Campylobacter is a public cause of globally identified human gastrointestinal disease. Nonetheless, in Iraq many sides of the epidemiology of campylobacteriosis and its impact on public health remain poorly understood. Hence, this study was taken to offer reference information on the prevalence rate, sensitivity to antibiotics and biotyping of Campylobacter in poultry products sold in the Wasit markets. A total of 85 samples were collected including chicken (n = 45) and turkey (n =40) meat were surveyed for isolation and identification. Thermotolerant Campylobacter was detected in 54 samples by which Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) was recognized as a main species accounting for 37(68.5%),while Campylobacter coli (C. coli) had 17 (31.5%) of the positive samples. Highest resistance was perceived to oxacillin and tetracycline as (94.4% and 85.2%), respectively. While lowest rate of resistance, 29.6% was detected against gentamicin. Campylobacter coli isolates showed higher resistance rate than C. jejuni isolates towards the selected antibiotics. In addition, multiple drug resistance (MDR) to at least three antibiotics was detected in the vast majority (90.7%) of the experienced isolates. Forty- three (79.6%) of the isolates had multiple antibiotic resistance index (MAR-index) 0.4 and above. Results of biotyping showed that biotype I was the predominant biotype in the two species as 70.2 and 76.5 proportions in C. jejuni and C. coli, respectively. Our results proposed that the presence of Campylobacter in poultry with greater resistance to erythromycin and/ or ciprofloxacin triggers the public health alarm and accentuates the education of consumers on the quality and safety of such foods.

     This study aimed to investigate the effects of injection hatching eggs with different doses of vitamin E on productive traits, some physiological and immune response to Newcastle disease vaccine. Two hundred fertile eggs of broiler breeder Ross (308) strain were incubated in automatic incubator machine after divided into four treatments (50 eggs per treatment) with two replicates. First treatment was injected 0.1ml/egg of phosphate buffer sterile into amniotic fluid at day 18th of incubation which it was considered as control group, second treatment was injected with 0.1ml/egg of inactivated Newcastle disease vaccine, third treatment was injected with 0.1ml/egg of inactivated Newcastle disease vaccine and 0.1 ml/egg of vitamin E, fourth treatment was injected with 0.1ml/egg of inactivated Newcastle disease vaccine and 0.15 ml/egg of vitamin E. All injected eggs were carried back into incubator for complete hatching process. Hatched chicks were transferred to the hall in farm of the Veterinary Medicine College/University of Baghdad; therefore, the chicks were distributed into four treatments with two replicates depending on the previously treated groups until fifth week of age. The results revealed that the treated groups with vitamin E were significantly (P≤0.05) increased in hatchability percentage, body weight, weight gain, as well as significant reduce in feed intake and improvement in feed conversion ratio as compared with second group and control, the results of third group showed significantly increased (P≤0.05) in antibody titers against Newcastle disease virus at aged (21 and 35) day as compared with the other treated groups and control.

Iraqi native chickens have tasty meat and eggs; however, they are characterized by low production efficiency. In fact, phenotypic traits, such as growth rate, are influenced by genes and environmental factors. During health and disease, a variety of cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, motility, adhesion, migration, apoptosis, and immune response regulate the TGF-β genes. The enhancement in body weight can be reached through mass selection, whereas feed conversion is relatively more difficult to improve. This means, selecting for body weight has been submitted as an effective way of indirectly improving feed conversion ratio. However, the present study attempts to identify associations between productive traits and polymorphism of TGF-β2 gene in local chicken. Seventy-five male birds were used in this study. The restriction enzyme RsaI has been used to detect the target region (284 bp) in the TGF-β2 gene. A SNP was identified at the 62 position in the exon 1 region of TGF-β2 by using PCR-RFLP and DNA sequencing technique. The genotypic frequencies were 46.7, 40 and 13.3% for CC and TC and TT genotypes, respectively. While the allele frequency of C and T were 0.67 and 0.33%, respectively. Generally, during the last period of rearing the best significant (p>0.05) improve in the body weight, weight gain and FCR were recorded in the TT genotype of the TGF-β2 gene. In conclusion, a functional sequence in the genome could be attributed to the mutation. Therefore, genotype of the TGF-β2 gene could be exploited to select the best individual as a parent to the next generations for improving of growth rate in local chickens.

| This study was aimed to evaluate the influence of injection of hatching eggs with inactivated Newcastle disease vaccine (ND) and two doses of Cod liver oil (CLO) on hatchability, some biochemical, productive traits and immune response of broiler chickens. Two hundred fertilized eggs of broiler breeders Ross 308 strain were incubated in automatic incubator machine. They were divided into four groups (50 eggs per group) with two replicates. The first group was injected in amniotic fluid with 0.1ml of Phosphate Buffer Saline (PBS) /egg which was considered as control, the second group was injected with 0.1ml of inactivated oil emulsified ND vaccine /egg, the third group was injected with 0.1ml of inactivated oil emulsified ND vaccine and 0.1 ml of CLO /egg, the fourth group was injected with 0.1ml of inactivated oil emulsified ND vaccine and 0.15ml of CLO/egg. The eggs were returned to incubator till hatching date. Hatched chicks were reared in the hall of the Veterinary Medicine College/University of Baghdad after distributed into four groups with two replicates according to the previously treated groups until the fifth week of age. The results showed a significant (P ≤ 0.05) increased of the treated groups in hatchability, body weight and improvement in feed conversion ratio as compared with second group and control, also fourth group showed significantly increased (P ≤ 0.05) in antibody titers against ND virus at age of 21 and 35 day as compared with the other treated groups and control.

This study, include the green synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles using ethanol extract of (Zingiber officinale) ginger was investigated in order to evaluate its antibacterial effect on fresh chicken meat. Determining the microbiological quality of meat involves performing various plate counts indicators include, including total bacterial count (TBC) and the total coliform counts TCC the UV-Visible Spectrophotometry and FTiR (Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy) were used to characterize the GnZnO nanoparticles. A total of 180 samples of fresh chicken meat were subjected to (0.5, 1, and 1.5) mg/ml of GnZnONPs and bacteriologically examined was done. significant absorption of UV region at peak370nm verified the presence of ZnO NPs. The FT-IR spectra recorded the existence of biomolecules responsible for the reduction and capping of the green synthesized, Also observed result of a meat sample treated with GnZnONPs showed a significant (p < 0.05) reduction in (TBC) through 2, 5, and 7 days of storage at 4°C (1.5 mg). While the highest count recorded in control (untreated samples) reached 11.360.04 CFU.g-1 at the end of the experiment, the TCC also decreased significantly (p< 0.05) after 5,7 days of storage at 40 C when the meat samples were treated with GnZnONPs compared to the control sample. The findings show that treating poultry meat with GnZNoNPs extends the shelf-life of the meat, and maintains its quality throughout the storage period