MODULAR BIRD CAGE

Technical domain

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a modular bird cage, in particular a modular bird cage for experimental laying quails.

Technical background

[0002] Several cages have already been reported, namely CN202059866U, CN202456070U, CN102960263A, CN203492556U or CN203597224U.

Brief description

[0003] Avian antibodies have been largely used for oral passive immunotherapies against microbial and viral infections. IgY immunoglobulin, the counterpart of mammalian IgG, is naturally concentrated in the hen egg-yolk and this represents a cheap and scalable source of antibodies.

[0004] Avian antibodies are alternative biologicals drugs which have unique biochemical and biophysical features resulting from the phylogenetic distance that separates birds from mammals. Moreover, the simplicity of the avian immunoglobulin system makes the construction of combinatorial phage-display libraries relatively easy compared to humans or mice, thus quickly providing a broad spectrum of potentially therapeutic antibodies.

[0005] With the advances in avian transgenesis, birds are currently considered the source for biopharmaceuticals of the future. Therefore, one of the aims of the present disclosure is to develop and refine novel avian antibody approaches that are likely to become alternatives to combat bacterial infectious diseases, ultimately replacing or complementing antibiotics. In this line, the use of Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica) as a model bird for antibody generation is an attractive possibility as quails allow an experimental turnover 3 times faster than chickens and are a simple and robust bird model to have in the laboratory.

[0006] For this purpose a unique housing system was developed, in particular a modular bird cage, for experimental laying quails. The modular bird cage now disclosed was designed to meet the specific requirements of standard protocols for production of hyperimmune birds and subsequent generation of novel avian antibodies, while simultaneously simplifying these processes.

[0007] A standard immunization/vaccination protocol typically uses 2 to 4 grouped birds that are immunized with a unique immunogen sample, in particular a protein or a peptide of interest, and monitored for 60 to 90 days.

[0008] The equipment now disclosed meets all the regulatory guidelines of Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, namely minimal surface area per bird, minimal cage height, feeder length and general hygienic standards.

[0009] The above-mentioned protocols imply the immunization/vaccination, of experimental adult female birds and monitoring of their immune response by analysing the laid eggs. Therefore the modular bird cage was designed to guarantee the immediate separation of eggs, once they were laid, from any sort of damaging, bird pecking, crushing and/or dirtiness.

[0010] The modular bird cage now disclosed was designed to:

improve bird welfare while optimizing egg-laying productivity needs for experimental assays;

allow animal housing, manipulation and care with reduced stress, ensuring at the same time full functionality for daily experimental routines.

[0011] To guarantee that the eggs, once they are laid, are immediately removed from the area where the birds are, without resourcing to human intervention, it was necessary to consider the following elements while planning and developing the design of the modular bird cage now disclosed:

implement an inner-floor rack with a draw-like structure and function which may be displaceable between two positions, a first position retracted within the cage and a second position in which the rack may be extended outwardly from the cage, which allows the bird restraint without stress;

implement an inner-floor rack which is ramped with a specific angle range, in particular 15°- 3°, or identically 3°-15°, preferably 10°-6°, or identically 6°-10°, such that said inner-floor rack is responsible for allowing the egg to roll off the cage without promoting any type of injury to the egg and without being responsible for induction stress to the birds, in particular stress to quails; implement an inner-floor rack which has a wire bottom section for allowing droppings to pass through and allowing the droppings of the birds to be removed from the area where the birds are, and simultaneously said wire bottom section comprises a suitable mesh/suitable grid size for the claws of the birds, thereby ensuring to the welfare of the birds and allowing the eggs to roll of the cage and not to fall through the wire section.

[0012] The cages already known in the literature do not disclose a combination of the features now disclosed in a single cage.

[0013] The present disclosure relates to a modular bird cage comprising:

an inner-floor rack displaceable between a first position, in which the rack is retracted within the cage, and a second position in which the rack extends outwardly from the cage;

wherein the inner-floor rack comprises:

two ends, wherein a first end is positioned internally to the cage for restraining a bird from moving to the back of the cage beyond said first end and a second end is positioned externally to the cage, independently of the displacement of the rack, allowing non-stressful bird restraint when the inner-floor rack is extended outwardly from the cage;

a stop section positioned on said second end for the collection of eggs;

a wire bottom section for allowing droppings to pass through and ramped such that eggs roll along said bottom section for collection at the stop section.

[0014] The present disclosure also relates to a modular bird cage comprising:

an inner-floor rack displaceable between a first position, in which the rack is retracted within the cage, and a second position in which the rack extends outwardly from the cage;

wherein the inner-floor rack comprises:

two ends, wherein a first end is positioned internally to the cage for restraining a bird from moving to the back of the cage beyond said first end and a second end is positioned externally to the cage, independently of the displacement of the rack, allowing non-stressful bird restraint when the inner-floor rack is extended outwardly from the cage;

a stop section positioned on said second end for the collection of eggs; a wire bottom section for allowing droppings to pass through and ramped such that eggs roll along said bottom section for collection at the stop section the inner-floor rack is ramped with a degree of 15°-3° such that eggs roll along the wire bottom section for collection at the stop section.

[0015] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage may comprise a rail wherein the inner-floor rack is displaceable along said rail.

[0016] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage, in particular the inner-floor rack may comprise a holding pin, in particular a metallic holding pin, to prevent unattended inner-floor rack displacement from the first position in which the tray is retracted within the cage.

[0017] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage, in particular the inner-floor rack may also comprise a stopping pin to prevent full outward displacement of said inner-floor rack.

[0018] In an embodiment, the holding pin and the stopping pin may be metallic parts builted-in the inner-floor rack.

[0019] Said first end of the inner-floor rack is raised for restraining a bird from moving to the back of the cage beyond said first end.

[0020] In an embodiment, the inner-floor rack may have a stopping point for avoiding full inner-floor rack outward displaceament between the first position and the second position, thereby preventing unwanted bird squeezing against a frontal door of the modular bird cage, in particular this stopping pin allows to leave a 20-30 cm distance between the frontal door and the back of inner-floor rack.

[0021] In an embodiment, the inner-floor rack may be ramped with a degree of 15°-3°, preferably 10°-6° such that eggs roll along the wire bottom section for collection at the stop section.

[0022] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage may further comprise a tray for collection of droppings wherein said tray is positioned below the inner-floor rack and can be removed for cleaning and maintenance.

[0023] In an embodiment, the tray for collection of droppings may be displaceable between a first position, in which the tray is retracted within the cage, and a second position in which the tray may extend outwardly from the cage. [0024] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage may comprise a second rail and the tray for collection of droppings may be displaceable along said second rail.

[0025] In an embodiment, the tray for collection of droppings is metallic.

[0026] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage may further comprise a water dispenser positioned externally to the cage, placed proximal to a first aperture and facing the first aperture for the bird to access water dispensed by the water dispenser.

[0027] In an embodiment, the water dispenser may be an automatic water dispenser or a manual water dispenser.

[0028] In an embodiment, the water dispenser may be coupled to a movable water retention support, in particular a rectangular canne-like movable water retention support, positioned below the water dispenser for retaining water leakage from the water dispenser.

[0029] In an embodiment, the water retention support is metallic.

[0030] In an embodiment, the water retention support may comprise several formats including a continuous or individual format, in particular said water retention support may be composed of individual plastic or metallic water retention cups positions below each water dispenser.

[0031] In an embodiment, the water dispensed is provided by a reservoir for storage of water and a tubing unit for the transport of water from the reservoir to the water dispenser. The water dispenser may be a pipette-like tip.

[0032] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage may further comprise a food dispenser positioned externally to the cage, placed proximal to a second aperture for bird access to food dispensed by the food dispenser.

[0033] In an embodiment, the food dispenser may be an automatic food dispenser or a manual food dispenser.

[0034] In an embodiment, individual food dispensers and individual automatic water dispensers are positioned externally to the cage for easy access and maintenance by staff, instead of having the mentioned elements positioned inside the cage, which would be responsible for promoting stress to the birds, each time that food and/or water had to be provided to the birds. [0035] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage may comprise a rail for introducing or removing a removable side element/panel for increasing or decreasing a number of individual modular bird cages, said side element/panel being positioned perpendicularly to the inner-floor rack.

[0036] In an embodiment, the inner-floor rack, the tray for collection of droppings, the water dispenser, the food dispenser, the side elements/panels, back elements/panels, top elements/panels and frontal doors may be removable for maintenance and cleaning.

[0037] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage comprises a top, and a door wherein the base, the top and the door may be removable for maintenance and cleaning.

[0038] In an embodiment, a back panel, in particular a back polycarbonate panel closes the modular bird cage itself.

[0039] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage may be stackable.

[0040] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage may comprise a plurality of wheels for displacement of the cage from a first position to a second position and/or a plurality of brakes to prevent an unattended displacement of the cage.

[0041] Throughout the description and claims the word "comprise" and variations of the word, are not intended to exclude other technical features, additives, components, or steps. Additional objectives, advantages and features of the solution will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the description or may be learned by practice of the solution.

Brief description of the drawings

[0042] The following figures provide preferred embodiments for the present disclosure and should not be seen as limiting the scope of the disclosure.

[0043] Figure 1: Schematic representation of a modular bird cage.

[0044] Figure 2: Schematic representation of a rack with a total of 4 floors/levels.

[0045] Figure 3: Lateral view of an inner-floor rack.

[0046] Figure 4: View of an inner-floor rack and of a food dispenser.

[0047] Figure 5: Lateral view of an inner-floor rack. [0048] Figure 6: Front view of the modular bird cage.

[0049] Figure 7: Lateral view of the food dispenser and stop section for the collection of eggs. [0050] Figure 8: View of the open modular bird cage.

[0051] Figure 9: View of the tray for collecting droppings (7) extended outwardly from the modular bird cage.

[0052] Figure 10: View of the inner-floor rack extended outwardly from the modular bird cage.

[0053] Figure 11: Front view of the modular bird cage with the inner-floor rack extended outwardly from the modular bird cage.

[0054] Figure 12: Detail of the stop section for the collection of eggs. [0055] Figure 13: Detail of the frontal door lockers. [0056] Figure 14: Front view of open modular bird cage.

[0057] Figure 15: View of the tray for collecting droppings, when the tray is partially removed from the cage.

[0058] Figure 16: Detailed view of the tray interlocking lateral edges, designed to avoid accumulation of droppings.

[0059] Figure 17: View of the automatic water system structure attached to the facility wall.

[0060] Figure 18: View of the automatic water system structure showing individual water dispensers and movable water retention support.

[0061] Figure 19: View of the lateral fitting arm of the automatic water system structure.

[0062] Figure 20: View of the automatic water system structure fitting the modular bird cage.

[0063] Figure 21: View of the automatic water system structure fitting the modular bird cage, when the water system structure as not been attached to the facility wall .

[0064] Figure 22: LED-lights structure implemented in the back of the water system ensuring light homogeneity critical for light-cycle that determines egg-laying cycles.

[0065] Figure 23: Elevated platforms (12) are additional structures that increase the functional surface area per cage. [0066] Figure 24: Holding pin (9) of the inner-floor rack, to prevent unattended outwards displacement.

Detailed description

[0067] The present disclosure relates to a modular bird cage.

[0068] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage (1) may comprise several quail racks. Each quail rack is a metal structure with a total of 4 cages/floors, each of them corresponding to a continuous cage (Figs. 1 and 2), in particular to a continuous cage of 1723 ^χ 721 ^χ 300 mm and with an overall surface area of 1.24 m ² . This allows housing of quails in experimental conditions, in particular housing of 2 quails in experimental conditions.

[0069] In an embodiment, represented by Fig. 2, each modular bird cage may comprise a removable side element/panel (2) in particular a polycarbonate side element/panel; a food dispenser (3); a inner-floor rack (4) comprising a first end positioned internally to the cage for restraining a bird from moving to the back of the cage beyond said first end (4a), a second end positioned externally to the cage (4b), independently of the displacement of the inner-floor rack and a wire bottom section for allowing droppings to pass through and ramped such that eggs roll along said bottom section (4c) for collection of the eggs at the stop section (5).

[0070] In an embodiment, the displacement of the inner-floor rack (4) allows for easy and stress free for the animals, when one need to access them.

[0071] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage may comprise a plurality of wheels (6) for displacement of the cage (Fig. 2).

[0072] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage may comprise a plurality of brakes to prevent the displacement of the cage.

[0073] In an embodiment, as represented in Figs. 3-5 and 10-11, the inner-floor rack comprises a first end positioned internally to the cage for restraining a bird from moving to the back of the cage beyond said first end (4a), a wire bottom section for allowing droppings to pass through and ramped such that eggs roll along said bottom section (4c) for collection of the eggs at the stop section (5). Furthermore the modular bird cage may comprise a removable side element/panel (2) that when it is present it increases the number of individual modular bird cages and when it is removed it decreases the number of individual modular bird cages. [0074] In an embodiment, the inner-floor rack may be ramped such that it may comprise a 15- 3° steepness angle, in particular a 6° steepness angle. Therefore, the inner-floor rack now disclosed allows simultaneously for the eggs to roll-out of the cage without injuring the egg and allowing a non-stressful bird restraint and for the lower accumulation of droppings (Figs. 3-5).

[0075] In an embodiment, as represented in Figs. 6 and 10-11, the removable side element/panel (2) may comprise a suitable structure (2a) for a given user to introduce and/or to remove said element/panel and therefore reduce and/or increase the number of individual modular bird cages.

[0076] In an embodiment, each floor is also design to allow temporary housing in half area due to experimental requirements, meaning that each continuous cage/floor can be divided in 2 independent and fully functional half-cages (Fig. 6). This is particularly important for housing and maintenance of hyperimmune birds during immunization/vaccination periods, where accurate collection of laid egg samples is critical.

[0077] In an embodiment, the inner-floor rack may have a draw-like structure displaceable between two positions, a first position retracted within the cage and a second position in which the rack may be extended outwardly from the cage, which allows the bird restraint without stress.

[0078] In an embodiment, as represented in Fig. 8, the modular bird cage may comprise at least a door (7).

[0079] In an embodiment, each cage can house up to 4 birds given that additional surface area per bird is available. This can be achieved by addition of enrichment platforms/elevated platforms (12) that supplement the floor area in 0.1-0.15 m ² per bird as seen in Fig. 23. The optional enrichment platforms/elevated platforms (12) are additional structures to increase the functional surface area per cage; therefore allowing extra floor area in the same cage volume. They work like removable balcony-like platforms that can be hanged at any of the lateral elements/panels of the cage, in particular polycarbonate (PC) panels.

[0080] In an embodiment, the top element/panel, side elements/panels and base element/panel are made of PC, in particular said elements/panels are transparent PC elements/panels, in order to allow proper light diffusion and dispersion in an homogeneous way, as this aspect is related with the regulation of egg-laying cycles. [0081] In an embodiment, each floor may hold food and water dispensers, in particular 2 food dispensers of 250 mm of length, and 4 individual automatic water dispensers. Both elements, food dispensers and individual automatic water dispensers, are positioned externally to the cage for easy access and maintenance by staff (Figs. 6-8, 19).

[0082] In an embodiment, the inner-floor rack may comprise a wire bottom section for allowing droppings to pass through removing it from the area where the birds are, and simultaneously the wire bottom section comprises a suitable mesh/suitable grid size for the claws of the birds, thereby contributing to the welfare of the birds and allowing the eggs to roll of the cage and not to fall through the wire section.

[0083] In an embodiment, the metal tray for collection of droppings is easy to remove for maintenance and clean-up and their lateral interlocking edges are specifically designed to avoid accumulation of droppings (Fig. 16).

[0084] In an embodiment, as represented in Fig. 17, the automatic water dispensers are integrated in a fully independent structure that is attached to the facility wall and presents a unique design to perfectly fit the back face of the modular bird cage.

[0085] In an embodiment, each individual water dispenser is automatically positioned facing the corresponding aperture for bird access (Fig. 21). Such design allows easy access for maintenance of all functional parts composing the automatic water system, in particular a main reservoir, a tubing system, water retention piece, and water dispensers, simple by moving the rack away from the wall (Fig. 19). Furthermore, each individual water dispenser may be detached from the modular bird cage now disclosed for washing and/or maintenance purposes.

[0086] In an embodiment, a LED-light structure may be implemented in the back of the water system ensuring light homogeneity and contributing to the light-cycle that determines egg- laying cycles (Fig. 22).

[0087] In an embodiment, the modular bird cage comprise several elements/panels, in particular PC lateral and back elements/panels, which are designed with interlocking edges that allow the inner-floor rack to extend outwardly from the cage and simultaneously for sliding it into place, but also to efficiently avoid accumulation of droppings from proximal inner-floor rack contacts. [0088] In an embodiment, all cage parts are removable for easy maintenance and clean-up, which is a significant advantage of the modular bird cage now disclosed; this includes all polycarbonate lateral and back elements/panels (cages faces), frontal doors, wired floor, trays for droppings and individual feeders and top element/panel.

[0089] In an embodiment, the polycarbonate elements that may constitute the cage now disclosed have a further advantage of contribuiting to avoid exposing the birds to inadequate climate conditions. As such, the present cage allows for the birds to be more sheltered and less exposed given the fact that much of the structure may be made of transparent solid polycarbonate panels, in opposition to wirefarme. Furthermore, when the polycarbonate elements (polycarbonate lateral and back elements/panels (cages faces), frontal doors, wired floor, trays for droppings and individual feeders and top element/panel) are transparent, a proper visualization of the birds is possible, which for example allows to determine the well being of the birds.

[0090] In an embodiment, the fact that the cage now disclosed is a modular one, instead of a single piece cage, has the advantage of allowing easy removal, washing and maintenance of said cage. In opposition, a single piece cage has the disavantage of requiring the removal and washing of the cage in a block.

[0091] The disclosure should not be seen in any way restricted to the embodiments described and a person with ordinary skill in the art will foresee many possibilities to modifications thereof. The above described embodiments are combinable. The following claims further set out particular embodiments of the disclosure.