Many farms have been replacing traditional lighting sources with light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs because of technological modernization. We aimed to investigate the effects of incandescent lighting (IL) and LED lighting on Cobb 500 broiler chickens for six weeks. Production parameters (body weight, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio), calculated slaughter values (yield%, relative breast%, thigh%) and breast meat quality parameters (pH at 45 min and 24 h postmortem, color, drip loss, kitchen equipment losses, shear force, meat composition) were recorded. Non-stop recordings were used to analyze the behavior of the birds during several periods of rearing. The LED group was significantly better in the body weight parameter between week 1 and 5 and the feed conversion ratio between week 2 and 3. The most significant difference in behavior was observed in the middle of the rearing period. The chickens in the LED group spent more time eating, drinking and interacting, and rested less. There was no difference in the meat quality parameters; only shear force was significantly lower in the LED group (1781.9 g/s vs. 2098.8 g/s). According to our results, LED lighting can bring about positive changes in animal production efficiency, behavior and other important characteristics for meat consumers.

The cultivation of horticultural plants in controlled greenhouse environments is a pivotal practice in modern agriculture, offering the potential to enhance crop productivity and mitigate climate change effects. This study investigates the biomechanical properties and lignin content of various Capsicum annuum mutant lines—‘fragile-plant’ (frx), ‘tortuous internodi’ (tti), and ‘puffy-structured stem’ (pfi)—in comparison to a commercially established variety, ‘Garai Fehér’. We employed the acetyl bromide method to quantify lignin content and conducted three-point bending tests to assess rigidity in three distinct regions of the stem. Gene expression analysis of key lignin biosynthetic pathway genes (PAL, C4H, 4CL, CCoAOMT, CAD) was performed using qRT-PCR. The results revealed significant differences in lignin content and breaking force among the genotypes and stem regions. The tti mutants exhibited similar lignin content to the control but lower breaking strength, likely due to elongated internodes. The frx mutants showed uniformly reduced lignin content, correlating with their fragile stems. The pfi mutants displayed abnormally high lignin content in the top region yet demonstrated the lowest stem rigidity in every region. Overexpression of CAD and CCoAOMT was detected in the mutants in specific regions of the stem, suggesting alterations in lignin biosynthesis; however, we could not confirm the correlation between them. Our findings indicate that while lignin content generally correlates with stem rigidity, this trait is complex and influenced by more factors.

Many farms are replacing the lighting with light emitting diode (LED) bulbs because of the technological modernization. We aimed to investigate the effects of incandescent light (IL) and LED lighting on Cobb500 broiler chickens for six weeks. Production parameters (body weight, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio), calculated slaughter values (yield%, relative breast%, thigh%) and breast meat quality parameters (pH at 45 min and 24 h postmortem, color, drip loss, kitchen equipment losses, shear force, meat composition) were recorded. Non-stop recordings were used to analyze the behavior of the birds in several periods of the rearing. LED group was significantly better in body weigh parameter between week 1-5 and feed conversion ratio between week 2-3. The most significant difference in behavior was observed in the middle of the rearing period. The chickens in the LED group spent more eating time, drinking time, interacting, and resting less. There was no difference in the meat quality parameters, only shear force was significantly lower in the LED group (1781.95±0.33 g/s vs. 2098.82±0.42 g/s). Based on our results, LED lighting can bring positive changes in animal production efficiency, behavior, and important characteristics for meat consumers.

The gut microbiota plays a central role in poultry health and production performance, yet its response to intensive fattening protocols and postbiotic supplementation in geese remains poorly characterized. This study used 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to profile ileal and caecal microbial communities from geese raised under two fattening protocols, with or without postbiotic supplementation, and assessed the effect of 24 h post-mortem chilling on apparent community composition. Fattening protocol was associated with the largest differences in gut microbial structure, producing significant shifts in beta diversity in both the ileum and the caecum (although protocol, age at slaughter, and duration of postbiotic exposure co-varied between cohorts and cannot be fully disentangled), accompanied by extensive taxon-level differences identified by LEfSe. Postbiotic supplementation did not significantly alter overall community structure under force-feeding conditions but produced a taxon-specific, trend-level shift in the caecum under restricted feeding, suggesting that its effect depends on the continuity of supplementation relative to slaughter. Alpha diversity did not differ significantly in the ileum, but caecal richness differed significantly between the G2 and G5 postbiotic-supplemented groups (Conover–Iman test, adjusted p < 0.05). The warm- and chilled-dissection groups differed in ileal but not caecal community composition (individual-animal variation cannot be separated from the effect of chilling in this comparison, as the two groups consisted of different birds), indicating that dissection timing is an important methodological variable in goose microbiome research. These findings highlight cohort- and protocol-related differences as key correlates of gut microbial composition in geese and provide a framework for optimizing postbiotic supplementation strategies and sampling standardization in waterfowl production.