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Essay on the Poultry Industry
Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Introduction to Poultry Industry
- Essay on the Characteristics of Poultry
- Essay on the Development of Poultry Industry
- Essay on the Genetics of Poultry
- Essay on the Nutrition Required for Poultry
- Essay on the Causes of Low Production in Poultry Industry
- Essay on the Diseases of Poultry
- Essay on the Management of Poultry
- Essay on the Future Prospects of Poultry Industry
Essay # 1. Introduction to Poultry Industry:
Poultry raising was the first animal industry to come fully under the influence of science. In the United Kingdom and the USA, poultry-keeping has become so efficient that in both countries it has grown to be the second most important animal industry.
The changes which have taken place in the poultry industry come from ideas which have affected other animal industries. These modern ideas have reached Australia where the poultry industry has expanded very rapidly. Thus, whereas the average Australian ate one kilogram of poultry meat per year in 1958, the average person’s consumption of poultry meat is now about 20 kilograms per year. Rapid growth is one problem of this industry which now suffers from over-production, especially in eggs.
As the industry has grown, it has become very specialised, and now includes egg-producers, table bird or broiler growers, breeders, hatcheries, multipliers, poultry feed firms and marketing firms.
Essay # 2. Characteristics of Poultry
Industry:
Poultry have special characteristics which must be understood if we are to manage them properly. Most birds eat large amounts of food, have high body temperatures and grow rapidly. Birds can make very efficient use of food, and when managed carefully, young meat birds may turn as much as one half of their food into meat.
Poultry are easily affected by extremes of climate, and suffer from excessive heat or cold. When the temperature falls below 16°C, birds begin to feel cold. As a result, they eat more food to keep their bodies warm. Thus they become less efficient in turning food into meat or eggs. When the temperature rises above 26°C, birds begin to be affected by the heat. They drink more water, eat less food, grow more slowly, lay eggs with thin shells, and become less efficient.
If we know these things, we can manage our birds better and protect them from extremes of temperature.
Birds can also suffer anxiety (or psychic stress) when they are crowded together too closely. When pecked by others birds, they become upset and their production suffers. Rough handling can also prevent birds from producing well.
Poultry production will only be profitable when great care is taken to see that each factor of production is ideal, and the best methods used.
These methods include:
1. Using improved methods of breeding, or buying only from efficient breeders.
2. Understanding and using improved methods of feeding.
3. Understanding the effects of climate and protecting birds from extremes of climate.
4. Understanding diseases, and using good methods of disease control.
5. Using better management procedures, especially:
(a) Reducing labour costs by better planning of farm layout.
(b) Building more suitable houses for birds.
(c) Keeping a high percentage of young birds.
(d) Increasing winter egg production.
Essay # 3. Development of Poultry Industry:
Both eggs and poultry meat are rich in protein. Considering the high value of poultry products and the relatively small capital requirement involved, the poultry industry is recognised as an important enterprise for small farmers in rural areas. About 80% of the duck eggs and 70% of hen eggs are sold annually.
The poultry population in India is growing at a fast rate. The poultry population was 73.5 million in 1951. Poultry population increased to 114 million in 1961 and to 137 million in 1971. The Eighteenth Livestock census (2007) has placed total of poultry birds at 649 million in 2007.
Poultry is becoming vital component of the agricultural economy as it provides additional income and job opportunities to the weaker sections of the society. Intensive efforts are being made to increase the production of eggs and poultry meat. Egg production in the country has increased many fold since the fifties from 1.83 billion in 1950-51 to about 63.0 billion in 2010-11.
The table below shows the production of eggs in India:
The largest number of poultry population is found in West Bengal followed by Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Assam, M.P., U.P, and Punjab. Domestic fowl in India is usually divided into two broad groups, the desi and exotic or improved. Desi breeds encompass all indigenous fowls which are not of any pure breed, such as the Punjab Brown, Naked Neck, Chagas, Brora, Karaknath, Tellichery, Kalashasti, etc.
The improved breeds are those which were imported and which have now been acclaimed in India, such as White Leghorn, Rhode Island Red, Black Minorca, Plymouth Rock, New Hampshire, Little Sussex, etc. The total number of pure breeds of improved varieties is only about 5% of the total poultry population in the country.
The average production per hen was 60 in 1956; and now it is about 75. The national production of eggs was 25.29 m. in 1961; 41.03 in 1966, 70.00 m. in 1974 and 10,000 m. in 1977. The 1977 production implied only 12 eggs per capita per year, as against the requirement of 180 eggs, on nutritional standard, per annum per capita. This is in sharp contrast with per capita consumption of 295 eggs in U.S.A. 250 in West Germany and 285 in Canada.
Essay # 4. Genetics of Poultry:
There are many pure breeds of birds, some of them egg-laying types and others meat birds. But none of these breeds are as efficient as the special strains or hybrids which are now produced by the few big breeding firms. It is interesting to learn something about the methods used by the breeding firms in producing special meat hybrids or egg-laying hybrids.
The older dual-purpose breeds like the Australorps and Rhode Island Reds are not important now in the poultry industry and are only used as back-yard fowls or on properties. The White Leghorn is a most important breed. Not only is it used as a pure breed in egg production, but it is also used in breeding almost all egg and meat hybrids. The reason for this is that it is the only breed which has dominant genes for white colour.
Since most modern hybrids are white, they must have some White Leghorn blood in their breeding. The White Leghorn is a small bird of the egg-laying type. It is noted for its quick feathering and rapid maturity. Both sexes have yellow legs and beaks when young, the colour disappearing from the hens as they lay. Both sexes have large combs, those on the cockerels growing earlier than the pullets.
Many of the new ideas in breeding for higher egg production have come from a study of the reproduction of birds. Hens lay their eggs in groups called clutches. If a hen has a clutch length of three eggs, she will lay an egg on each of three successive days. Then she will miss a day before beginning to lay her next clutch. Since it is desirable to breed hens with long clutch lengths, it is important to know what governs the length of the clutch.
In the hen, only the reproductive organs of the left side develop properly. When these organs are removed from a hen and stretched out in a line, the parts can be seen more clearly. When it is fully developed, the ovum or “yolk” is set free from the ovary and moves towards the funnel-shaped end of the oviduct.
This shedding of the egg is called ovulation, and the shedding of the first egg in each clutch is brought about by the light of dawn. The egg moves down the various parts of the oviduct receiving first the sperms and the chalazae or cords, then the albumen or egg white, then the egg membranes. Finally it spends about 20 hours or more in the shell gland where it receives the shell. Then the egg is laid.
The whole process of egg formation in the average hen takes about 26 hours. This means that if a hen ovulates an egg at 5 a.m., this egg will be laid at 7 a.m. the next morning. The next egg will be ovulated soon afterwards, say at 8 a.m., and will be laid at 10 a.m. the next day, and so on. We see that the hen is getting later and later in her laying each day, but she soon stops and has a rest or pause, because she will not lay after 3 p.m. After a pause, she will begin laying the next clutch or group of eggs.
Very good layers are those hens which lay an egg a day for a long time. They manage to do this by making the shells in 18 hours, and by ovulating an egg very soon after the previous one is laid. Thus the whole process of egg formation may take only a little over 24 hours. If we can find hens of this type and breed from them, we will soon have a flock of superior hens. The average Australian hen lays about 230 eggs a year, but many strains of English and American birds will lay 260 or more eggs in a year.
Breeding for egg production is done by measuring the production of hens and their daughters, and breeding only from those families where the production of the daughters is high. If only one male is used for each group of females, we are measuring the egg production of half-sisters, and most egg breeding is of the “family system” type.
Breeding superior strains of meat birds is made difficult because if we select birds on their ability to grow fast, the hens lay fewer and fewer eggs. This means that there may be too few eggs to multiply the breed sufficiently. To overcome this trouble, the breeding of hybrid meat birds, or broilers, is split into two parts. In the male line of birds, we choose only the fast-growing hens and cockerels and breed from them.
Then we develop a female line, but in this case we choose birds partly for their rapid growth and partly for their egg production. This female line will then give us enough eggs to be able to multiply the stock. Finally males of the male line are crossed with females of the female line, producing the hybrid broiler chicken.
Nothing has improved poultry breeding more than the random sample tests carried out by the Department of Agriculture. Samples of eggs are taken at random from those breeders who want to have their stock tested in this way. The eggs are hatched and the chickens reared under the same conditions.
The production of birds from each breeder firm is measured, and the results are published for farmers to read. Previously too much notice was taken of fancy breed points and advertising, but the random sample tests are concerned only with production. The farmer who buys his stock as day-old chicks can now tell which breeders have really superior strains of birds.
Essay # 5. Nutrition Required for Poultry:
Since the cost of feed amounts to at least 65 or 70 per cent of the total cost of production, every care must be taken to see that waste is avoided and that only the most suitable foods are used. Wet mashes are now rarely used, and poultry rations are usually fed dry as either pellets, crumbles or as mash. The system of feeding is not nearly as important as the nutrients contained in the food.
The bird’s chief need is for energy, and this may be supplied by carbohydrates like starch, or by fats. Birds eat for energy because their nervous system tells them how much energy they need, and how much they are receiving in the diet.
Energy foods for birds are two kinds. High energy foods, like wheat meal, barley and crushed maize are low in fibre. Low energy foods, like bran, lucerne meal and oats are high in fibre percentage. Birds will eat less of the high energy food because these are easily digested, and the birds can soon satisfy their energy needs; but if we feed them on low energy foods, they will eat much more of this ration.
In deciding whether to feed a high or a low energy ration, cost per energy unit is the important factor, so long as the fibre percentage is not too high. Including some fat in the ration will raise the energy value of the food because fats are very concentrated sources of energy.
Young chickens need 20 per cent of protein in their diets, and layers 16 or 17 per cent or a daily intake of about 18 grams of protein. The high protein needs of poultry are due partly to the high rate of growth of body tissues. They are also due to the large amounts of protein which the hen puts into eggs, for the protein percentage of egg yolk is 16 per cent and of egg white 12 per cent.
The protein fed to breeding stock should include some protein of animal origin, such as meat meal or fish meal. Plant foods rich in proteins, such as peanut meal or lucerne meal, can supply most of the protein needs of birds, and are less expensive than buying large amounts of meat meals.
We must be careful to increase the protein percentage of a ration if we change over from a low energy to an easily-digestible high energy ration. This is because birds will eat less of the new ration, and so may not receive enough protein.
All birds need a plentiful supply of clean water. This is especially important for laying hens, since about 70 per cent of the weight of fresh eggs is made up of water.
Laying hens need large amounts of calcium carbonate for making egg shells. This is usually supplied in the form of ground limestone or shell grit. A small quantity of common salt is usually added to rations, and a compound of manganese may also be added for egg shell quality.
The supply of vitamins in poultry feed becomes very important if the birds are housed away from sunlight, or if they do not have access to green feed. An animal can make vitamin A from the yellow carotene pigment contained in green leaves. Mature birds not in lay can store enough vitamin A in their livers to last a month or two, but laying birds soon use up their liver reserves. Also young birds can only store enough of this vitamin to last a few weeks. If this vitamin has to be supplied, a modern synthetic vitamin A is added to the feed.
Vitamin D is contained in fish oils, but is also formed under the skin by sunlight. Long cloudy winters sometimes cause a shortage of this vitamin. If vitamin D is deficient in the feed of young birds, the disease known as rickets may develop.
Of the B vitamins, one known as Riboflavin is especially important to poultry. Lack of it causes stunted growth, low hatchability and curled-toe disease. The vitamin is supplied by mixing 1.8 grams of the synthetic vitamin with every tonne of mash mixture, or by feeding whey, buttermilk, skim milk, powders, or lucerne meal.
It has been found that antibiotics included in the feed of young birds to ten weeks of age result in better general health, and a more efficient use of food eaten. About ten grams of antibiotics are usually added to each tonne of feed mixture.
It has been found that if pullets are fed only 70 to 80 per cent of their normal diet from eight to 22 weeks of age, their laying begins a fortnight later than usual. The birds are lighter than fully-fed pullets, but later catch up in their growth.
This is called restricted feeding, and has these advantages:
1. Pullets cost less to rear.
2. Birds lay fewer undersized eggs.
3. Their total egg production is not affected at all—in fact it is usually increased.
4. Birds are less likely to develop diseases such as Marek’s disease.
On the other hand, birds fed on a restricted diet may be more seriously affected by a disease they catch or by sudden changes in the weather. Therefore, this idea should only be used if the general management of the birds is of a high standard.
Essay # 6. Causes of Low Production in Poultry Industry:
Systematic rearing of birds for marketing was not common in the earlier days, and even now the poultry industry in the country is a disorganized enterprise.
It suffers from various drawbacks and problems, such as:
(i) The birds are raised mostly in villages where they are maintained in small units without any care being taken about their feeding, housing, breeding, disease, etc.
(ii) Frequent outbreak of diseases causes loss to the poultry owner and this leads not only to the degeneration of stock but also slow rate of growth, and low production.
(iii) Poultry keeping is largely in the hands of the poor peasants and’ agricultural labourers who keep small flocks of 5 to 10 birds of desi type but who lack scientific knowledge of poultry farming.
(iv) There is insufficient attention to management and marketing of the birds. Generally, little is spent on them, the birds usually feed on kitchen waste and other stray leftover grains in the court-yard. Poultry products are sold to hawkers or local merchants at uneconomic rate.
(v) A large proportion of eggs produced during summer are lost on account of lack of proper storage facilities in the village.
(vi) About 80% of the people are vegetarians and the poultry products are therefore, not consumed on religious grounds.
(vii) One important limitation to egg production is the purchasing power of the people.
(viii) Another constraint is the high prices of ingredients of poultry feed, maize, rice bran and groundnut cake.
Poultry industry has a quick turn-over. Broiler chick is ready for the table in 8 to 10 weeks of its life, and an egg laying chick starts producing egg in about 20 to 24 weeks. Recent researches have proved the rate of birds, conversion of feed into meat and the rate of egg laying capacity through optimal breeding and management procedures has increased.
To make available good quality stock needed for high production and feed conversion efficiency, the poultry breeding programme taken-up at the Central and State poultry farms have been intensified through the provision of additional facilities. As a result of the breeding programme, the present average productivity of birds at some of the breeding farms is around 260 eggs per annum.
To increase the capacity for multiplication of high quality stock, a project for the establishment of 5 hatcheries, each with an incubation capacity of 50,000 eggs has been taken up. Under this project 5 Regional Poultry Breeding Farms are run by the Union Government at Bangalore, Bombay, Bhopal, Delhi and Kamlah (Simla Hills), and 24 such farms run by the State Governments. In private sector large number of commercial farms with strength ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 layers have been doing useful work in various parts of the country.
All these farms aim at production and propagation of acclimatized birds and training of officers and farmers. Through the assistance of TBM, a wide range of equipment and consignment, of 30,000 chicks of white Leghorn and Rhode Island Red breeds were imported to provide necessary encouragement to the projects. Besides 300 poultry Extension-cum-Demonstration Centres were established to introduce modern poultry farming in rural areas.
During the Third Plan, 77 Intensive Projects closely linked with hatcheries, food mixing units, marketing centres and extension organisations were established and the required inputs and service, for setting up the commercial poultry farms around the cities and industrial townships, were provided. 2 processing units, 68 feed mills and 18 marketing centres were also set up.
During the Fourth Plan, emphasis was laid on the production of better breeding stock, dissemination of scientific farming practices and strengthening of the existing marketing structure. An In-service Training Institute in poultry was set up in Bangalore for providing training in breeding, nutrition, management and training. Facilities for broiler production were expanded.
Two poultry dressing plants were started at Poona and Chandigarh, with a daily capacity of 800 and 400 birds respectively. A large number of small sized processing plants are working in the states. Egg collection and marketing centres have been set up at Calcutta, Delhi, Bombay and Madras in the cooperative sector with facilities for cold storage and also eggs powder plant at Bombay.
The Fifth Plan visualizes a growth rate of about 10 per cent per annum to achieve the target of 17 million eggs in 1979, from 7,700 m. in 1974. For this, the population of improved hens will increase to 60 m. with 30 m. growing stock by 1979. Poultry producer’s cooperative societies will be established to provide marketing facilities for eggs.
Essay # 7. Diseases of Poultry:
Diseases cause great losses in the poultry industry, losses occurring at each stage of the life cycle. One difficulty which faces Australian producers is that until recently they have not had up-to-date information about some diseases.
The worst poultry disease is Marek’s disease, for it causes about one half of the deaths of adult birds. There are many forms of this disease, one common form causing cancer-like growths in organs like the ovary, liver, spleen and kidneys. This disease is caused by a virus, which is picked up by the bird in the first few days of life. Resistance to Marek’s disease can be bred into poultry. There is also an effective vaccine which must be injected on the first day of life and all the big hatcheries now do this.
Chronic Respiratory Disease (or CRD) is caused by very small bacteria. Birds affected by this disease show cold symptoms such as nasal discharges, and gasping or gurgling noises when breathing. The disease is not a great killer of birds, but is most important because it causes them to be very inefficient producers. Because the bacteria can be spread so easily, the only way to be rid of the disease is to remove all birds from a shed, disinfect it thoroughly, and replace the birds with healthy stock.
Infectious bronchitis or uraemia is a disease which is serious in some flocks of young broilers. Affected birds first show cold symptoms for a short while. Later they sicken and die. A post-mortem shows that the swollen kidneys are pale in colour, and contain many crystals of uric acid. Good vaccines are now available to protect birds from this disease.
Pullorum is a serious disease of chickens and is caused by bacteria which pass from an infected hen into the egg. Infected chickens huddle together and show white diarrhoea, and the infected droppings spread the disease to others. The best way to fight this disease is to prevent it coming onto a property by buying day-old chicks only from hatcheries which test their breeding stock for pullorum. If second-hand equipment is bought, it should be sterilised before being used on the farm.
Coccidiosis is another serious disease of chickens. It is caused by a protozoan parasite which enters the bird during feeding. The parasite multiplies in the intestine, and attacks the intestines and the caecae. Some parasites pass out in the droppings and infect other chicks. This disease can be controlled by including in the feed drugs called coccidiostats. The cost of preventing this disease is a constant expense to farmers.
Infectious laryngo-tracheitis, or ILT, is another disease which causes losses in production. It is a disease similar in some ways to CRD, and affects the breathing passages of birds. There is an effective vaccine for this disease.
Essay # 8. Management of Poultry:
There are many aspects of management, and only some of the more important can be mentioned.
Money is wasted on many poultry farms because labour costs are too high. If farm buildings are badly-placed, there is too much walking about needed. Well-planned farms have the sheds arranged in such a way that the daily jobs of feeding, cleaning, watering, egg collecting and so on can be done with the least effort and time. On the other hand, we should not have all buildings too close together.
A good rule is to locate the feed store and the cull house first, because these should be close to the entrance road. Vehicles coming onto the farm should be able to go to these sheds without going near other sheds. Then it is important to leave a good space between buildings like the brooder house and the rearing sheds, which house young stock, and those housing older birds. It is possible to do all this and still have a compact plan.
Fowls which are properly housed require less food for body warmth, suffer less from diseases, and have higher production. Ideas about housing are now changing rapidly.
In the United Kingdom, in New Zealand, and in the colder parts of the USA, birds are often kept in totally-enclosed houses. In these windowless houses, the temperature is kept fairly constant around 21°C, the humidity is controlled by ventilation, and artificial lighting is provided. In most parts of Australia the summer heat is the main climatic problem, and here open houses if insulated are probably quite satisfactory.
There are really only two important systems of housing popular in Australia now. Laying birds are kept in wire cages in large sheds and over 90 per cent of layers are now kept in this way.
The advantages of having birds in cages are as follows:
1. Birds do not use up energy needlessly in walking about;
2. The spread of some diseases can be more easily controlled;
3. The system is easily managed;
4. Birds do not suffer from pecking, feather-picking, etc.
5. Sick birds and low-producers are easily identified and culled.
On the other hand cage systems require more labour to service, and birds must be given full vitamin supplements. In addition, since birds cannot move about much, they may feel the cold more easily.
Another system of housing is one in which birds are kept on deep litter in large houses. This is the system most commonly used for breeding birds and for producing meat birds. The stocking rates in these houses are more important than the dimensions of the houses.
For layers, every bird should have 0.37 square metres of floor space, and 15 cm of feeding space. In addition there should be a total of 1.2 metres of watering space for every 100 birds.
In the case of broilers or meat birds, the stocking density depends largely on the temperature, but an average figure is one bird to every 0.09 square metres, or eleven birds per square metre.
Since disease can seriously reduce profits, general hygiene in poultry production is especially important. Hygiene is more important now since poultry houses tend to be larger, and diseases can spread more easily. No bird older than one day should be admitted onto the farm. If a bird leaves the farm for a show, laying tests, or for any other reason, it should never return.
All visitors should be excluded from houses and yards, for they may bring in disease on their shoes or their clothing. Those who handle young chickens on the farm should not handle older birds. Rearing ranges should be located on the highest land, and if possible, should be used only once every three years. Cages should be hosed down and left for two weeks before use. Large houses are satisfactory provided that they have sections which can be shut off and disinfected when necessary.
The chief fact to be known about brooding is that young chickens cannot regulate their body temperature very well. Therefore they can be easily chilled. The older hot-water type brooders are not very efficient because of the uneven heat they produce along a line of hovers. Modern electric brooders are now popular, and these hold their heat well for short periods of electricity failure. Gas brooders are also popular.
Essay # 9. Future Prospects of Poultry Industry:
Poultry production offers great scope and has a large potentiality for quickly increasing the supply of protein in the dietary of the people.
Therefore, a suitable programme of improved poultry production in rural areas would not only improve the economic conditions of small and marginal farmers and agricultural labourers, but also augment the production of eggs and poultry meat which is in large demand in urban areas.
Poultry farming has certain special features which favour its large scale adoption by small and marginal farmers and agricultural labourers. Land required for poultry farming is very little; the capital investment is not very large and poultry farming can be started on a small scale and expanded gradually. It can be raised under all agro-climatic conditions in the country. It has greater flexibility and can be adjusted as per market situation. Brooding equipments are also easily available within the country.
With rapid improvements made in private and government farms, quality stock of different ages (such as day-old chicks, grower-pullets and ready to lay birds) are easily available in large numbers. Poultry can make use of coarse grains and agricultural by-products (such as rice polish, bran) as feed. Capital invested starts paying back within a short interval. The enterprise ensures a steady income throughout the year.
Deep litter system of poultry raising would make available valuable manure. When the production of coarse food grains is increased, as a result of intensive agricultural practices, poultry farming offers an outlet for their profitable utilisation.
The steps to encourage expansion of poultry farming may be towards the exploitation of rural potentialities, as a backyard project for urban areas and as a commercial business.
Once poultry industry develops, increasing attention will have to be given to:
(a) Disease control measures;
(b) Poultry marketing;
(c) Larger hatching capacity;
(d) Educational programmes to encourage poultry man to purchase day-old chicks;
(e) Confinement, rearing and feeding of balanced rations,
(f) Research for nutrition and other poultry problems; and
(g) Development of a poultry feed manufacturing industry.