The future of poultry production: Meeting the challenges of food safety and food security with declining resources

Food security - a human right: The availability of food is one of the basic human rights and should allow human beings to live in dignity and be free from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition (WHO). We all know that due to political constraints and subsequent poverty this human right is not achieved in all parts of the world. The simple fact, however, that the world population is still increasing has initiated a global debate how we can ensure food security at a global level in the future. In their Outlook the FAO/OECD (2013) concludes that by 2050 agricultural production needs to increase by 60% to meet the food demands of future generations. To achieve this objective, the productivity of all sectors in agro-food production needs to be improved and the international agro-food trade network to be advanced. On a short term, major changes in demands for animal proteins, including poultry meat and eggs, are expected in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where the economic situation of the individual family is rapidly improving and the newly established middle class redefines their nutritional preferences. Other continents such as Africa will follow this trend, but with a slower pace. In contrast, in developed, industrialized countries, where food security has reached a saturation level, increasing production costs, predominantly based on increasing prices for feed materials, require optimal production methods, taking into account the consumers demands regarding animal welfare, food quality, and safety. In these developed countries a specialist home-market providing traditional foods and the increasing demand for branded food products from organic production or animal-welfare certified farms is noted. 

Figure 1: Poultry meat represents 50 % of the projected increase in meat consumption in the next 10 years

Competition for key-resources: The production of animal proteins for human consumption depends on the availability of safe feeds for a reasonable price. The most significant changes in feed availability were driven by two entirely different events: the BSE crisis and the political decision to drastically increase the biodiesel and biofuel production. Using crops for energy production reduced their availability for the food and feed market, and this competition for key resources resulted in a global increase in the price index and (at least temporarily) increased the economic gaps between continents and between strong and weak economies. The BSE crisis on the other hand resulted in significant changes in the composition of animal diets. New concepts in animal nutrition had to be developed to compensate for the non-use of animal proteins that are essential nutrients for major classes of farm animal, such as pigs and poultry, particularly in the first phase of life.

Changes in the agri-food chain structure: The increasing need for food has turned familybased subsidiary farming using local natural resources into a strategic economic model of agribusiness. In animal production, the most visible change is the increasing number of large production units that operate independent from local markets and use the opportunities of a virtual unlimited trade in feed materials and food. A consequence of these commercial activities is a very complex agri-food network. The increase of the global food market even seems to exceed the increase in market size. Modelling this market identified that until 2010 the leading 7 countries governed nearly 80% of the total agri-food market. According to the prognoses for 2022 of the FAO, 15 countries worldwide will qualify as main food exporting countries with a global supply network. The innate risk of such a globalisation is the volatility of prices for raw materials, and the potential rapid spread of infectious or toxic agents between continents (Ercsey-Ravasz et al., 2012). Subsequently, such a global market requires not only economic standards, but also common and transparent standards for sustainable production methods, quality and food safety. 

With the onset of domestication, humans took the responsibility for their livestock. Aggregation of farm animals into large production units shaped the development of an animal feed industry, which has become one of the largest and often underestimated partners in the global agri-food business. Animal farming becomes increasingly independent from local resources and commercial feed manufacturing uses raw material from a global market. At the same time, the increasing diversity of feed materials encounters the risk of introducing undesirable substances into the food chain (Fink-Gremmels, 2012). Chemical contaminants in the primary product or those acquired during storage and processing may pose a risk for animal health and impair the safety of animal-derived foods. 

Figure 2: Assessment of feed contamination includes risk avoidance strategies: As pre-harvest contamination is often unavoidable, risk management strategies focus needs to focus on controls of established maximum tolerance levels. Post-harvest contamination is largely avoidable and risk prevention strategies needs to be implemented.

Feed safety is defined as the absence of undesirable substances and contaminants in animal feeds. In the past, predominantly substances have been monitored that may be deposed in edible products of animals, with the risk that such residues reach the consumer and be of public health concern. Subsequently, previous risk assessment approaches focused on qualitative risk identification rather than quantitative risk characterization. Feed safety assessment has to include adverse effects of a contamination to animal health and productivity. In contrast to the previous clinical reports on feed intoxications, research over the last decades illustrated that many feed materials containing natural or anthropogenic substances impair the productivity and disease resistance of an animal without resulting in obvious clinical signs of disease or intoxication. Examples for such substances are particularly the natural toxins, which adversely affect feed utilization and cause subtle but important changes in the intestinal structure. Subsequently, nutrient transport is hampered and the immune competence of an animal affected, resulting in an overall suboptimal feed utilization and animal health status. The rapidly developing skills in bio-medical research allow to identify such subtle changes and evaluate the efficacy of intervention strategy. 

Figure 3: Applying the basic concept of risk assessment to animal feeds and risk management concepts

The safety of animal-derived products is determined to a large extent by the safety of animal feeds. Environmental factors including soil contamination, alterations in agricultural practice, the quality and correct use of production aids such as fertilizers and crop protection agents, harvest techniques and post-harvest storage influence the delicate balance between economically viable feed production, nutritional needs and feed safety. Materials that can be used for animal feeding and feed production have been filed by the FAO in cooperation with the Feed Industry Federation together with a manual for Good Practices for the feed industry (FAO/IFIF 2010). The ultimate goal was to synergize good practices at all steps of the production chain, to develop common definitions for feed production steps and feed materials, and to identify global health hazards associated with animal feed. Hazard identification was driven by past feed safety issues, such as BSE, feed contamination with dioxins, dioxin-like PCBs and other poly-halogenated compounds as well as toxic metals that might accumulate in the food chain. Several of these chemical hazards show a regional distribution or are recently emerging in certain regions (radioactive fall-out). They have achieved considerable public attention, while other contaminants, such as the natural toxins (mycotoxins others than aflatoxin and certain phytotoxins) remained underrepresented in routine feed controls. 

Figure 4: An estimate of the food contamination needs to analyze not only the contamination of raw feed materials, but also assess the impact on feed technology and processing, animal exposure (feed consumption per animal species) and the animal’s physiology that determines the transfer rate, residue disposition and excretion into eggs

Safe feed is a pre-requisite for safe food. It is a core element of the food production chain. In turn, food safety strategies should be based on an analysis of the food chain and should include data from environmental monitoring (to identify regional pollutions), feed sourcing, feed technology, and animal physiology. In many cases, the animal acts as a filter and detoxifies and excretes potentially hazardous substances. On the other hand, animals can also accumulate and store undesirable substances in animal tissues such as fat or organs such as the kidney. In particularly in animals with a longer life-span (dairy cows, horses) this can result in undesirable high tissue residues making them unfit for human consumption. The assessment of all steps within a food chain is a complex procedure and requires a multi-disciplinary cooperation of experts from different fields. In Europe, the General Food Law has made this approach mandatory, clearly stating in article 5 that “in order to ensure the safety of food, it is necessary to consider all aspects of the food production chain as a continuum from and including primary production and the production of animal feed up to and including sale or supply of food to the consumer because each element may have a potential impact on food safety.” (Council Regulation No. EC 178/2002). 

The increasing demands for food, in particular animal-derived proteins, together with the decreasing feed resources and the impact of high stocking rates on the local and even global environment, clearly indicate the need to improve animal productivity. To achieve this goal, professional animal farming is essential, and technology transfer a prerequisite. Optimal animal productivity can be achieved by genetic selection for traits inherent to the desired product, such as meat or egg production (or meat versus milk production in cattle). Research for the animal’s nutritional demands, designer diets and the use of special feed additives that support high production rates, have been offered as early solutions. The sole focus on animal productivity has revealed, however, also the limitations of rapid problem-solving technology transfers. Prominent examples are the non-suitability of modern animal breads used in developed countries for an extensive, and less standardized animal husbandry, the impact of climate changes on animal productivity (heat stress) and the vulnerability of alien breeds to local infectious disease. Moreover, certain production aids such as the large-scale use of antimicrobial growth promoters have become unacceptable as their abundant use may contribute to the global emergence of antimicrobial resistance. Animal welfare concerns in animal operations that are entirely economically orientated and the production of surplus animals, as for example male chickens from layer breeds (which are destructed within the first days of life), require a continuing re-assessment of current concepts and the consideration of approaches. This remains a major challenge for the entire agri-food sector and requires research and innovation. The high potential of poultry to achieve a feed protein utilization rate close to one, strengthens the position of poultry meat in the global meat market.

Diet composition not only determines animal production but also health and disease resistance. Recent investigations clearly emphasize the role of diet composition in the first phase of life, determining the primary colonization of the intestines with microbiota, which in turn interact with the animal’s immune system, determining resistance to stress situations and infectious agents at later stages of life. Diet composition, including the targeted use of feed additives such as pre- and probiotics to improve gut health, is currently one of the most intriguing areas in animal nutrition. Particularly in poultry meat production, a further improvement of these technologies together with optimal feed processing, including the use of enzymes, seem to make it feasible to reach a feed efficiency coefficient close to 1, turning plant proteins into animal proteins for human consumption without major losses. This high efficacy is a major determinant of a sustainable poultry meat market. 

The control of foods for the absence of chemical and microbiological hazards has been a privilege of the established economies for many years and shaped the agri-food market. Being originally established for the local market, food safety standards considered traditional farming practices and consumer requests and expectations. In a global market, food safety requires a wider approach and uniform standards. Such standards should be risk-based and transparent and largely independent of economic considerations. This applies also to countries where food security remains at present a daily concern. Accelerated by apparent food scandals, such a BSE, dioxins in poultry meat, eggs and pork, drug residues and the use of illicit substances in animal production, Europe has created in the past a complex legal framework covering risk identification and food safety monitoring. In a re-assessment of the current legal requirements, the so-called revision of meat inspection mandate given from the European Commission (DG Sanco) to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the evaluation of many thousands of analytical results from the National Residue Control plans confirmed the high level of food safety in Europe. At the same time it was stated that there is a need to improve the cooperation between partners such as the feed industry and the livestock industry in integrated control programs. Such an integration (and exchange of information) of quality systems would improve the early identification of potential food hazards, while at the same time decreasing the costs for routine non-targeted analytical controls. This remains to be a challenge, as despite its complexity, the current approach could not prevent the reappearance of food safety issues and largely failed to regain consumer’s confidence in the food production chain (EU DG SANCO, 2013). 

Table 1: Aggregated results of the EU National Residue Control Plans

The EFSA mandate included not only an analysis of current food safety issues but also a riskranking request. For poultry meat (eggs were currently not addressed in the EFSA evaluation) ranking of chemical risks identified only very few compounds such as dioxins as being of high concern for consumers, due to their continuing accumulation in the food chain. Most other feed contaminants were regarded to be of low or even negligible potential concern as low transfer rates and the short production period of meat broilers are natural factors that prevent the accumulation of feed contaminants in poultry meat. Risk ranking identified also the low risk of veterinary medicinal products licensed for poultry, as a strict pre-marketing approval process for veterinary medicinal products prevent that potentially hazardous substances are used in livestock. It needs to be emphasized that the chemical risk prioritization was based on a quantitative risk assessment, including hazard characterization based on a dose-response assessment in comparison with actual exposure level (based on the food consumption data base).

In contrast, concerns were raised in a qualitative risk assessment regarding the risk of established microbiological food contaminants such as Salmonella spp and Campylobacter spp although these pathogens are recognised a risk factor in poultry meat production for many years.

Intervention strategies included among others the use of antibiotic agents. Such a solution is now under debate as concerns were also expressed regarding the potential presence of ESBL/AmpC gene-carrying bacteria on poultry carcasses and meat products, as a contribution of these transmissible resistance genes (located on plasmids) to the global increase of multidrug resistant bacteria (antibacterial resistance, AMR) in the human population cannot be entirely excluded. Antimicrobial resistance is an ancient selection mechanism, as many antibiotics occur as secondary plant and fungal metabolites in the environment. An abundant use of these compounds in animal feeds, can accelerate resistance development and the occurrence of resistant organisms not only on animal derived products, but also in the environment (via manure and farm effluxes) and the subsequent contamination of edible plants. 

Table 2: Foodborne biological hazards identified as transmissible though the handling, preparation and/or consumption of poultry meat: Risk ranking was based on prevalence on poultry carcasses and epidemiological evidence of human adverse health effects (after EFSA 2012). Waterfowl includes ducks and geese; ESBL.AmpC – extended spectrum β – lactamases

At the scientific level, risk assessment and analytical monitoring of food contaminants has been continuously improved during the last decades. The availability of large data sets from food contamination monitoring (making use of advanced analytical methods with defined performance criteria), food consumption patterns and the increasing possibility to model risk scenarios, resulted in a high proficiency in risk assessment and characterization. The apparent progress, however, has not resulted in the expected increase in consumer’s confidence in food safety. Reporting of apparent food scandals such as the recent so-called horse-meat crisis in various Member States, which presented entirely an economic insult, or the import of aflatoxin-contaminated maize as animal feed into the European market, fuel the public debate around food safety. Food safety issues may even influence the economic future of certain regions with a highly specialist crop production in peanuts, nuts or soybeans. Minor changes in acceptable contamination levels may be of great economic impact, and rejection or destruction of non-compliant materials can results in a significant economic drawback for many years. This underlines the need to establish global food and feed safety standards, taking into account also the needs of emerging economies.

In the forthcoming two decades, 80% of the growth in global meat production will be realized in developing countries, and poultry meat will account for 50% of the realized increase in global meat consumption, as mentioned above. This forecast is a mandate to support and guide this process. and a remaining challenge for (poultry) specialists, nutritionists and all scientists involved in agri-food research. 

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