birdienl: (Default)
[personal profile] birdienl
Let me first say how much I like this challenge and the fact that many people on my friends-list seem to be taking place in it. It leads to very interesting posts all over the place!

Alright, on to the fact-of-the-day; this time something from my own research area.

In large parts of the developed world, broiler eggs (these are eggs containing chicks which will be reared for their meat) are vaccinated against multiple diseases, so-called in ovo vaccination. This technique was developed in the '80's and is now routinely used. On day 18 of the embryonic development of the egg (eggs take approximately 21 days to develop), the eggs are put in an automated machine. Heads are lowered on the eggs, a small hole is made in the shell by a punch and a needle is injected and releases the vaccine. If this happens in the right manner, this will have no adverse effect on the chick at all!

There are many advances to this technique compared to vaccinating the chicks after they hatch: first, it's faster and simpler, secondly, it causes less stress compared to picking up all the young chicks and injecting them with a vaccine. And, last, but not least, the chicks are protected from the moment they get out of the egg and do not fall prey to some diseases for which young chicks are very susceptible.

Date: 2012-04-25 08:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mystery-spell.livejournal.com
Very interesting and something that I did not know much about. I enjoy this challenge.

Date: 2012-04-26 01:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ever-maedhros.livejournal.com
Wow, I didn't know about this! Fascinating.

Date: 2012-04-26 12:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miss-peg.livejournal.com
I'm liking this challenge too, it was such a great idea to get everyone posting more and it's working too. Not to mention the awesome information I'm learning about from your blog. This is another thing I knew nothing about...I'm not sure how I feel about it, but wow, I didn't even realise it happened!

Did you hear about the chick recently that was created without an egg? Not sure how that happened, I should read up on that more, lol.

Date: 2012-04-26 02:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] birdienl.livejournal.com
I do know scientists are able to culture chicken embryos outside of the egg, but only for a few days early in development as far as I know.

It also sometimes happens a chicken lies an egg without a shell, but than the embryo inside is not viable.

So no, I hadn't heard of the story you mention!

Date: 2012-04-26 03:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miss-peg.livejournal.com
Interesting! It sounds bit complicated what happened and kind of sad. LINK to article (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/news/a378022/chick-born-without-an-egg-in-sri-lanka.html)

Date: 2012-04-26 05:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] birdienl.livejournal.com
That is like a mammalian chicken. Very sad that the mother hen died though...

Date: 2012-04-26 05:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miss-peg.livejournal.com
Yeah! And tell me about it, very sad. :(

Date: 2012-04-26 06:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] florencia7.livejournal.com
I never knew about that. That's very interesting!

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