Effect of Atmospheric Ammonia and the Stress of Infectious Bronchitis Vaccination on Leghorn Males

Abstract

Ammonia at levels of 0, 25 or 50 parts per million (p.p.m.) was introduced into 12 controlled-environment chambers containing male Leghorn chicks. Ammonia was introduced continuously into the test chambers from the 4th to 8th week of the experiment. An infectious bronchitis vaccination was administered to all chickens at 5 weeks of age. Body weights and feed efficiencies were determined at 4, 6 and 8 weeks of age. At 4, 5, 6 and 8 weeks of age lung and bursae of Fabricius weights, hematocrits and air sac scores were determined.Body weights and feed efficiencies were significantly reduced in the ammonia chambers. The bursae of Fabricius of the ammonia-stressed chickens were significantly larger than those of controls at 5 weeks of age and significantly smaller at 8 weeks of age. Chickens grown in ammoniated environments had significantly larger lungs at 8 weeks. Hematocrits were not significantly different among the treatments. Total air sac scores were significantly higher in the ammonia-stressed chickens at 8 weeks. Results indicated that chickens are affected by the stress of ammonia at levels of 25 or 50 p.p.m. and infectious bronchitis vaccination. ABSTRACTBlood plasma from non-laying turkey hens was subjected to size exclusion chromatography on columns of 2% Agarose gel. No material corresponding to either the low-density-fraction (LDF) of egg yolk or to phosvitin-lipovitellin complex was noted. After egg laying was initiated, two new phosphate containing peaks were observed in blood plasma. One was isolated by flotation in the ultracentrifuge (d < 1.006) and had a mean molecular weight of 4.48 x 10 6 . Egg yolk LDF, isolated by ultracentrifugation, had a mean molecular weight of 2.50 x 10 6 . Both the blood plasma and egg yolk LDF fractions had similar ratios of optical density (280 nm.): ng. phosphorus per ml. of column eluate and all of the phosphorus was extracted with organic solvents. The second phosphate containing peak (molecular weight 5.33 x 10 s ) was probably a phosphotin-lipovitellin complex as only part of the total phosphorus was extractable with organic solvents.

Ammonia in Poultry Houses: A Literature Review

“…Reduced appetite and the resulting decreased body weight gains on exposure to ammonia have been observed by several workers. For example Kling and Quarles (1974) observed that by 8 weeks of age ammonia stressed birds had significantly lower body weights than unstressed birds. Caveny et al (1981) observed a significant reduction in feed efficiency in broilers exposed to 50 ppm ammonia from 1-49 days of age.…”

“…This apparent decrease in resistance to infection due to ammonia appears to be a factor in vaccination stress. Kling and Quarles (1974) noticed that the bursa of Fabricius, part of the avian immune system, of birds exposed to 25 and 50 ppm ammonia from 4-8 weeks of age weighed less after infectious bronchitis vaccination than those not exposed to ammonia. They suggested that ammonia stress may have resulted in a more severe reaction to the vaccine so eliciting a greater response from the bursa.…”

Antioxidant capacity and meat quality of broilers exposed to different ambient humidity and ammonia concentrations

“…High-concentration ammonia is reported to be capable of decreasing the production capacity of domestic animals, but its effects on meat qualities were rarely reported (Charles and Payne, 1966;Kling and Quarles, 1974;Quarles and Kling, 1974;Reece et al, 1980Reece et al, , 1981Caveny et al, 1981) . Furthermore, most current relevant studies focus on investigating effects of individual ambient factors inside poultry houses on broilers, while few studies focus on effects of combinations of ambient factors inside poultry houses on broilers.…”

Effects of waste vinegar residue on nutrient digestibility and nitrogen balance in laying hens

“…Poultry are fed diets containing a higher crude protein (CP) content than most other farm animals, and consequently, poultry manure is one of major sources of nitrogen pollution (Leeson and Summers, 2001;Meluzzi et al, 2001). Additionally, atmospheric ammonia (NH 3 ), one volatile type of nitrogen, is a major aerial pollutant from poultry buildings (Kristensen and Wathes, 2000) with adverse effects on the health and production of poultry (Deaton et al, 1984;Kling and Quarles, 1974;Miles et al, 2004;Nagaraja et al, 1983) and on the environment (Angus et al, 2003;Ritz et al, 2004). Successful nutritional strategies to reduce N excretion and NH 3 emission include dietary CP reduction (Latshaw and Zhao, 2011;Summers, 1993), amino acid supplementation (Ferket et al, 2002;Powers and Angel, 2008) and the inclusion of feed ingredients with high concentrations of fiber (Roberts et al, 2007).…”