodents, birds all skew sex ratios. It is clear females need the ability to adjust offspring for the environment where they will be born or hatched into.”
Navara has recently studied skewed sex ratios in hamsters and humans in relation to day length. She is now looking for the mechanism that can control the ratios in poultry and finches. She’s using hormones, particularly corticosterone, to find that mechanism.
Injecting female birds with a burst of corticosterone just before ovulation produced a sex ratio skewed toward males, or 81 percent.
She believes she can flip the ratio to favor males or females using hormones or aggravates, which stop the secretion of corticosterone.
Sara Beth Pinson, a graduate student in Navara’s lab, is coordinating studies to determine the optimal dose of corticosterone to produce the desired result. They are also testing different durations of the hormone treatment to determine how long-term treatments affect offspring sex. Research results could be available in six months.
Focused on species survival, Navara is also looking at sex ratios in zebra finches. “This is where it started, in an ecological context,” she said. “We are really interested in how a species survives. If we could figure out how to adjust the sex ratio of avian offspring, it could really help in conservation efforts.”
This research “is something the industry has been looking for for years,” said Mike Lacy, head of the CAES poultry science department. “The U.S. poultry and egg industry funded Dr. Navara to do this research because it is something the industry is very interested in.”
It is important to note that no chickens used for food are given hormones. Navara’s research is only using hormones to discover the mechanism. “Broilers are not treated with hormones. The industry does not treat with hormones and never will,” Lacy said.
“So far, the hormone injections seem to work, but what we want to do is find the mechanism the hormone is working through and then produce a non-hormonal treatment for the birds. That is the optimal way to go,” she said.
By April Sorrow
University of Georgia
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Chickens are big business in Georgia, worth $4.9 billion in 2008, or 41 percent of the state’s total agricultural value. The industry is split into two areas: meat production and egg production.
Chickens raised for meat are called broilers. For this part of the industry, the females of this breed are less profitable. On average, male broilers weigh half a pound more than females at market age, and they eat 5 percent less feed.
For the egg-laying breed, females are prized over males, obviously, because males can’t grow up to produce eggs.
Kristen Navara, a poultry scientist with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is trying to determine how to control avian sex ratios.
“In nature, it is a necessary strategy to adjust offspring sex in relation to the environment,” she said. “Humans, rodents, birds all skew sex ratios. It is clear females need the ability to adjust offspring for the environment where they will be born or hatched into.”
Navara has recently studied skewed sex ratios in hamsters and humans in relation to day length. She is now looking for the mechanism that can control the ratios in poultry and finches. She’s using hormones, particularly corticosterone, to find that mechanism.
Injecting female birds with a burst of corticosterone just before ovulation produced a sex ratio skewed toward males, or 81 percent.
She believes she can flip the ratio to favor males or females using hormones or aggravates, which stop the secretion of corticosterone.
Sara Beth Pinson, a graduate student in Navara’s lab, is coordinating studies to determine the optimal dose of corticosterone to produce the desired result. They are also testing different durations of the hormone treatment to determine how long-term treatments affect offspring sex. Research results could be available in six months.
Focused on species survival, Navara is also looking at sex ratios in zebra finches. “This is where it started, in an ecological context,” she said. “We are really interested in how a species survives. If we could figure out how to adjust the sex ratio of avian offspring, it could really help in conservation efforts.”
This research “is something the industry has been looking for for years,” said Mike Lacy, head of the CAES poultry science department. “The U.S. poultry and egg industry funded Dr. Navara to do this research because it is something the industry is very interested in.”
It is important to note that no chickens used for food are given hormones. Navara’s research is only using hormones to discover the mechanism. “Broilers are not treated with hormones. The industry does not treat with hormones and never will,” Lacy said.
“So far, the hormone injections seem to work, but what we want to do is find the mechanism the hormone is working through and then produce a non-hormonal treatment for the birds. That is the optimal way to go,” she said.
By April Sorrow
University of Georgia
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The Hartz Mountain Corporation Voluntarily Recalls One Specific Lot of Nationwide Chicken-Basted Rawhide Chips Because of Possible Health Risk
The Hartz Mountain Corporation, Secaucus, NJ is voluntarily recalling one specific lot of Hartz Chicken-Basted Rawhide Chips due to concerns that one or more bags within the lot are potentially contaminated with Salmonella. Hartz is fully cooperating with the US Food and Drug Administration in this voluntary recall.
Salmonella can cause serious infections in dogs, and, if there is cross-contamination caused by handling of the rawhide chips, in people as well, especially children, the aged, and people with compromised immune systems. Healthy people potentially infected with Salmonella should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. On rare occasions, Salmonella can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms. Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers.
Pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Animals can be carriers with no visible symptoms and can potentially infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.
The product involved is 4,850 - 2 pound plastic bags of Hartz Chicken-Basted Rawhide Chips, lot code JC23282, UPC number 3270096463 which were distributed to a national retail customer. While the normal testing that Hartz conducts through an independent outside laboratory did not detect the presence of Salmonella in any Hartz rawhide products, sample testing conducted by another laboratory did indicate the presence of the bacteria in a sample bag of the Chicken-Basted Rawhide Chips. Hartz is aggressively investigating the difference in test results and the potential source of the problem.
Although Hartz has not received any reports of animals or humans becoming ill as a result of coming into contact with this product, Hartz is taking immediate steps to remove the product from all retail stores and distribution centers. Dog owners who purchased this product should check the lot code on their bag, and, if the code is not visible, or if the bag has lot code JC23282 imprinted thereon, they should immediately discontinue use of the product and discard it in a proper manner.
Consumers can contact Hartz at 1-800-275-1414 with any questions they may have and to obtain reimbursement for purchased product.
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Salmonella can cause serious infections in dogs, and, if there is cross-contamination caused by handling of the rawhide chips, in people as well, especially children, the aged, and people with compromised immune systems. Healthy people potentially infected with Salmonella should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. On rare occasions, Salmonella can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms. Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers.
Pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Animals can be carriers with no visible symptoms and can potentially infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.
The product involved is 4,850 - 2 pound plastic bags of Hartz Chicken-Basted Rawhide Chips, lot code JC23282, UPC number 3270096463 which were distributed to a national retail customer. While the normal testing that Hartz conducts through an independent outside laboratory did not detect the presence of Salmonella in any Hartz rawhide products, sample testing conducted by another laboratory did indicate the presence of the bacteria in a sample bag of the Chicken-Basted Rawhide Chips. Hartz is aggressively investigating the difference in test results and the potential source of the problem.
Although Hartz has not received any reports of animals or humans becoming ill as a result of coming into contact with this product, Hartz is taking immediate steps to remove the product from all retail stores and distribution centers. Dog owners who purchased this product should check the lot code on their bag, and, if the code is not visible, or if the bag has lot code JC23282 imprinted thereon, they should immediately discontinue use of the product and discard it in a proper manner.
Consumers can contact Hartz at 1-800-275-1414 with any questions they may have and to obtain reimbursement for purchased product.
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