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Fifty-three percent of consumers frequently wonder if the food they buy is safe, according to research conducted for the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance.
Food safety has become a top priority among poultry producers today because of its direct and significant effect on brand reputation. The effects of a food recall are always costly and can severely harm a brand's reputation if consumers lose trust.
For over two decades, the meat and poultry industries have been following the guidelines of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, or HACCP, a management system for food safety put in place to address potential biological, chemical and physical contamination. This allows producers to identify possible hazards in order to take the necessary actions to reduce or eliminate the risk.
There is no silver bullet strategy that has the capability to address every potential threat along the production chain, so producers and plants use a variety of strategies at their critical control points.
Three steps to improve food safety
As stated on the National Chicken Council website, some ways that producers can improve their food safety include:
In addition to food safety systems, producers also need to make sure that their consumers understand proper food handling practices. Consumers should be made aware of the proper way to clean, prepare, cook and chill raw agricultural products in order to further reduce the risk of food-borne illnesses.
West Liberty Foods, a leading supplier of sliced meats in the U.S., understands that the concepts of food safety and consumer trust are crucial to success. The company’s chairman, Paul Hill, explained its strategy in a recent Alltech feature story. Learn more about how a brand like West Liberty Foods approaches food safety by clicking on the link below.
http://stories.alltech.com/west-liberty-foods-our-brand-is-food-safety.html
Food safety is critical to brand reputation and, subsequently, the company's bottom line. It begins but does not end at the farm gate.
Blackhead disease, also known as histomoniasis, took the spotlight in 2016 when the approval of Histostat was removed by the FDA. Histostat was very effective at controlling the disease in chickens and turkeys, and after its removal, the industry has experienced a significant increase in cases of blackhead disease.
What is blackhead disease (histomoniasis)?
How does histomoniasis get in the broiler or turkey house? How can it be controlled moving forward? These are some of the questions that Dr. Dennis Wages, professor of poultry health management at the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University, explored in the webinar “Blackhead control: past and present.”
“Diseases that have historical significance tend to reemerge,” said Wages when opening the webinar. “The main reason we are talking about it (blackhead disease) today is because the preventative and therapeutic agents that were used to control blackhead have been removed.”
In the webinar, Wages covered:
Wages concluded by emphasizing that there is a wide range of factors that need to be addressed in order to help minimize the exposure to histomoniasis. Only by having a management plan that touches all those factors will producers be able to control this disease.
To learn more, click the link below and view the webinar.
<p>Dr. Dennis Wages of North Carolina State University explains the key strategies producers need in order to address blackhead disease in poultry.</p>
If you have read any of Alltech’s other blog posts on mycotoxins, you know the many hazardous effects mycotoxins may have on livestock animals. In poultry production alone, mycotoxins have been linked to mouth lesions, yellow livers, gizzard erosions and poor gut integrity. Many of the world’s biggest poultry integrators pay very close attention to their grain and feed quality because of the effects these challenges may have on poultry health and on profit margins.
When it comes to organic poultry production, however, the more stringent regulations also present unique challenges.
First, there is the challenge of supply and demand. According to a survey conducted in 2014 by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, sales of U.S. organic products have increased 72 percent since 2008. Demand for organic and non-GMO broiler chickens, turkeys and eggs is also strong and is expected to double in the next decade. In response to the increase in demand, local producers have been expanding their organic and non-GMO production. A 2016 article from WattAgNet.com summarizes the rapid growth that organic poultry has had. From 2000 to 2014, organic broiler production grew by 96 percent, organic layer flocks grew by 89 percent and turkey production grew by 35 percent.
Even though the poultry industry has been very quick to respond to consumer demands, the supply of certified organic and non-GMO grains has been slower to react.
The U.S. is the largest corn producer in the world, but in 2011 it was estimated that organic corn represented only 0.26 percent of production. Today, about 4 percent of food sales are organic while only 0.5 percent of U.S. farm acreage is dedicated organic. With a limited supply, buyers are often forced to accept higher levels of broken kernels and imperfections in their grain.
Grains with broken kernels and imperfections usually contain higher levels of molds and mycotoxins. Most of the mycotoxin-producing species of molds are soil-born fungi, which can survive and remain in fields for long periods of time. With modern agricultural practices such as no-till methods, incidences of fungal contamination appear to be increasing. The presence of corn stems and infected ears remaining on the soil surface from one year to another may serve as a source of inoculums, contributing to the increased incidence of contaminated grains (Mora and Moreno, 1984).
According to Duarte et al. (2008), fungicides can reduce the incidence of Fusarium molds in corn grain, but the use of fungicides is not allowed when growing organic corn.
To protect our food chain, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration imposes limits for mycotoxin levels in food and feed. This was highlighted in a 2016 alert by the National Grain and Feed Association to remind everyone of the acceptable levels. To meet the standards of organic production as well as these limits, organic producers are limited in terms of mycotoxin risk management and gut health prevention tools.
Management strategies and the implementation of a thorough program are necessary to prevent exposure to mycotoxins. Checking grain quality by utilizing industry-approved standards to collect samples and submitting them to a high-standard testing laboratory is a good start, followed by routine maintenance of feed mills to eliminate possible contamination in the milling process. Certified organic mycotoxin control agents in the diets should also be utilized to help prevent or offset the impacts mycotoxins can have on overall performance.
To learn more about Alltech’s program for managing mycotoxins, visit www.knowmycotoxins.com.
According to a survey conducted in 2014 by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, sales of U.S. organic products have increased 72 percent since 2008. Demand for organic and non-GMO broiler chickens, turkeys and eggs is also strong and is expected to double in the next decade.
In the United States and Canada, the poultry industry’s standard performance measurement is the feed conversion ratio (FCR). Calculating FCR is as simple as taking the total amount of feed consumed by the flock and dividing it by the amount of weight gained or the number of eggs produced. In other words, FCR equals input divided by output. For broiler producers, an FCR of 1.6 means that their chickens gain 1 kilogram of weight for every 1.6 kilograms of feed consumed. The lower the FCR, the more efficient animals are at converting feed into food.
Since the 1980s, poultry producers have been able to reduce their feed conversion ratios from producing a bird weighing 2 kilograms in 70 days with an FCR of 2.5 to a bird weighing the same in 29 days with an FCR of 1.5 today. This means that fewer grains are being used to produce more meat and eggs. The industry made this leap using two key strategies: genetic improvements and the inclusion of exogenous enzymes.
Exogenous enzymes allow producers to get more energy, phosphorus and amino acids from their diets, and the international unit for measuring enzyme activity is the katal. The katal represents 1 mol of substrate per second; however, the most valued unit for comparative purposes in the animal industry is the amount of the enzyme in milligrams needed to catalyze the reaction of a particular substrate, releasing 1 micromol of a final product in one minute.
It is far more difficult for producers to determine the effect a particular enzyme will have on their flock’s efficiency. Most producers will need to run field trials in order to see how the inclusion of a particular enzyme will impact their FCR. These trials can be complicated, due to the number of variables involved, and they can be very expensive, too. Being able to measure how effective a particular diet is at providing nutrients for digestion before it is fed to the animals can give a great advantage to poultry producers.
Tools like Alltech True Check™ in vitro screening can allow producers to do just that. True Check simulates poultry digestion in the lab utilizing samples of feed. This tool mimics the real life conditions of the animal’s digestive system and shows producers the amount of nutrients that are being released for digestion. With True Check, producers can do side-by-side comparisons of multiple feeding strategies and choose the one that will minimize their FCR and improve their flock’s performance the most.
Measuring and projecting performance allows poultry producers to choose the feeding strategy that reduces their feed costs and, as a result, gives them the best chances for increasing profitability. After all, the industry can only improve what it can measure.
As the distance between farmer and consumer closes around the world, we must continually adapt our methods to meet the ever-growing demand for high-quality, safe food. In the webinar, “The Path of Least Resistance,” we took a dive into the world of antibiotics, specifically how they have impacted and will continue to impact the agriculture industry. The key speaker, Dr. Richard Murphy, explained why we should worry about antibiotic resistance, where we are now with restrictions on antibiotics in livestock health and what opportunities exist for your operations.
Our three key takeaways were:
To view the webinar and get the full story behind the takeaways, click on the button below:
Like anything new or different, antibiotic-free production comes with its own challenges. And, these challenges make up many of the reasons why a lot of farmers currently don’t produce animals fully antibiotic-free. On top of this, today’s producer has the difficult proposition of producing more with less to meet the demands of a growing global population. How then can they reach that goal without the enhanced production available through antibiotic use?
Typical antibiotic-free livestock production challenges
Although they may vary by the environment, management methods and location, below are just some of the risks pig and poultry producers have to prepare for in antibiotic-free production systems:
Pig challenges
Poultry challenges
Ultimately, all these potential issues can add up to extra costs for the producer. To avoid this, it is important to focus on a couple key areas: biosecurity and nutrition.
Biosecurity in antibiotic-free production
Effective biosecurity can not only help producers manage disease challenges, but also prevent the increased risks of many of the issues listed above. Required measures may include changes to animal flow, increased focus on housing and transportation cleanliness, as well as heightened securities on those entering the facilities, whether that be a worker from another farm or a small rodent visitor; it is important protect the animals from the risk of exposure.
Nutrition in antibiotic-free production
To be truly effective, it can’t be a silver bullet approach. With antibiotics reduced or removed, the front line of defense may be nutrition, but that is just the start. A combination of strategies has to be put into effect. By powering nutrition with technologies designed to support the animals’ immune and digestive systems, and by implementing a full program focused on maintaining proper health, producers give their operations the best chance for a sustainable and profitable future.
Some producers have been ahead of the trend, and have been practicing antibiotic-free production for many years.
“When we accepted the challenge to go antibiotic-free from birth to market a few years ago, it proved to be a real challenge,” said Everett Forkner of Forkner Family Farms in Richards, Missouri. “But with the addition of nutritional innovations, we have not only been able to meet the challenge, we are producing more efficiently than when we began.”
Each farm is different, requiring each nutritional program to be tailored to meet the needs of the animals and their environment for a truly effective antibiotic-free approach.
When asked what some of the keys were to making the transition, Forkner said, “Establishing the right nutritional platform takes time. You have to allow some time for adjustments in order to really see what is best for the animals. And for us as a livestock breeder, it has also been about selecting superior animals and genetic lines that have more natural health and stronger immune systems. On top of this, a major component for us has been building this into a comprehensive immunization program while enhancing our management procedures. This combination has been what has helped us go multiple years and generations of genetic selection with no antibiotic support.”
Due to the Veterinary Feed Directive, we will see more and more U.S. producers focusing on antibiotic-free production. And with nearly 50 countries having some form of antibiotic restrictions, it is a global trend that will continue to grow. Alltech has been helping producers nourish the world for more than 35 years, while striving to ensure they remain sustainable and profitable.
To learn how Alltech is helping producers become profitable even without antibiotics or to see what program would be right for you, call your local representative or visit us at Alltech.com/antibiotic-free.
<p>There's no silver bullet when it comes to switching to antibiotic-free production</p>
Something all poultry businesses have in common is that feed costs represent the biggest portion of production expenses. Integrators therefore spend a large part of their time looking at ways to cut dollars and cents out of their feed costs. In fact, the average million birds per week complex will save an estimated $313,500 per year by reducing feed costs by just $1 per ton. What many don’t know is that a lot of the wasted money is the result of undigested feed.
Many studies have found a direct relationship between feed efficiency (FE), and overall poultry health, performance, uniformity and quality. This is because FE impacts the microbial balance in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of poultry. Proper FE has been shown to reduce the amount of undigested energy available to pathogenic bacteria in the lower gut. Further, enzymes that help break down indigestible feedstuffs have also been shown to have a prebiotic effect by producing oligosaccharides in the upper part of the GIT. Collectively these two health benefits can potentially save integrators money by improving the health and performance of their flocks.
The Agristats® report for March 2015 reveals how even minor performance changes can have a major impact in poultry operations:
(Applicable to a 1 million birds per week complex)
Getting the most from your feed
Alltech® True Check™ is an example of an in vitro digestion system developed to evaluate diets and impacts of feed technology in monogastric animals. Utilizing samples of feed, Alltech True Check mimics the real-life conditions of the animal’s digestive system.
Alltech True Check has the ability to screen diets or individual feed components with and without feed technologies more rapidly and economically than costly animal trials. After digestion is simulated, nutrient availability and digestibility values are obtained that can help integrators see potential cost savings. Ask your Alltech representative about True Check and unlock the hidden potential in your poultry feed.
“True Check is a game changer since it allows us to graphically show our clients how effective their feed is at releasing digestible nutrients,” said Paulo Rigolin, Alltech poultry director.
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