Blog

Current challenges of commercial poultry nutrition

Home

1865 16

Mojtaba Yegani Function: Blogger Mojtaba Yegani received his DVM degree from faculty of Veterinary Medicine of University of Tehran, Iran.

Poultry meat and egg production have increased considerably worldwide since 1970. The increase in the size of the poultry industry has been much greater compared to the pork and beef industries. It is evident that the poultry meat industry has been more dynamic and has grown faster than the egg industry over these years. The trade volume of poultry products has also significantly increased .

There are, however, challenges that the industry is currently facing and it seems that these challenges are going to be present for many years to come. Dr. Steve Leeson of the University of Guelph, Canada has recently discussed the future directions of commercial poultry nutrition. This review paper is published in Spring 2008 issue of journal of Applied Poultry Research. I suggest you to read this paper if you get a chance.

Rising cost of feed worldwide, removal or reduced use of antibiotic growth promoters and the search for viable alternatives, finding more cost effective feed ingredients for poultry, constant supply of quality water, implementing feedmill biosecurity (as part of the whole farm biosecurity measures), nutrition-related environmental concerns, and inconsistency in laboratory analyses of feed ingredients and compound feed samples are among challenges that the industry is currently facing. I personally believe that the industry will not be able to solve these problems by itself and poultry research centers can be of great help to address these issues.

How significant are these challenges in the poultry industry of your country?

by Mojtaba Yegani Jun 20, 2008

16 comments

Dr. Devendra (INDIA), devendra.verma@danisco.com Jun 21, 2008

# 1

At the moment, rising feed costs are hurting all the poultry producers in India posing as a major challenge. These days efficient utilization of feed nutrients from the available feedstuffs like corn & soymeal is very much required. This coupled with use of other non-conventional feedstuffs is also needed. In both cases, feed efficiency with less cost of production will be materialized only with use of feed additives like feed enzymes. Practical precise knowledge of factors like variations in Apparent Metabolisable Energy of key feedstuffs and amount of substrate (like phytate) available for feed enzymes to act upon will significantly bring down the costs without compromising poultry performance standards. Industry should be geared up and open to embrace such tools available to predict the cost savings that will help to get through a period of distress of spiraling feed costs.
Dr Oluwole Banjo (Nigeria) Jun 26, 2008

# 2

Mojtaba, in fact you've identified all the challenges facig the poultry industry in my country(Nigeria), but the greatest of them is this unending increase in feedcost. it is becoming unbearable to the average farmer because any slight. increase in farmgate price of poultry product will result in reduced demand. i think we need an international effort to bring down the price of feed, unconventional feed stuffs are even expensive.
Dr. Nirmal Sharma Jun 26, 2008

# 3

The rising cost of raw materials specially maize and soya which contribute nearly 65-75 % of the feed formulation are snoring / crossed the limits, so the use or replacement of non-conventional feedstuffs with addition of enzymes to dematerialize the anti-nutritional effects,which brings down the cost without compromizing poultry performance standards with performance.
Poultry Association of Kenya Jun 26, 2008

# 4

The ever rising cost of feeds and Antibiotics has really affected the Poultry production since Feed millers have as well resulted in Producing sub standard feeds in order to reduce cost.
The Association is now being forced to intervane and save the Poultry industry
kayode joseph B. Jun 27, 2008

# 5

There is a need for concerted effort globally to rescue poultry business. frantic effort should be made to develop or formulate feed stuffs that will be cost effective.What pultry farmers are going through today in Nigeria is pathetic.Nigeria Govt need to arise and be practical in there policy formulation and implementation on food security.The small scale farmers are not finding it funny at all on this astronomical rise in the cost of poultry feeds. DEEMOORE FARMS Ibadan Oyo State
Bolarinwa Ganiyu(NIGERIA) Jun 29, 2008

# 6

This is a major challenges to all governments of the federation especially,third world countries as they needs to gear up in both financial and materials supports for scarcily populated practising farmers to produce more of agricultural produce.Also,there is need to have more storage facilities for the excess products to be stored for the future use rather than having it being wasted as its commomnly seen in my country.
syed farjad zaidi (Pakistan) Jul 1, 2008

# 7

Assets have become liability,inreased feed prices, utility and transportation cost along with decreasing purchasing power causing sharp reduction in demand forced poultry industry to shrink by 40% in one year. Optimum utilization on all fronts to brake the cost of production is must,particularly in countries where the efficieny of industry is low
. use of non traditional feed material to reduce feed cost is need of the day
Dr.Manoj Bharti manoj.bharti@fibrafid.com Jul 3, 2008

# 8

in present scenario it will be difficult to get any benfit from poultry production due to sharp rise in raw feed ingredients in india. it has been more than doubled compared to last year specially corn and soya . future is also not looking good about availablity of these raw ingredients due to continuous demand of these in biofuels.so what r the solution? only solution is to find out possible nonconventional source as an alternative of these ingredients. like in some south east asian countries poultry farmers r using salseed meal with replacement of 20-25%maize in poultry diets and trying to replace upto 50% with the help of enzymes, so efforts should be more concrete in this direction. this is the only solution.
Fermin M. Diaz (Philippines) Jul 4, 2008

# 9

There is some hope for poultry producers in the Philippines, or elsewhere, whether large integrators, commercial growers or backyard raisers - if only industry players try nanotechnology as applied in animal nutrition. This is a cutting-edge technology that seems to transcend current problems like rising feed costs and all those stuff. In our country, I know of a powder feed mix developed using nanotechnology that has been in use for over six years now with very promising results. In broilers, you can harvest birds at 1.6 to 1.8 kg live weight in just 28 to 32 days even if feed consumption is cut by 10 to 15 percent - all because of the nanotech feed mix. When the product is mixed in the diet, the bird's immune system and performance are enhanced, resulting in faster growth and less health problems, hence, sharply reducing use of antibiotics and other medicines that all add up to production cost. Using the nanotech-based feed mix, you also get leaner chicken meat with reduced fat and better tasting meat with sharply reduced chemical residues. The benefits of nanotech are enormous. If only those who have been using it will spread the word, then more people stand to gain from its unique advantages. The trouble is it seems the product works so well that those already using it wouldn't want others to know about it, as if they are guarding it like a trade secret.
Dr. V. P. Pathak Jul 5, 2008

# 10

In view of the cost of feed ingradients it is now very essential to opt for the other addatives which will be useful in optimal utilization of the feed ingradients to increase production and which will not have any effect on any of the system. In this connection the trial made at are suggestive of inclusion of goitrogen at lowest dose rate in the broiler to get meat and sustain broilers from summer stress.
Pieter Conradie Jul 7, 2008

# 11

Agree - we need to use additives to optimize the utilization of nutrients in the diet. Make sure you include a toxin binder and appropriate enzymes.Bedgen 40 can also be beneficial not only as a toxin eliminator but also as a liver modulator.
Dr.Anand Burra-India. Jul 25, 2008

# 12

Unfortunatley only the poultry farmer is loosing money.All other poultry related businessmen are at safer side.The only solution is the prices should go up to off set the feed prices.Usage of unconventional feed material is unavoidable due to the corn-soya unavailability.
Ghazi (pakistan) ghazi_qau@yahoo.com Jul 31, 2008

# 13

rising feed costs are affecting poultry producers in Pakistan, facing a major challenge in these days efficient utilization of feed nutrients from the available feedstuffs like corn & soymeal is very much required these feed stuff are expensive in Pakistan, there is a big shortage of grain in pakistan,use of non traditional feed material with microbial enzymes to reduce feed cost and also improve the FCR, is need of the day.there is need of more research in the field of poultry industry for proper usage of microbial enzymes can be produced economically in lab.enzymes will bring significantly decrease costs without Finding the middle ground poultry performance.
mohammad mayyas(jordan) Aug 3, 2008

# 14

these days the whole world is concerned with high prices of feedstuffs , and finding asolutions for that problem
ashok- INDIA;ashokvet_13 @yahoo.co.in Aug 10, 2008

# 15

The solution to the problem lies in finding alternate feed resources to the corn-soya diet.Cereals like sorghum,bajra and ragi can be substituted to a certain extent instead of maize.The second solution is to increase the productivity of the crops used in poultry feed.Here we should whole heartedly welcome the GM crops instead of opposing it.The third and most important solution lies in the system of rearing. We should find a mid path between industrial production; which is a high input system and semi intensive sytem; a low to medium input system in order to survive.
Seye Oluwalasinu, DVM Sep 3, 2008

# 16

I feel we should be shiftong gradually from the overuse of Zea mays in poultry nutition in the tropics especially in Nigeria where we do not produce the latter enough for both human and bird consumption. Lets think of how we can process cassava peels in such a way that our production will be maintained and even thrive better. By so doing, we would have reduced the cost of producing per egg. Thanks.