The retail feed industry has grown continually in importance during the past 60 years. Increased population has placed ever greater demands upon food production to feed our nation's people. During 1968, the average American consumed 80 pounds of beef, 63 pounds of pork, 8 pounds of veal, 4 pounds of lamb, 26 pounds of chicken, and 11 pounds of lard. This amounted to an annual per capita consumption of 188 pounds of red meat. With 173 million people to feed, vast quantities of livestock must be produced, finished, and marketed to satisfy our nation's needs.

Probiotics are an alternative to increase broiler productivity and flock health. For this reason, the objective of the first study was to evaluate commercially available Bacillus spp. based probiotic products on their ability to reduce Salmonella Heidelberg, in vitro. Results showed that most products reduced the lower concentrations of S. Heidelberg and maintained a reduction for up to 8 h. The second study was conducted to determine if bacterial colonization occurred in a broiler chick after in ovo injection. Using bioluminescence, it was demonstrated that bacteria could migrate and colonize the embryo within 2 h after in ovo injection into the amniotic fluid. The results of these studies demonstrated that probiotics could reduce pathogenic microorganisms and can potentially have a positive impact on the chick before it even hatches and is placed in a broiler house.

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Commercial broiler chickens are withdrawn from feed prior to harvesting, transport and processing. This feed withdrawal period does not reduce carcass yield but is significant in reducing the potential for carcass contamination from undigested feed or fecal material that may remain in the digestive tract if feed is not withdrawn. However, withdrawing feed can result in an increase in bacterial contamination due to the decrease in physiological pH during fasting. Recently, consumers are more interested in how food animals are raised, prepared for, and processed. In response to these concerns, the feasibility of developing a “feed withdrawal” feed that could be provided to commercial broilers during the traditional feed withdrawal period was evaluated. The physiological effect of fasting during the feed withdrawal period is also not well understood. The focus of this study was to determine if feedstuffs that are readily accessible to commercial feed mills was evaluated to determine if body weight loss could be reduced and commercial broilers could be processed acceptably when allowed access to this feed during the traditional feed withdrawal period. In addition, the physiological response of commercial broilers at different ages to fasting was determined. The emphasis of this study was to determine the effect of fasting periods of commercial broilers on the hormones insulin and glucagon, circulating levels of glucose and body temperature compared to fulled birds. The results of this research suggests that a “feed withdrawal feed” that is available to commercial feed mills is feasible to allow commercial broilers access to feed during the traditional feed withdrawal period and still be processed with no contamination concerns. In addition, the impact of fasting on the hormones glucagon and insulin, circulating levels of glucose and body temperature were shown to be significantly changed during a fasting period.

The steady state and dynamic behaviour of a demethanizer-absorber have been studied using the IBM 7040 computer. The model considers as many as 10 components and 30 ideal trays, and three feeds to the column are permitted; this allows comparison with a real column in the Polymer Corporation plant in Sarnia. The steady state solution is obtained using the Thiele-Geddes calculational procedure and the θ-method of inducing convergence. In addition other means of ensuring convergence have been extended and tested. The transient model was studied using a third-order Runge-Kutta process. Although successful, this method was extremely slow. Equilibrium constant data in numerical form based on the Braun charts have been presented and tested. The enthalpy correlations of Yen and Alexander have also been examined and used. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

Supplemental feeding is commonly practiced to enhance available nutrition for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). The effects of supplemental feeding on the surrounding vegetative community may be related to herbivory, trampling, and seed dispersal. I evaluated how these potential mechanisms affect vegetative communities using a matched-pair design (fed and ecologically equivalent unfed sites) during 2018-2020. In a short-term manipulative portion of the study, I sampled the vegetation prior to feeding and during two years of feeding. In a long-term retrospective study, I sampled feeders established 5-7 years previously. Feeders increased daily detection rate of deer and seed dispersing non-target wildlife, percentage of browsed plants, bare ground, and seed deposition. Plant communities diverged increasingly more from year 1 through years 5-7. Supplemental feeding directly affects local understory plant communities due to increased herbivory and trampling, while seed dispersal by non-target wildlife and increased bare ground may facilitate invasion of non-desirable plant species.

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