The domestic chicken (Gallus domesticus) has emerged as a powerful experimental model for studying the onset and progression of spontaneous epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) with a disease prevalence that can exceed 35% between 2-7 years of age. A novel experimental strategy for biomarker discovery is reported herein that combines the chicken model of EOC, longitudinal plasma sample collection with matched tissues, advanced mass spectrometry-based proteomics, and concepts derived from the index of individuality. Blood was drawn from 148 age-matched chickens starting at 2.5 years of age every three months for one-year. At the conclusion of the one-year sample collection period, the 73 birds that remained alive were euthanized, necropsied, and tissues were collected. Pathological assessment of resected tissues from these 73 birds confirmed that 5 birds (6.8%) developed EOC. A proteomics workflow including in-gel digestion, nanoLC coupled to high performance mass spectrometry, and label-free (spectral counting) was used to measure the biological intra-individual variability (CVW) of the chicken plasma proteome. Longitudinal plasma sample sets from two birds within the 73-bird biorepository were selected for this study; one bird was considered “healthy” and the second bird developed late-stage EOC. A total of 116 proteins from un-depleted plasma were identified with 80 proteins shared among all sample sets. Within- and between-run analytical variability (CVA) of the label-free proteomics workflow was measured using a single plasma sample analyzed multiple times. Ovomacroglobulin (ovostatin) was found to increase over a 6 month period in the late-stage EOC bird providing an initial candidate protein for further investigation.

Peanut skins are a considerable waste product with little current economic value or use. We aimed to determine the dietary effects of peanut skins on layer production performance and egg quality and chemistry of the eggs produced. Two hundred commercial hens were randomly assigned to four treatments (five replicates) and fed ad libitum for 8 weeks: conventional control diet, diet containing 24% high-oleic peanut (HOPN), diet containing 3% peanut skin (PN Skin), and a diet with 2.5% oleic acid (OA). Hens fed the HOPN diet had significantly reduced body weights relative to the control and PN Skin treatments, producing fewer total eggs over the 8-week experimental period. Eggs weights were similar between the control and PN Skin treatments at weeks 2 and 4, while eggs from the PN Skin treatment group were heavier than other treatments at weeks 6 and 8 of the experiment. Eggs produced from the HOPN treatment had reduced saturated fatty acid (FA) content in comparison to the other treatment groups, while similar between PN Skin and control eggs at week 8 of the experiment. This study suggests that PN skins may be a suitable alternative layer feed ingredient.

The abundance of peanut and poultry production within the state of North Carolina and the US Southeast, led us to conduct a layer feeding trial to determine the utilization of whole-in-shell high-oleic peanuts (WPN) and/or unblanched high-oleic peanuts (HOPN) as an alternative feed ingredient for poultry. To meet this objective, we randomly assigned 576 shaver hens to 4 dietary treatments (4 rep/trt). The dietary treatments consisted of a conventional control diet (C1), a diet containing 4% WPN, an 8% HOPN diet, and a control diet containing soy protein isolate (C2). Feed and water were provided for 6 weeks ad libitum. Pen body weights (BW) were recorded at week 0 and week 6 (wk6), and feed weights were recorded bi-weekly. Shell eggs were collected daily and enumerated. Bi-weekly 120 eggs/treatment were collected for quality assessment and egg weight (EW), while 16 eggs/treatment were collected for chemical analysis. There were no significant differences in BW or EW at week 6. Hens fed the C2 produced more total dozen eggs relative to C1 hens over the feeding trial (p < 0.05). Hens fed the C1 diet consumed less total feed relative to the other treatments with the best feed conversion ratio (p < 0.05). Most eggs produced from each treatment were USDA grade A, large eggs. There were no differences in egg quality, with the exception of yolk color, with significantly higher yolk color scores in eggs produced from the C1 and C2 treatments relative to the other treatments (p < 0.05). Eggs produced from the HOPN treatment had significantly reduced stearic and linoleic fatty acid levels relative to the other treatments (p < 0.05). Eggs produced from hens fed the WPN diet had significantly greater β-carotene content relative to eggs from the other treatment groups (p < 0.05). In summary, this study suggests that WPN and/or HOPN may be a suitable alternative layer feed ingredient and a dietary means to enrich the eggs produced while not adversely affecting hen performance.

Objective: The present is study was conducted to determine the effect of feeding whole-in-shell peanuts or high-oleic peanuts to laying hens on ileal nutrient digestibility. Materials and Methods: A total of 16 birds per treatment were utilized for 6 weeks with ileal and fecal content being collected at trial termination. Apparent metabolizable energy corrected for nitrogen, apparent nitrogen retention, and apparent protein and fat digestibility were examined. Results: There were no significant differences in egg production, feed intake, or feed conversion between treatments. Apparent metabolizable energy and the apparent nitrogen retention was significantly lower in diets containing whole in shell peanuts than the other two treatment diets. Apparent fat digestibility was significantly higher for the treatment with whole in shell peanuts than the other diets, and the high oleic peanut containing diet was significantly higher than the control. Apparent protein digestibility was greater for control diet than the other treatments and the diet containing whole in shell peanuts had significantly lower protein digestibility compared to the diet with high oleic peanuts in it. With the apparent metabolizable energy and the apparent nitrogen retention for high oleic peanut containing diet being statistically the same as the control diet results could indicate that these hens can use the energy and nitrogen for their production. Conclusion: Results indicate that 8% inclusion of high oleic peanuts in diet could be beneficial however feeding whole in shell peanuts may have poorer digestibility results, but not reduce production performance. Both high oleic and whole in shell peanuts could be good alternative feed ingredients.