Campylobacter infection of broiler chickens in a free-range environment.

Campylobacter jejuni is the most common cause of bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide, with contaminated chicken meat considered to represent a major source of human infection. Biosecurity measures can reduce C. jejuni shedding rates of housed chickens, but the increasing popularity of free-range and organic meat raises the question of whether the welfare benefits of extensive production are compatible with food safety. The widespread assumption that the free-range environment contaminates extensively reared chickens has not been rigorously tested. A year-long survey of 64 free-range broiler flocks reared on two sites in Oxfordshire, UK, combining high-resolution genotyping with behavioural and environmental observations revealed: (i) no evidence of colonization of succeeding flocks by the C. jejuni genotypes shed by preceding flocks, (ii) a high degree of similarity between C. jejuni genotypes from both farm sites, (iii) no association of ranging behaviour with likelihood of Campylobacter shedding, and (iv) higher genetic differentiation between C. jejuni populations from chickens and wild birds on the same farm than between the chicken samples, human disease isolates from the same region and national samples of C. jejuni from chicken meat.

Rolfing.

Rolfing, or structural integration, is one of many types of manipulative therapy. This article describes the principles and history of Rolfing and reviews current research. Only a few clinical trials specifically have looked at Rolfing. Related research on deep tissue massage and myofascial release also is reviewed. Rolfing has a physiologic impact on the peripheral nervous system and on myofascial structures. Important clinical outcome measures, such as pain levels and function, have not been looked at specifically, however,in clinical trials.

Chicken welfare is influenced more by housing conditions than by stocking density.

Intensive broiler (meat) chicken production now exceeds 800 million birds each year in the United Kingdom and 2 x 10(10) birds worldwide, but it attracts accusations of poor welfare. The European Union is currently adopting standards for broilers aimed at a chief welfare concern--namely, overcrowding--by limiting maximum 'stocking density' (bird weight per unit area). It is not clear, however, whether this will genuinely improve bird welfare because evidence is contradictory. Here we report on broiler welfare in relation to the European Union proposals through a large-scale study (2.7 million birds) with the unprecedented cooperation of ten major broiler producers in an experimental manipulation of stocking density under a range of commercial conditions. Producer companies stocked birds to five different final densities, but otherwise followed company practice, which we recorded in addition to temperature, humidity, litter and air quality. We assessed welfare through mortality, physiology, behaviour and health, with an emphasis on leg health and walking ability. Our results show that differences among producers in the environment that they provide for chickens have more impact on welfare than has stocking density itself.