Mycotoxins are a diverse group of secondary fungal metabolites produced by different fungi. Hundreds of mycotoxins have been chemically identified but the toxicity, occurrence, and target organs vary. But despite the increase in the occurence there has been a decline in research. WHY?

VIV China 2006 was great. The show improves by every edition and demonstrates that the Chinese pig and poultry industry is quickly becoming a modern industry, based on up-to-date technology.

In 2001 European Commission ruled that over the period 1991 through 1995 ADM and Haarmann and Reimer of the USA, Cerestar Bioproducts of Holland and, Hoffmann-LaRoche and Jungbunzlauer of Switzerland participated in a cartel to fix prices and manipulate the market for citric acid.  By Simon Shane

The precipitous decline in the price of crude oil from approximately $80/barrel in late July to $60/barrel by mid-September stimulated a major re-evaluation of the feasibility of ethanol production. By Simon Shane

The ongoing US outbreak of E coli O157: H7 attributed to organic spinach as the vehicle should stimulate concern among poultry producers in relation to their products.  By Simon Shane

Growing, processing and marketing poultry meat and eggs, like many other agricultural activities, have become an industrialized process. This allowed many outside and some inside the business to consider it as a normal economic activity and should be treated alike.

Many people with different cultural and religious backgrounds perceive white meat as a healthier and more desirable choice than red meat. Has the industry taken advantage of this great demand? What has the industry done over the past few years to reassure consumers about poultry product safety? Does the industry realize that it takes time to regain consumer trust?

There has been a considerable expansion in the global poultry industry over the past few years but at the same time the number of active academic departments of Poultry Science has dramatically declined. Is this because  we do not need to expand our research on poultry or train more people for the industry?