Poultry industry paradigms: connecting the dots

Abstract

Providing high-quality food for the increasing world population with limited natural resources is a challenge for animal agriculture. Over the past decades, poultry production has undergone remarkable advancements to adapt to emerging challenges and evolving changes in consumer expectations. Amongst these changes, the need for an animal protein production system that considers the social, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability has increased. With that in mind, efforts were and will continue to be made toward improving various aspects of the poultry production chain. Genetic selection has evolved from a simple phenotypic mass selection to the use of genomics, focusing not only on efficiency, but also on animal welfare and the demand from niche markets. Precision poultry farming technologies should be further innovated to develop the core component of an integrated imaging system for evaluating poultry production and wellbeing. Moreover, feed formulation will continue to be adjusted as the birds` nutritional requirements, feed ingredient availability, and cost change, and bird processing will continue to adopt technologies that can improve meat quality and reduce labor intensity and demand. These adaptations highlight a dynamic aspect of the poultry industry and its continuous effort to produce a safe, cost-effective, and environment friendly protein source while maintaining animal welfare.