PROBLEMS FACING

POULTRY INDUSTRY
A. Global Challenges
In spite of substantial qualitative and quantitative
advancements in different sectors of the poultry
industry,
the industry will continue to face numerous
challenges on a global basis.
These Challenges include;-
1. Feed cost
Feed cost and continuous efforts to get a better
understanding of available alternative feed
ingredients.
The most serious challenges for the industry.
Due to competition between human beings and
animals.
Harsh for countries dependent on important
feed ingredients they will be hard hit and they
have to look for alternate sources.
2. Disease outbreaks
Despite implementation of strict biosecurity
programs diseases also occur
the extent and types of disease outbreaks can vary in
different parts of the world.
In addition to microbial diseases, diseases of
metabolic origin including ascites and skeletal
disorders are of importance as well.
 Most effective way to control infectious diseases is to
prevent them from even entering the flock, utilizing key
measures such as improved biosecurity,
robust monitoring and surveillance,
in addition to a well-executed vaccination program to
reduce host susceptibility to infection
The impact can be significant, leading to crushing
economic cost, loss of public confidence and less-than-
optimum quality in production.
3. inclusion of antibiotics
Issues surrounding inclusion of
antibiotics in poultry feed

and also the use of alternatives to

antibiotic growth promoters.
4. Safety of poultry products

Freedom from
The extents to
Pathogens
which poultry
products are Freedom from
safe for human contaminants
consumption
5. Poultry welfare-related issues
No standardized parameters for poultry welfare
assessment
Lack of proper systems to monitor those
parameters (The five freedoms)
Banning the use of conventional cages at layer
farms.
limits the stocking density at which poultry may be
kept for meat production.
6. Nutrition-related environmental
issues
excretion of nutrients
such as nitrogen and
phosphorus in the manure.
Causes and consequences
7. Issues related to water

In terms and
quality
of both quantity.
B. Africa and underdeveloped countries
1. lack of large quantities of maize, soya,
2. Shortage in day-old chicks supply
3. Little numbers of producers or even farmers
who could move into poultry.
4. High price of feed raw materials
 5. Delayed allocation of land and lack of extension or
advisory services to support developing farms
6. Poultry production systems are a mix of family
businesses and commercial operations with varying
degrees of modern technology
(A strong and internationally linked poultry industry
is evolving by utilizing economies of scale and
technology from developed countries).
7. Constraints to poultry consumption

The consumer market in Africa is limited by poverty,

low employment levels and slow growth of fast food
chicken outlets,
People simply do not have the money for this kind of
purchase when
they can feed a family of five with one live chicken
purchased on a farm or market for less than half the
price of a takeaway meal.
The continent's largest poultry meat
producers

South Africa, which produces 1.5 million metric

tons of chicken meat per year;
Egypt with 685,000 metric tons;
Morocco with 560,000 metric tons;
Nigeria with 268,000 metric tons;
and Algeria with 254,000 metric tons.
 Even though, these countries are proceeding
well but,
When production figures are compared with the
size of the national flock, contrasting levels of
efficiency become apparent.
 8. Haphazard manner of feed formulation to the
needs of the birds.
9.Biosecurity in many areas is lacking that lead to
appearance of emerging and new emerging diseases.
10.Lack of new technologies in feed formulation like
use of enzymes, organic acids to replace antibiotics
11.Preparation in halal method.
 12. High inputs such as electricity cost that
forced some producers to quit the industry.
13. Importation of cheap tax- free poultry meat
in large amounts to the extent that local
industry will fail to compete with
 14. Bad housing and management where
poultry is exposed to a macro environment
which affects all production parameters.
15. The nutritional needs of the birds have not
looked into according to the environments
16.Presence of mycotoxins in many countries
where corn is not treated before storage.
 17. Inadequate financial services.
18. Poor rural infrastructure that hampers
access to markets.
19. Inadequate inputs including improved
breeds, fertilizers, and tools.
 20.Regional imbalance of poultry products
which creates logistic and quality issues related
to transport and production.
Moreover, unequal demand of poultry meat
and egg, have resulted in unequal growth of the
industry.
21. Climate change
Climate change driven phenomenon like heat waves is
impacting the poultry . Broiler can not sustain
temperature above 40 for prolonged period .
This lead to their death or causing several health
implications.
Mass deaths have been witnessed due to this.
22. Linkages with other industries
The effect on poultry is not limited to itself
since food of poultry has witnessed fall in prices
due to reduction in demand driven by mass
deaths.
This has negative impact on the life of farmers
especially maize as their yields do not find
market.
23. Other problems
- Preference for fresh meat over packaged meat
- No practice of contract farming
- Different Taxes between states encourages smuggling
- Strong marketing network to set the industry free from
the clutches of middlemen
- Lack of insurance against losses and provision of
subsidies, and credit
- Many producers have not had any formal training in
poultry
Poultry Industry in Sudan

Sudan recognized the potential of poultry industry in

early fifties of last century
where imported breeders was brought to Sudan by
government and private sector
Subsequently peasants recognized the potential of
including poultry production in their farms,
This was further accelerated by urban development
after country independence in 1956
 In late seventies many investors from Arab Gulf States
started commercial egg and broiler production in Sudan.
Nowadays poultry industry is booming and growing
rapidly, farmers in Sudan are shifting from open to closed
and semi-closed system.
Sudan has a very good potential to be world major player
in poultry products exports, a lot of local and
international investors are starting new poultry business
in Sudan.
 Poultry exhibitions are routinely organized in the
Sudan with participation of companies from different
countries.
Business meetings are planned at Sudan Chamber of
Commerce between Sudanese businessmen and
international exhibitors and investors.
This development in poultry sector is can be
considered as huge economic development.
How to address global challenges in
future
The increasing demand for animal products resulting
from demographic factors
technical and scientific developments,
diminishing resources, increasing consumer demands for
more food safety,
lower environmental impact,
and better animal welfare conditions
will determine the development of the poultry industry
during the next decade.
1. Welfare aspects
To create standardised parameters for poultry welfare
assessment and robust systems to monitor those parameters.
This is the aim of the Welfare Quality project developed in the
European Union, which proposes to assess animal welfare
focusing on animals,
and not on environmental or management factors, and using
objective indicators that can be easily measured in the field,
according to four principles: good feeding, good housing,
good health status and adequate behavior.
2.Traceability of poultry products
This will be essential which requires the careful
selection of input suppliers, with the focus on product
quality rather than on price.
More emphasis will be placed on critical control
points, which will be monitored just in time, and on
real-time traceability.
The loss of information or of traceability is the main
risk factor for the entrance of contaminants into the
process of animal feed production)
3.Health monitoring of the flocks
This will become increasingly important, not only to prevent
foodborne disease but also to avoid performance losses and
to ensure bird welfare.
Compliance with health programmes (cleaning and
disinfection, vaccination, pest control, disease monitoring),
immediate notification and record of abnormal situations,
health monitoring programmes and measures for infection
control and eradication must be put in place, particularly in a
scenario where the use of antimicrobial compounds is
increasingly restricted.
4.Thermal comfort inside poultry
facilities
The development of information technology allows new
techniques in the study of broiler thermal comfort, such as
the use of real-time image analysis using video cameras,
image-acquisition hardware, and image-analysing software
programmes to acquire, process and evaluate information
inside broiler houses, 80% of the heat is produced by the
birds themselves.
Proper evaluation of this heat production may allow creating
mechanisms for the utilization of this energy, which could be
translated in significant cost savings.
5. Nutrient Utilization and Feed
Formulation
Increasing cost of raw materials and the pressures to
reduce feed costs and nutrient environmental
excretion will be emphasized
- biofuel can be utilized as raw materials for animal
feeding, and will require the utilization of its
byproducts.
Hence, knowledge of the analysis of the nutritional
content and digestibility of these materials, which are
not yet standardized, should be developed
 - enzymes will be increasingly used, as they improve
ingredient digestibility and nutrient absorption as
well as reduce the detrimental effects of anti-
nutritional factors, thereby allowing higher flexibility
in the use of feedstuffs as well as reducing feed costs
and pollutant excretion in animal waste
- Higher emphasis will also be placed on anti-
nutritional factors that change energy and nutrient
availability for broilers, using particle size and diet
processing to maximize nutrient supply
 - the utilisation of new synthetic amino acids on an
industrial scale,
- the application of new feed formulation concepts to
improve dietary energy utilisation,
- the use of nutraceuticals to modulate intestinal
microbiota and the immune system as an alternative
to therapeutics, and the use of special pre-starter
diets.
 - Feedstuffs should no longer be considered as
commodities. Qualitative and nutritional criteria
should be used for their purchase and segregation in
feed mills.
- Technologies allowing the immediate analysis of
feedstuffs, such as NIRS, will be required.
- Genetic engineering will become an important tool
to improve feedstuff nutritional quality and, perhaps,
bird performance.
6. Interaction between Nutrition and
Intestinal Health
Understanding of the above leads to an increasing
need to concentrate efforts in
the modulation of the intestinal microbiota and
immune system through the use of nutraceutics
(acidifiers, prebiotics, probiotics, essential oils,
enzymes, osmoregulators, nucleotides, zinc oxide,
instead of controlling enteric diseases with
therapeutic compounds
7. Perinatal nutrition

Due to genetic improvement and a reduction in market age,

the perinatal period of broilers corresponds to 50 per cent of
their life cycle
It is proved that access to energy and nutrients immediately
after hatching accelerates intestinal development and
consequently, broiler growth
Hence, the supply of specific nutrients and the establishment
of specific management practices dedicated to this phase will
become very important,
Due to this, pre-starter diets will be extensively supplied
8. in-ovo nutrition
Another technology that is becoming more popular
is in-ovo nutrition, when nutrients are injected into
the amniotic fluid of embryos during the last stage of
incubation,
stimulating the development and maturation of the
intestinal villi before hatch.
It was observed that chicks submitted to in-
ovo feeding had higher concentrations of digestive
enzymes and higher breast muscle yield
9. Use of Available Knowledge and
Technological Innovation
The progress in IT will allow the application of growth
models and several related mathematical equations,
which will estimate animal growth according to
rearing conditions.
The objective will be optimising the rearing process
as a function of the companys or farmers needs.
Feed intake and broiler growth prediction models will
allow better definition of strategies that will favour
production efficiency
 In addition to growth models,
simulation models could also be used to evaluate risks
and
to optimize financial return using data mining
(correlations, classifications, associations, neural
networks, and clustering)
and data analysis by bioinformatics, meta-analysis,
and holo-analysis techniques
- Geographic information systems (GIS)
Used for production zoning and viewing, allowing correlation
of performance parameters with the geographical location of
poultry houses in terms of altitude, latitude and longitude.
These are important to make decisions as to which product
should be used to maximise the economic performance of
birds under different rearing conditions.
However, the efficient use of these tools depends on the
availability of detailed and accurate data,
- Integrated Management Systems IMS
This aims at providing a completely on-line and real-time
system, with no human interference, except when a problem
is detected.
This technique is operated by a visual image analysis (VIA)
system, using video cameras placed inside the poultry house,
allows the continuous collection of images.
By measuring bird area and length, bird body weight and
carcass yield may be determined with an accuracy similar to
that of conventional tables
- Nutrigenomics
A new field of knowledge nutrigenomics must be
considered.
Nutrigenomics studies the molecular relationships
between nutrition and gene response,
It aims at understanding how gene expression is
induced by nutrients or feeding regimes, with
consequent influence on performance parameters.