TURKEY MEAT MYOGLOBIN 1943 Brown, W. D., and A. Dolev, 1936b. Effect of freezing on autoxidation of oxymyoglobin solutions. J. Food Sci. 28: 211. Butler, O. D., L. J. Bratzler and W. L. Mailman, 19S3. The effect of bacteria on the color of prepackaged retail beef cuts. Food Technol. 7: 397. Kiese, M., and H. Kaeske, 1942. Verbindungen des Muskelhaimoglobins. Bioshem. 2, 312: 121. Quinn, J. R., and A. M. Pearson, 1964. Characterization studies of three myoglobin fractions from bovine muscle. J. Food Sci. 29: 429. Snyder, H. E., and J. C. Ayres, 1961. The autoxidation of crystallized beef myoglobin. J. Food Sci. 26:469.cages to reduce production costs. In general, crowding decreases egg production and increases mortality. Evidence provided by Tindell and Craig (1959), Craig and Toth (1969), Biswas and Craig (1970), and Lowry and Abplanalp (1970) suggests that differences between genetic stocks in competitive and agonistic behavior may significantly influence productivity of laying hens and be a primary cause of genotype by laying house environment interactions.Reported here are estimated effects of genetic stock, cage shape, water placement, ABSTRACTOne experimental and four commercial egg-laying strains of White Leghorn type were subjected in colony cages to different cage shapes, water placement, feeder space, and age at flock assembly to estimate genetic and environmental effects on social behavior and egg production. The cage house used was an environmentally improved type with 180 cages in 3 rows. Pullets were housed at three ages (17, 18i, and 20 weeks). Each cage had 14 birds and identical floor space per bird in all treatments. Data on agonistic behavior, age at sexual maturity, rate of lay, hen-day production, hen-housed production, and survival were analyzed.The results indicated marked differences in agonistic activity among commercial strains. One commercial strain's agonistic activity was less than that of the experiment strain, which had been intensively selected for low social dominance. Strains also differed significantly for age at sexual maturity, rate of lay, hen-day production, hen-housed production, and mortality. The commercial strain with least severe and lowest frequency of agonistic behavior also had highest hen-housed production and survival percentage. Whether a cause-and-effect relationship exists is not known. Cage shape, water placement, amount of feeder space, and age at assembly had significant effects on hen-housed production and survival but no single variable could be conclusively credited because more than one variable among treatments confounded results.

Pullets from high and low social-dominance strains of the White Leghorn (W.L.) and Rhode Island Red (R.I.R.) breeds were assembled in 32 flocks at 6 weeks of age; eight flocks per strain. At 19 weeks all birds were moved to strange pens; four flocks per strain were kept intact as to membership, whereas the other four were reassembled within strains so as to maximize number of strangers.Data were collected and analyzed for agonistic behavior from 19 to 31 and from 52 to 56 weeks, age at sexual maturity, egg weights at 32 and 55 weeks, hen-day rate of lay, henhoused production and mortality.Intra-flock variability was significantly greater for the W.L. high dominance strain for rate of lay and hen-housed production, whereas the W.L. low strain was more variable for age at first egg and egg weights. High dominance strain R.I.R. pullets were more variable for age at sexual maturity only.Analyses of variance, based on flock means, indicated pullets of the W.L. high strain to be significantly inferior in egg production, survival, and to have smaller eggs than the W.L. low strain. Within the R.I.R. breed, the high strain matured earlier.Age at final assembly of flocks had no long-term effects on agonistic activity levels. However, pullets in flocks reassembled at 19 weeks interacted at elevated frequencies from 19 to about 26 to 30 weeks of age. Productivity traits were not significantly influenced by final flock assembly at 6 as compared to 19 weeks of age.Results are discussed in terms of agonistic behavior, social stress and how both appear to relate to productivity traits.