Velvet beans (Mucuna spp.) represent a group of legumes that was widely grown in the U.S. in the 1800's and early 1900's before being replaced by soybeans. However today, in developing countries, the velvet bean plant is increasingly used as a cover crop because it has many valuable characteristics, such as resistance to insects, weeds and drought that make it economically useful to subsistence farmers. The velvet bean plant is also prolific in seed production, and velvet bean seeds (VB) or Mucuna are sometimes eaten both by humans and other non-ruminant, monogastric animals such as chickens and pigs. Mucuna beans contain moderate amounts of protein (20–25%) and smaller amounts of fat (3–5%). Non-structural carbohydrates make up approximately half of Mucuna while the neutral detergent fibre content is about 10%. Minerals and vitamins in VB can contribute significantly to the needs of poultry as is typical of many legumes. The various species of Mucuna have amino acid profiles similar to other legumes, such as soybeans, that are commonly used as protein-supplying feedstuffs. However, VB contain a variety of anti-nutritional/toxic factors that are harmful to monogastric animals. These include: antitrypsin factors; tannins; cyanide; anticoagulants; analgesic, antipyretic and anti-inflammatory factors; L-dopa and others. Research to date has studied the physiological effects of VB on poultry growth, blood chemistry and organ anatomy. Attempts have been made to process the beans and remove the toxic factors by heating, waterextraction or other methods but with limited success. To use such a potentially valuable feed ingredient in poultry nutrition, the challenge for the nutritionist is to find ways to diminish the harmful effects of the chemicals in Mucuna by processing or treating the beans to remove or render harmless the toxic chemicals. This review will summarize the history of these efforts.

One of the environmental challenges that the poultry industry has been faced with is manure utilization or disposal. Poultry manure and its nitrogenous compounds can be a potential pollutant causing eutrophication, nitrate or nitrite contamination of water, ammonia volatilization, and acid deposition in the air. Therefore, reducing nitrogen excretion and emissions in poultry manure is important to maintain a clean environment. Proper nutrition is an important first step to optimize performance and growth in animals as well as to reduce the negative impacts on the environment. Amino acids are components of protein nutrition that greatly influence growth and one of the essential amino acids is methionine, which is often first limiting amino acid in high protein diets for poultry. However, excess or insufficient methionine supplementation into diets increases nitrogen excretion and emissions to the environment. One way to reduce nitrogen excretion and emissions is reducing crude protein level and supplementing analogues of amino acids to meet the amino acid requirements. Several analogue forms of methionine are commercially available as economic alternatives for the animals now. Supplementation of hydroxy analogues into low protein diets can minimize excess amino nitrogen in the diets and reduce nitrogen excretion. In order to use these dietary strategies effectively, a well-balanced feed formulation and a precise way of rapidly quantitating the bioavailable sulphur amino acid in feeds remains to be developed.

This study was carried out on some epidemiological aspects and vector role of ticks infesting layers in Faisalabad (Pakistan). The prevalence of tick infestation was found as 11% (88/800), 24% (192/800) and 12.7% (413/3250) on Indigenous, Babcock and White Leghorn varieties of layers, respectively. Two species of ticks namely Argas persicus (10%; 485/4,850) and Argas vespertilionis (3.5%; 170/4,850) were recorded. Tick infestation was found higherin summermonths, in youngerbirds and in areas having densely located farms. The vector role of Argas persicus and Argas vespertilionis in the transmission of spirochaetosis in layer chicken was confirmed through isolation of Borrelia anserina from naturally infected ticks and their experimental transmission. Three species of bacteria namely Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella pullorum and Escherichia coli were isolated from the triturated Argas persicus and Argas vespertilionis. Results of the present study were not different from those reported in literature, but for the first time in the study area. These results warrant for further research and also following effective tick control programs in orderto save the farmers from economic losses.

A short review is given of the beginnings of an organised poultry production in the Republic of Croatia, along with the changes that came about during the transition period, from the year 1993 to 2003. That analysis includes basic characteristics of the Croatian poultry products market, such as poultry production facilities and the number of birds, the production and consumption of poultry meat and hen eggs as well as the export and import of poultry products. The result shows that Croatian poultry production is organised in 498 enterprises and 346,530 family farms. In the period examined, Croatia produced on the average 86.2 thousand tons of poultry weight gain and 825 million eggs (49.5 thousand tons). In 2003 – 19.3 kg of poultry meat and 8.1 kg of eggs were consumed per household member. The overall foreign trade balance of Croatian poultry product was positive over the entire research period.