The EU Council Directive 98/58 "concerning the protection of animals kept for farming purposes" states that animal breeding should avoid procedures that cause suffering or injury to any of the animals concerned.

A common complaint heard all over the world today: "The world is speeding up! Between a professional career and family life, I hardly have time to cook!" Enter the food industry, which since its birth, but most especially over the last half century, has addressed this subject time and time again, first by processing and later on by further processing many of the meals we eat today.

International trade and easy travelling from one end of the world to the other has become an issue in the increasing spread in the number and intensity of infectious diseases.

In this blog, I would like to discuss an issue which is not new but very important to the animal feed industry: variation in ingredients.

It is known that the timing and form of nutrients supplied post-hatch is critical for development of gastrointestinal (GI) tract. It has also been shown that early access to feed enhances growth of the intestinal tract.

It is great news for the farmers in the USA. The first step to a new farm bill has been set. This means that over the next five years US farmers will receive 286 billion dollars extra from the government. The subsidy will cover the difference between the market price and the negotiated minimum price for their products.

Dr Paul Aho recently gave an interesting talk on the possible consequences of increasing use of corn for ethanol production in USA on the poultry industry all around the world. He mentioned that "a central argument for the move to ethanol is based on the desire to be less dependent on imported oil, and eventually, on oil in general.

The use of enzymes in the feed industry has a history of around 20 years. Enzymes are now widely used in poultry diets. There are many peer-reviewed publications indicating beneficial effects of enzymes in improving the nutritional values of wheat, barley, oats, rye, and triticale and also production performance of poultry

Living in a country where intensive livestock production is pictured as conducting a ‘crime against animals’ is interesting but not always a pleasant. Soon the Dutch parliament will discuss the possibility of stopping the bio-industry by closing all large scale efficiently managed livestock production units to be replaced by less efficient smaller organic or biologic operations

In the past 4 to 5 months the industry has been globally grappling with the short and long term consequences of the USA ethanol programme. On one side the livestock industry was predicting disaster while the corn growers were reassuring all that there would be no problems as increased supply would resolve the issue.