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The chicken’s reproductive system has four components:
Responsible for directing hormonal operations, assisted by the adenohypophysis.
Initial motor of the formation of the egg – since the follicles that will transform to yolks develop there – requires the constant supply of fatty acids from the liver
The shell formation requires a great partner: the medullary bone. If the cells of the uterus in charge of mineralizing the shell get minerals from the cortical bone, the bird is losing the fight in the game of bone formation: osteoblasts versus osteoclasts.
It is important to plan wisely:
Van Sickle, more than 30 years ago, described the important aspects to keep in mind from the first day of a chick’s age until the adult hen is removed:
However, what can be done is to construct a standard bone growth and development curve to assess the bone behavior of the birds. This is an additional variable to those who normally use metrics such as body weight, consumption, etc.
Importance of bone measurement
The importance of bone measurement is to indicate:
Table 1 details the effect of three measurements on the femur and its correlation with two variables in the egg, production and body weight. The cortical area has a significant and inverse effect on:
The medullary area presents a direct and highly significant relationship on the specific gravity and weight of the egg.
More area means more space for calcium fixation in the medullary bone, and from there the bird will mobilize it to mineralize the shell.
To achieve a positive effect on the variables of the egg, the work is carried out in the second stage of growth and development of the bird: weeks 14 to 24.
More area means negative affectation of these three variables.
There is important activity to implement during the first 13 weeks of life where the cortical bone develops. As expected, it directly favors – but not significantly – body weight; fundamental concept for the pre-lay stage, since it talks about the relationship between skeletal development and body weight gain.
Table 2 lists different concepts about the three stages of bone development; which leads to goals during each of them related to bone growth and development. A basic principle in growth biology: in order to gain weight, animals must first develop the skeleton to support the mass of the organism.
Stage 1: Cortical development
For the cortical bone and the supporting structure of the bird.
Stage 2: Medullary development
For the medullary bone and the construction of the nutrient reserve – especially calcium – for shell mineralization.
Stage 3: Bone maintenance
To delay the appearance of bone deterioration symptoms such as shell weakness and breakage, prolapse and cage fatigue.
Whitehead reported that chicken bone begins to weaken from the time 200 eggs are produced, corresponding to 50-52 weeks of age.
Getting the bone of the birds from a commercial farm to support the formation of the shells is challenging, because the skeleton of the modern hen is smaller than the one that was in sheds when Van Sickle proposed the 3 aspects to consider in bone development. An initial proposal is to go back to bone length measurements and construct the standard curve on each farm. The work plan presents many variations due to the different ways of producing eggs:
Darkened Pre-lay phase
An example to highlight the importance of each of the variations proposed is in the darkened pre-lay phase. Bone problems likely began when that management technique was emulated from broiler breeders to commercial brown layers. Nothing is uni-factorial or uni-variable. Situations appeared like:
None of the three stages of bone development is more important than another; If one of them fails, we will have more technical work during the other two. In case of not reaching the development of the cortical bone, the following symptoms may arise:
The difference between points 2 and 7 is related to the effect of coarse calcium carbonate on the bird; in chicks, the aim is to stimulate the growth and development of the gastrointestinal tract (it is not a direct nutritional function). In chickens it is a source of calcium with nocturnal absorption for making the shell.