Explore all the information onPoultry management
Poultry management usually refers to the husbandry practices or production techniques that help to maximize the efficiency of production. Sound management practices are very essential to optimize production. Scientific poultry management aims at maximizing returns with minimum investment. A carefully controlled environment that avoids crowding, chilling, overheating, or frightening is almost universal in poultry farming. Cannibalism, which expresses itself as toe picking, feather picking, and tail picking, is controlled by debeaking at one day of age and by other management practices. The feeding, watering, egg gathering, and cleaning operations are highly mechanized. Birds are usually housed in wire cages with two or three animals per cage, depending on the species and breed, and three or four tiers of cages superposed to save space. Cages for egg-laying birds have been found to increase production, lower mortality, reduce cannibalism, lower feeding requirements, reduce diseases and parasites, improve culling, and reduce both space and labour requirements.
Mr. Vaibhav Pawar, Managing Director at Swapnil Agro & Poultry, breaks down India’s biggest needs in poultry nutrition, shares how waste can become energy through rendering and biogas, and explains why amino acid profiling is the innovation the country must adopt immediately. ...
Introduction Dorsal cranial myopathy (DCM) is characterized by muscular changes, including degenerative and multiphasic lesions that specifically affect the anterior Latissimus dorsi (ALD) muscle in chickens, a superficial, bilateral muscle located in the dorsal region of the wings, which functions as an abductor of the humerus and wings [1–4]. Macroscopically, the ALD muscle region affected by DCM shows yellow, odorless, gelatinous edema under the skin [5,6]. The muscle...
Mycotoxins are known to decrease health and performance in poultry production. Their modes of action, such as reducing protein synthesis and promoting oxidative stress and apoptosis, lead to cell destruction and lower cell replacement, affecting several organs and tissues. When different stress factors collude, such as high temperatures and humidity, poor ventilation, high stocking density, and management events, the effects of in-feed mycotoxins can reach a higher level, which may...
Jonathan Cade, Chairman of the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, explains how IPPE generates the resources that fund essential research, education programs, and industry support across broilers, layers, and turkeys. He highlights the organization’s role in advancing animal health, productivity, and training the next generation of professionals who will shape the future of the poultry sector. ...
In this Engormix interview, Nath Morris, President of U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, shares his expectations for IPPE 2026. ...
Jonathan Cade, President of Hy-Line International, shares how the company has developed a new egg layer variety tailored to India’s climate, market needs, and production systems. He also speaks about Hy-Line’s commitment to support India’s rapidly evolving layer industry with genetics built for long-term success.
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Mr. O. P. Singh, Managing Director at ABTL, presents Hello Protein as a national mission to close India’s protein gap by promoting chicken and eggs as affordable, high-quality nutrition. ...
In the rearing aviary, day-old chicks must have easy access to feed and water. The environment should offer an optimal temperature, appropriate lighting, and good ventilation. These conditions ensure that the chicks grow well, and their fluff transforms into well-developed feathers. As the chicks...
I. INTRODUCTION Alternative rearing systems are becoming increasingly important mainly because of growing public concerns about intensive systems. Regulations have been established in some countries to restrict or ban the use of conventional systems. The European Union banned the use of conventional battery cage systems in 2012 and alternatively, new enriched colony cages, free range production systems or barn systems have been introduced as substitutes (Leinonen et al., 2014). As a...
Hens using the outdoor range display better plumage condition suggesting lower incidence of injurious feather pecking (Chielo et al. 2016; Rodriguez-Aurrekoetxea and Estevez 2016). However, ensuring that the majority of the flock utilizes the range has been difficult. Therefore strategies such as range enrichment are required to induce more birds to use the range and encourage natural behaviour. An uncontrolled observational study was conducted in South Australia on two commercial...
The environment in which a laying hen is reared can have long-term impacts on their behaviour, health and welfare later in life (Janczak and Riber, 2015). Alternative housing systems for layers provide access to larger areas and allow greater expression of behavioural repertoires, leading to positive acceptance by consumers. But the complexities of alternative systems can also place greater physical and behavioural demands on the birds, leading to increases in skeletal injuries or inter-bird...
The composition of gastrointestinal microbiota has been demonstrated to affect behaviour and vice versa (Neufeld et al., 2011; Berthoud, 2008). In free-range laying hens, the individual preference to range can lead to characteristic sub-populations of the flock (Hinch & Lee, 2011). The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of ranging behaviour on caecal microbiota in laying hens. A flock of sixty ISA Brown laying hens was housed in the UNE research facilities with...
I. INTRODUCTION It has been shown that FP occurs in all housing systems, from conventional cages, to barn and free range systems (Green et al., 2000). However, there is a lack of data available on the true prevalence of FP in commercial free-range layer farms in Australia. In a survey in the UK, 65% of flocks showed FP during lay as reported by free-range farmers but, when the same flocks were assessed by researchers, prevalence reached 89% and 69% at 25 weeks, and 73% and 86% at 40...
I. INTRODUCTION Australia is highly urbanized, with 80% of people living in the major cities (Australian Government Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development, 2015) and, although Australians believe that farmers do a good job of looking after their animals (Cockfield & Botterill, 2012), there are low levels of agricultural knowledge among the general public (Worsley et al., 2015). Egg production has become increasingly prominent in public discussions of farm animal...
The UGA International Poultry Short Course provides a comprehensive overview of modern poultry production.
It is intended for those individuals with limited knowledge of poultry, as well as those who might have considerable experience in one area of poultry production but would like to have a better...
by Benjamin Geist
With just over 120 days until APSS 2026, planning for the 37th annual Australian Poultry Science Symposium is progressing smoothly. Next year’s event will return to the University of Sydney Business School – Belinda Hutchinson Building (H70) on the Camperdown Campus, and we’re excited to once again welcome delegates for 2.5 days of presentations, posters, networking, and industry engagement.
The theme for APSS 2026...
Footpad dermatitis (FPD) is considered an animal welfare issue. Wet and sticky litter are major causes of FPD (Taira et al., 2014). Our previous study showed that a well selected probiotic strain Bacillus subtilis 29784 can improve broiler performance by modulating intestinal microbiota and intestinal inflammatory status (Ghane et al., 2017; Jacquier et al., 2016). We hypothesize that the previous demonstrated benefits of B. subtilis 29784 on gut health will improve litter quality and may...
There is an increasing trend of raising backyard poultry in urban and suburban settings across Australia, with Australian Egg Corporation Ltd. reporting backyard chicken coops accounting for almost 12 per cent of the nation's total egg production and 393 million eggs produced in metropolitan and regional gardens. However, there is no national or state legislation/policy in place currently for backyard poultry keeping and the issue is managed by local governments at a council level who...
In commercial egg production, production traits such as bodyweight (BW), feed intake and efficiency, and egg quality are targets that are critical to profitability. Assessment of average BW and uniformity are relatively straightforward measurements. Furthermore, it is well known that achieving target BW for the breed standard and minimising BW variation are key to producing greater egg mass and egg quality. It is more difficult to get an understanding of the variation in feed intake, egg...
Jose J. Bruzual (Senior Poultry Veterinarian, Aviagen) comments on the benefits of this grading method and its relevance to the poultry industry in this Engormix interview. ...