Employee engagement in the workplace can be beneficial towards an organisation. Most of the scales measuring employee engagement were found not to be suitable for the South African context. Recently, researchers developed a scale measuring employee engagement in a diverse South African context, and on multiple levels such as organisational and individual levels. This study tested this newly developed instrument for initial reliability and validity in a poultry producer. The original instrument was pre-tested and after minor amendments used to collect data through an electronic web-based questionnaire from employees in the selected organisation. The selected organisation reflected the profile of typical South African employees. Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to determine the factorial structure and Cronbach Alpha was used to establish the internal reliability of the instrument scale. The instrument tested reliable and valid for the poultry producer. Further analyses of the data were done to determine significant differences between various biographical groups within the selected organisation. The measurement instrument was designed to test engagement on the organisational level, team level and the individual level which was confirmed in the survey result analysis. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

The aim of the study was to analyse the current supply chain in relation to the influence of suppliers, infrastructure, market, production process and distribution of products on sustainability of small-scale poultry producers at Ratlou Local Municipality, North West Province. The research also investigated how skills and knowledge of farmers contribute to sustainable operation of small-scale poultry farming, and socio-economic benefit of the farmers in the study area. All the seventy small-scale poultry producers for operating and non-operating farms or projects in the Municipality were interviewed. A structured interview was used to collect data which was captured and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 24. About 41.4 % of small-scale poultry projects were no longer operating, only 52.9 % were functional and 5.7 % were operating during certain seasons. The results of the study further revealed that 91.4 % of small-scale poultry farmers in Municipality did not know the name of the chicken breed they were using on their farms. The results reveal adequate availability of infrastructure such as access to electricity, tarred roads and telecommunication networks. The results of the Logit regression analysis revealed that the Logit coefficient estimates associated with payment level, credit availability, chick and feed suppliers made significant (p < 0.05) contribution towards sustainability of the small-scale poultry farm. The aforementioned variables may serve as bases for informed policy decisions aimed at ensuring sustainability of small-scale poultry production in the municipality. The current study identified the need for establishment for a proper integrated supply chain for small-scale poultry farmers. / Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecology / M. Sc. (Agriculture)

Two experiments were conducted to determine the optimal brining levels and effective chlorinated antimicrobials in three selected commercial poultry abattoirs of south Africa.The objective of the study was two fold: Firstly, the primary objective of the study was to determine the optimal inclusion level of brine for application in chicken processing to elongate the shelf life by reducing spoilage bacteria under refrigeration stage while the secondary objective of the study was to determine the most effective chlorinated antimicrobial to be applied in poultry processing plants to reduce spoilage bacteria. For each experiment, a complete randomized design was used. The general linear model procedure was used to determine the effects of brining and chlorine antimicrobials on the Psychrotrophic bacterial load of individually quick frozen (IQF) chicken portions. Simultaneously, a quadratic type equation was used to determine the optimal inclusion level of brine in relation to the responses of Psychrotrophic bacterial loads. The results indicated that control samples (0% brine) had higher (P < 0.05) bacterial load than all samples injected with various injection levels. There were significant differences (P < 0.05) between samples injected with 15% and 20% for all major abattoirs combined. However, there were no differences (P > 0.05) between samples injected with 20% and 25% brine, respectively. In addition, there was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in Psychrotrophic bacterial load between the samples treated with 25% and 30% brine inclusion level as well as those treated with 30% and 35% brining levels in all abattoirs. Futhermore, the results of the study also showed that Acidified Sodium Chloride had significantly lower bacterial load than both aqueous chlorine and chlorine dioxide. However, the effect of percentage brining on average Psychotrophic bacterial count had minimum quadratic values of 24.45 – 0.517 brining + 0.805 brining2 with r = 0.995; r2= 0.989, with optimum percentage brining dose being 43.08%. By extension, the result implies that the lowest reduction in spoilage bacteria is attained at 43.08% of brine inclusion level. These findings have implications on the most effective and convenient antimicrobial to be used in chicken abatoirs as well as reduction of psychotrophic bacterial load on individually quick frozen (IQF) chicken portions / Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecology / M. Sc. (Agriculture)