Livestock & Dairy

Advancing Sustainable Poultry Breeding for Health and Resilience

Sustainable poultry breeding has become a strategic priority for the global poultry industry as producers respond to rising demand, biosecurity challenges, environmental pressures, and growing consumer expectations. Among the most critical areas of focus are disease resistance, compatibility with alternative feed sources, and breeding for improved longevity and robustness. Together, these dimensions play a central role in building poultry systems that are both economically viable and environmentally responsible.

Disease Resistance through Advanced Breeding Techniques

Disease outbreaks remain one of the most significant threats to poultry production worldwide. Viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections cause economic losses and raise concerns about food security, animal welfare, and antimicrobial resistance. Advanced breeding techniques offer a sustainable pathway to enhancing disease resistance at the genetic level, reducing reliance on medications and reactive disease management practices.

Modern poultry breeding increasingly relies on genomic selection and marker-assisted breeding to identify genetic traits associated with resistance to specific diseases. This proactive approach strengthens flock health over successive generations without compromising productivity. Another significant advancement is the integration of immune competence traits into breeding objectives. Instead of focusing solely on growth rate or egg production, breeding programs now incorporate indicators such as antibody response, immune system balance, and stress tolerance. These traits contribute to stronger overall resistance and reduce vulnerability to opportunistic infections, particularly in intensive production systems.

Breeding for disease resistance also supports broader sustainability goals. Healthier birds require fewer antibiotics, helping mitigate the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance. Reduced disease incidence leads to lower mortality rates, improved feed efficiency, and more predictable production outcomes. From a regulatory and consumer perspective, disease-resistant poultry genetics support cleaner production systems and enhance trust in animal protein supply chains. Advanced breeding techniques transform disease management from a reactive process into a long-term preventive strategy, strengthening both animal health and production resilience.

Alternative Feed Compatibility in Poultry Genetics

Feed represents the highest single cost in poultry production and is a major contributor to the industry’s environmental footprint. As pressure increases to reduce dependence on conventional feed ingredients such as soy and maize, alternative feed sources are gaining attention. Breeding poultry that can efficiently utilize diverse and non-traditional feed inputs is essential for long-term sustainability. Alternative feeds may include insect protein, agricultural by-products, algae, fermented feeds, and regionally available plant-based ingredients. Genetic variation influences digestion efficiency, nutrient absorption, gut health, and metabolic adaptability. Breeding programs that account for feed compatibility can significantly improve performance outcomes when alternative diets are introduced.

Genetic selection for feed efficiency traits, such as feed conversion ratio and nutrient utilization efficiency, plays a critical role in this area. Birds that can extract maximum nutritional value from lower-quality or variable feed inputs reduce overall resource consumption and production costs. Advanced breeding also focuses on gut health and microbiome interactions, recognizing their influence on feed digestion and immune function.

Breeding for alternative feed compatibility supports regional and circular food systems. Poultry adapted to locally sourced feed ingredients reduce dependence on imported commodities and lower the carbon footprint associated with feed transportation. This adaptability is particularly valuable for small and medium-scale producers operating in diverse climatic and economic conditions. By aligning poultry genetics with evolving feed strategies, producers can improve economic resilience while contributing to more sustainable, flexible food production systems.

Breeding for Improved Longevity and Robustness

Longevity and robustness are increasingly recognized as essential indicators of sustainable poultry breeding. While rapid growth and high productivity remain important, birds that experience early health issues, stress sensitivity, or structural weaknesses undermine long-term efficiency and welfare goals. Breeding for longevity focuses on developing poultry that maintain health, productivity, and reproductive performance over longer production cycles. Robust birds are better able to withstand environmental stressors, management variability, and physiological demands without compromising welfare or output. These traits are particularly valuable in both intensive commercial operations and alternative production systems.

Genetic selection for robustness includes traits such as skeletal strength, cardiovascular health, metabolic stability, and stress tolerance. These characteristics reduce the incidence of lameness, sudden mortality, and production drop-offs, improving both animal welfare and economic predictability. Longevity also contributes to reduced replacement rates, lowering resource use and operational costs. Birds capable of maintaining performance across variable temperatures, housing conditions, and nutrition regimens are better suited to the challenges of climate change. This adaptability enhances production stability and reduces losses associated with environmental fluctuations. From a sustainability perspective, longer-lived, healthier birds contribute to more efficient resource use. Fewer losses, lower veterinary intervention, and extended productive lifespans align with ethical production standards and growing consumer expectations around animal welfare.

Disease resistance, alternative feed compatibility, and improved longevity are interconnected pillars of sustainable poultry breeding and development. Advanced breeding techniques enable producers to move beyond short-term productivity gains toward resilient, adaptable, and welfare-focused poultry systems. As global demands on poultry production continue to intensify, breeding programs that prioritize these traits will play a decisive role in shaping a more sustainable, responsible, and future-ready poultry sector.

Leadership Perspective

Ferrara

Building Foundational Elements for Sustainable Food Safety Management System

Olawumi Wumi Yusuff, Director, Food Safety

The data on food safety recalls, and trends show that establishing and implementing a robust food safety management system is still challenging. According to Sedgwick's recall index report, FDA food recalls rose marginally by 2.2 percent from 414 in 2021 to 423 in 2022. While events remained constant in 2022, defective units surged 700.6 percent, from 52.1M to 416.9M. The recall index report also indicates undeclared allergen, bacterial and foreign material contamination were the leading causes. The consequence of not having a strong foundation for a food safety management system is very costly. Recalls involve financial cost, reputational cost, or damage that can be irreversible. In addition, recalls disrupt the food supply chain, divert food safety professionals' attention to firefighting, and take up time that should have been spent on continuous improvement initiatives.

A food safety management system is a set of programs that reinforces an organization’s control of food safety hazards and ensures that its products are safe and fit for human consumption. Consumers expect their food to be safe, and this is non-negotiable! Achieving an effective and sustainable food safety management system starts with senior leadership’s commitment. Management’s commitment to doing the right things is foundational and fundamental in building strong, sustainable prerequisite programs and developing and implementing preventive control strategies such as HACCP/HARPC. These ‘rights things’ might include; food safety ownership across the enterprise, effective communication (top-down and bottom-up) across the organization, and provision of appropriate and adequate resources (time, finances, and people).

Policies and procedures defined within an organization's prerequisite programs and preventive controls must be specific to the profile of their products, manufacturing processes, and environment. Achieving food Safety is a product and process-specific activity! Also equally important is the validation and verification of these programs to establish efficacy and effectiveness. Processes are only as strong as how well they are implemented and consistently followed by people. Conduct competency gap assessments to identify the knowledge deficits and then develop training and refresher plans based on the outcome of that assessment. The importance of engaging with and involving your people to foster collaboration and promote a sense of ownership cannot be overemphasized. Another key aspect of developing a sustainable food safety system is empowering workers/team members to speak up and take action. Recognition is also critical to encourage and reinforce ‘doing things right.’

The following are some key prerequisite programs, preventive measures, and governance that organizations must implement for sustainable food safety:

Ingredient Hazard Analysis (IHA)

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Risk assessment is a very important concept in food safety. Food safety risk ranking is the systematic analysis and ordering of foodborne hazards and/or foods regarding the potential public health threat based on the likelihood of occurrence and severity of the adverse impacts on human health. Implementing adequate preventive controls depend on accurately determining food safety hazards and appropriate risk level. For example, the risk might be ranked as High, Medium, or Low. Asking the right questions based on an exquisite understanding of your product, its manufacturing processes, and its intended use, reviewing appropriate documents (internal and external), and deep dive into the supplier’s historical data and related information are some of the key steps in food safety risk assessments. FDA Appendix 1 (Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food: Draft Guidance for Industry) is a great resource for food safety hazards related information applicable to various product categories. There are also digital platforms trending in the food industry, such as Food Chain ID™, Horizon scan™, and Decernis™ - food fraud databases as tools to facilitate information gathering, especially for ingredients sourced globally.

Sanitary Design Standard

This provides guidelines on the design and construction of buildings, infrastructures, and equipment to promote cleaning effectiveness, efficiency and prevent cross-contamination of food products. Designs are unique for different product and process applications. For example, equipment design for meat and poultry processing is not identical to confectionery. Different soil profiles demand different cleaning methods and have different chemical requirements. A standardized checklist for factory assessments at the manufacturer and during installation at the plants with cross-functional sign-offs, including engineering, quality, food safety, and operations, must be in place. Early involvement and crossfunctional collaboration are key for successful and consistent implementation.

Environmental Monitoring Program (Pathogens and Indicators)

Some people say they have never had a positive hit in their facilities. It could be a good thing but also a bad one. This begs whether they are swabbing enough, swabbing the right locations, or using the right method. A robust EMP program must be risk-based, including factors such as the age of the facility or equipment, type or nature of the product, processing type, hygienic zoning, cleaning method or frequency, and historical data. The number of swabs across zones 1-4 and frequency should be appropriate for the risk level defined. Air monitoring in the processing or surrounding areas is critical to identifying potential airborne micro risks. Another crucial aspect of EMP programs is data tracking and trending to identify the hot spots and follow up with adequate corrective actions.

Allergen Management Program

Food allergen recalls could occur due to cross-contact or exposure and undeclared allergen on product labels. It is imperative to have a comprehensive allergen management program end to end, from ingredients sourcing to finished product distribution. This includes but is not limited to major allergen declaration requirements for all suppliers, validated allergen cleaning and verification using rapid allergen-specific testing kits or finished product testing, formula and product verification, segregated production and storage areas, and production sequencing.

Food Safety KPIs

There must be a continuous measure of performance to ensure the food safety management system is working as intended. Confirmed internal findings, Master Sanitation Schedule (MSS) completion rate, First Time Right (FTR), and Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) are some of the food safety KPIs to routinely track and trend, and review at various management levels.

In summary, everyone is responsible for food safety regardless of function in the organization; food safety is not a one size fits all; assess the risk unique to the process, product, and environment and implement appropriate validated preventive controls. And most of all, never forget that no matter how robust and sustainable your food safety system is, it must be updated and changed. Food Safety is very dynamic. A new threat or challenge to your current systems might be approaching.

Livestock & Dairy Info

What Do Top Livestock & Dairy Management Companies Do?

Top Livestock & Dairy Management Companies help producers manage the many moving parts of modern animal agriculture. Their work can include herd health monitoring, genetics, nutrition, feed planning, dairy performance management, livestock technology, data analysis and production consulting. Some focus on software and automation while others specialize in animal nutrition, breeding or integrated farm management. The common thread is helping producers make better decisions with clearer information, especially when margins are tight and production costs are rising.

Why Do Top Livestock & Dairy Management Companies Matter More Today?

Livestock and dairy producers face pressure from feed costs, labor shortages, animal welfare expectations, disease risks and changing consumer demands. Top Livestock & Dairy Management Companies help farms respond to these pressures by improving visibility into daily performance and identifying issues before they become expensive problems. A health concern detected early, for example, can prevent treatment costs from escalating and reduce production losses. Demand for data-driven livestock management continues to grow because producers need practical ways to improve efficiency without sacrificing animal care.

How Should Producers Evaluate Livestock and Dairy Management Providers?

Choosing among livestock management companies requires more than reviewing product features or service lists. Producers should examine how a provider performs under real farm conditions. Ask how recommendations are implemented, how support is delivered and whether the provider can work with existing equipment and farm workflows. A useful test is to review a recent herd performance challenge and see how the provider would diagnose and address it. The strongest livestock and dairy management providers combine technical expertise with practical farm experience.

What Value Do Top Livestock & Dairy Management Companies Deliver to Agricultural Businesses?

The value often appears in everyday farm decisions rather than dramatic changes. Top Livestock & Dairy Management Companies can help improve feed efficiency, support herd health, reduce production variability and provide clearer performance reporting. Better management practices can also improve resource use and reduce waste. On a dairy operation, small improvements in reproduction rates, milk production or feed conversion can compound over time. Producers often look for providers that can create measurable gains while helping control costs and maintain animal welfare standards.

How Are Technology and Innovation Shaping Livestock and Dairy Management?

Technology is becoming deeply embedded in livestock and dairy operations. Sensors, automated monitoring systems, herd management software and precision livestock farming tools allow producers to track animal behavior, health indicators and production data in near real time. The challenge is not simply collecting information but turning it into useful decisions. Many livestock and dairy management companies now focus on helping producers interpret data and prioritize actions. Most farms already have data. The real advantage comes from understanding what it means and what to do next.

What Should Producers Prioritize When Comparing Top Livestock & Dairy Management Companies?

Producers should focus on long-term fit rather than short-term promises. Top Livestock & Dairy Management Companies should demonstrate industry knowledge, responsive support, practical implementation methods and an ability to adapt to changing farm conditions. Compatibility with existing systems, staff training requirements and ongoing service quality deserve close attention. A provider may offer impressive technology, but if recommendations are difficult to apply on the farm, the expected benefits may never materialize. The best partnerships help producers improve performance while supporting sustainable growth over time.