Chapter Twenty-Eight

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Chapter Twenty-Eight

• Birds

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Birds

• Aves
• 4 of 27 orders of class are commonly used in
  research galliformes, columbiformes,
  passeriformes psittaciformes.
• Used in studies of neurobiology, endocrinology,
  nutrition, ethology, embryology microbiology.
• Most are domesticated fowl for which husbandry
  standards diets are available.

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Handling Restraint

• Easily compromised respiratory heat dissipation
  systems
• Manipulate cages slowly deliberately.
• Move slowly in a pen, allowing birds time to get
  out of the way.
• Capture on 1st attempt is least stressful.
• Place on pen floor withdraw hands to release.
• In flight cages release with unobstructed
  clearance, in case they take flight.
• Do not toss into the air when releasing from
  restraint it may be unprepared or unable to fly.

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(Image) Finch
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Handling Restraint II

• Galliformes - chickens, turkeys, quail
• Galliformes easy to handle and, except for quail,
  are not as fragile as other bird species.
• Docile, but peck, scratch, inflict puncture
  wounds.
• Restrain birds wings when captured.
• With both hands, reach over back , just prior to
  making contact drop hands to hold wings down on
  the body.
• Pick up wings in 1 hand, hold them behind.
• Restrain legs between fingers of other hand.
• Carry upside-down by legs, but calmer if placed
  under 1 arm w/ gentle pressure against wing.

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Handling Restraint III

• Another restraint
• Place on table on back or side tape legs w/
  non-traumatic adhesive.
• Usually lies quietly if cloth is draped over
  head.
• Handle small turkeys same way as chickens, but do
  not carry by legs.
• Turkeys can be held transported short distances
  by using 1 hand to encircle humerus of both wings
  over back while holding legs supporting body
  with other hand.
• Restrain head by gently placing 2 fingers of hand
  holding wings around birds neck.

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Handling Restraint IV

• Columbiformes - pigeons, doves passeriformes -
  crows, canaries, sparrows, and finches
• Columbiform passerine birds are smaller
  swifter than galliformes, difficult to capture
  safely.
• Large pigeons carried same as chicken.
• Restrain smaller birds with 1 hand holding head
  between thumb forefinger, neck back supported
  on palm of same hand.
• Hold wings against body, exercise caution to
  avoid encircling the thorax completely.
• Holding bird too tightly compromises respiration,
  resulting in hypoxia and hyperthermia.

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Handling and Restraint
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Handling Restraint V

• Psittaciformes - parrots and parakeets
• Tend to bite not easy to handle
• Parrots are handled same way as other birds of a
  similar size but because of their biting habits,
  attention must be paid to restraining the head.
• Gloves offer little protection from the powerful
  beaks of larger parrots, such as macaws.
• A towel placed over birds head helps calm it,
  allowing head to be grasped.
• Restrain for examinations, anesthesia, or
  weighing by placing them in a properly sized
  portion of tubular-shaped gauze that allows head
  tail to protrude.

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Sexing Breeding

• Male female differ in size, feather
  conformation color pattern sexual dimorphism.
• In breeding season, some develop sex indicators
  as color changes, changes in cloaca development
  of featherless brood patch on breast.
• In others, gender can be determined at necropsy
  or through surgical inspection of gonads.

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(Image) Female Reproductive Organs
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Sexing Breeding II

• Female only left ovary oviduct functional.
• Avian primary oocyte largest cell in any animal.
• Infundibulum Consists of the funnel, or
  fimbria, which receives ovum.
• Magnum Longest portion of oviduct is also
  albumin secreting region.
• Isthmus Egg acquires soft shell membranes.
• Shell gland Often referred to as the uterus.
• In shell gland, egg acquires hard calciferous
  shell. Egg remains in shell gland about 20 hours.
• Vagina Egg traverses vagina in seconds to
  minutes passes to outside through cloaca.

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Sexing Breeding III

• Eggs sometimes held for investigative assay or
  for later artificial batch incubation.
• Eggs naturally incubated by female for a few days
  may have higher incubator hatchability.
• Eggs collected for these purposes should be
  freshly laid not washed.
• If embryo development has already begun,
  interrupting incubation may kill or damage the
  embryo continue to incubate these eggs.
• Testes do not descend into scrotum, remain
  near kidneys where they originally developed.
• Do not possess accessory sex glands.

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Sexing and BreedingMale

• Testes do not descend - located near the kidneys.
• No accessory sex glands.

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Behavior

• Groups develop classic pecking order, or
  hierarchy gt dominant restrict movement, feeding
  socialization of lt dominant.
• In galliformes, removing tip of upper beak helps
  control cannibalism or fighting in flocks.
• Control flight by pinioning surgical removal of
  distal tip of wing - 3rd 4th metacarpal bones.
• Pinion 1 wing some birds can learn to fly if
  both wings are symmetrically pinioned.
• Temporary, nonsurgical flight control involves
  clipping first ten primary flight feathers of 1
  wing.
• Claws and spurs require regular trimming.

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Husbandry

• Many bird diseases are potential zoonoses.
• Quarantine acclimatize for 2 - 4 wks.
• Take serologic tests, exam for internal
  external parasites bacterial culturing.
• Cages large enough to permit normal physical
  activity social interaction.
• Locate perches to avoid contamination of feed
  water.
• Control temp, humidity, ventilation air
  filtration.
• Increase ventilation as environmental temp rises.
  
• Relative humidity range from 45 to 70.

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Husbandry II

• Cover floors of indoor cages w/ sand, gravel or
  shavings, depending on requirements.
• Low Plexiglas frame placed around cage perimeter
  helps contain litter.
• Many types of easily sanitized automatic feed
  water devices available.
• Suspended automatic watering system placed at a
  level allowing birds to drink comfortably.
• Designed to prevent contaminating water by
  perching on or stepping in it.
• Wide-spectrum fluorescent or white incandescent
  lamps used in bird housing facilities more
  closely resemble natural light.

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Husbandry III

• Housing mixed species multiple age groups
  together can result in fighting, cannibalism or
  disease hazards.
• Visual barriers, such as solid cage sides, may
  reduce conflict between groups.
• Overcrowding birds in cages or pens also stresses
  the animals and can result in disease.
• Very young birds require an external heat source
  to prevent chilling and hypothermia.
• Heated cages called brooders are used to house
  young birds until they grow feathers.

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Wing trimming
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Diet

• Nutritional requirements of chickens well known.
• Nutritional requirements of non-domestic avian
  species largely unknown.
• Requirements of seed-eating pigeons doves not
  well understood.
• Diversified order passeriformes contains more
  than 4,800 species.
• tremendous variety of nutritional requirements
• Only seed-eating passeriformes are discussed
  here.
• Seed-eaters sparrows, finches canaries
• A mixture of small seeds are fed, most important
  being canary grass seed millet.

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Diet II

• Other components include vegetables, fruits,
  grasses, cooked egg yolk, vitamin supplements,
  breads live insects.
• Psittacine seed-eaters parrots, macaws
  parakeets.
• Sunflower seeds, peanuts, monkey biscuits,
  safflower seeds, millet, canary seeds dry dog
  kibble
• Supplemental foods include fresh fruits
  vegetables, boiled egg yolks mixed nuts.
• Remove unconsumed perishable materials within a
  few hours.

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(Images) Bird Digestive System
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Diet III

• Grit available in various sizes compositions.
• a necessary component of diet, available ad
  libitum
• Ingested grit remains in gizzard, a muscular
  organ of the gastrointestinal tract.
• Agitation of grit seed mixture in gizzard helps
  grind up seeds in preparation for digestion,
• Cuttlebone for beak maintenance should be
  available for passeriformes psittacines.
• Some species need water for bathing.
• Supply and maintenance of potable water for
  aquatic birds a challenging husbandry disease
  control problem.

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Nondomestic Species

• Knowledge of natural habitat, behavior diet is
  essential to use wild birds in research.
• Procurement, transport, possession treatment of
  wild birds their eggs are governed by state
  federal regulations.
• Contact local state conservation agency U.S.
  Fish Wildlife Service for information on a
  species in question.
• May have difficulty adapting to lab housing.
• During acclimation period, shield birds from
  visual disturbances.
• Cage shielded by partially covering it with cloth.

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Nondomestic Species II

• A folded sheet of paper on top of cage prevents
  injury until birds learn their cage dimensions.
• Place food water at several locations
  different heights helps birds locate source.
• Observe for several days to determine birds
  preferred locations for food water.
• Multiple food water sources reduce possibility
  of dominant or aggressive birds preventing others
  from eating or drinking.
• Food scattered on cage floor encourages eating
  until birds lose fear of food container learn
  to accept food from a dish.

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Additional Reading

• Anderson, R.S. and A.T.B. Edney. Practical
  Animal Handling. Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK.
  1991.
• Rollin, Bernard E., and M. Lynne Kesel (ed.).
  The Experimental Animal in Biomedical Research.
  Volume II Care, Husbandry and Well-Being An
  Overview By Species. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
  1992.
• Rosskopf, W.J. and R.W. Woerpel. Diseases of Cage
  and Aviary Birds. Williams and Wilkins,
  Baltimore, MD. 1996.