Economic and environmental assessment of U.S. broiler production: opportunities to improve sustainability.

The United States is the largest broiler producer in the world, and Americans consume about 45 kg of chicken per capita per year, which generates substantial economic and environmental footprints. We conduct techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment (TEA/LCA) to evaluate the sustainability performance of the U.S. broiler industry and quantify the cost, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy, water, land, fertilizer, and respiratory impacts of 7 broiler production scenarios for a contract Grower, Integrator, and Combined control volume. The assessment is a farm-gate to farm-gate analysis that includes capital cost of chicken houses, labor, chicks brought into the farm, feeds, on-site fuels, and on-site emissions. We found that economics for the Integrator are profitable and dominated by the cost of corn and soybean meal feeds, payments to the Grower, and revenue from live broilers. Additionally, we found that economics for the Grower generate modest return on investment (ROI) largely based on the cost of houses and labor when compared to contract revenue from the Integrator. Environmental impacts for GHG, energy, and respiratory effects are primarily associated with upstream feed production (roughly 65%-80% of total impacts) and on-site fuel consumption (∼20%-35% of total impacts), while those for water, land, and eutrophication are almost entirely attributable to upstream feed production (litter spreading has a low economic allocation factor). Tradeoffs among sustainability metrics are further explored with a sensitivity analysis and by evaluating cost/environmental benefit scenarios.

Riboflavin and Bacillus subtilis effects on growth performance and woody-breast of Ross 708 broilers with or without Eimeria spp. challenge.

This study was conducted to assess the effects of the dietary supplementation of riboflavin (as a bile salt hydrolase [BSH] inhibitor) and Bacillus subtilis on growth performance and woody breast of male broilers challenged with Eimeria spp. Intestinal bacteria, including supplemented probiotics, can produce BSH enzymes that deconjugate conjugated bile salts and reduce fat digestion. A 3 × 2 × 2 (riboflavin × Bacillus subtilis × Eimeria spp. challenge) factorial arrangement of treatments in randomized complete block design was used. On d 14, birds were gavaged with 20× doses of commercial cocci vaccine (CoccivacR-B52, Merck Animal Health, Omaha, NE). Dietary treatment of riboflavin and B. subtilis did not affect body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), and feed conversion (FCR) d 0 to 14 and overall d 0 to 41. Eimeria spp challenge reduced BWG, feed intake (FI), and increased FCR between d 14 to 28, but increased BWG and lowered FCR between d 28 to 35. There were no effects of the Eimeria spp. challenge on the overall d 0 to 41 FCR and FI, but BWG was reduced. Eimeria spp. challenge increased the abdominal fat pad weight and slight woody breast incidences on processed birds on d 42. Dietary inclusion of B. subtilis and riboflavin at tested levels did not help birds to mitigate the negative impact of Eimeria spp. challenge to enhance the growth performance.

Characterizing Sounds of Different Sources in a Commercial Broiler House.

Audio data collected in commercial broiler houses are mixed sounds of different sources that contain useful information regarding bird health condition, bird behavior, and equipment operation. However, characterizations of the sounds of different sources in commercial broiler houses have not been well established. The objective of this study was, therefore, to determine the frequency ranges of six common sounds, including bird vocalization, fan, feed system, heater, wing flapping, and dustbathing, at bird ages of week 1 to 8 in a commercial Ross 708 broiler house. In addition, the frequencies of flapping (in wing flapping events, flaps/s) and scratching (during dustbathing, scratches/s) behaviors were examined through sound analysis. A microphone was installed in the middle of broiler house at the height of 40 cm above the back of birds to record audio data at a sampling frequency of 44,100 Hz. A top-view camera was installed to continuously monitor bird activities. Total of 85 min audio data were manually labeled and fed to MATLAB for analysis. The audio data were decomposed using Maximum Overlap Discrete Wavelet Transform (MODWT). Decompositions of the six concerned sound sources were then transformed with the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method to generate the single-sided amplitude spectrums. By fitting the amplitude spectrum of each sound source into a Gaussian regression model, its frequency range was determined as the span of the three standard deviations (99% CI) away from the mean. The behavioral frequencies were determined by examining the spectrograms of wing flapping and dustbathing sounds. They were calculated by dividing the number of movements by the time duration of complete behavioral events. The frequency ranges of bird vocalization changed from 2481 ± 191-4409 ± 136 Hz to 1058 ± 123-2501 ± 88 Hz as birds grew. For the sound of fan, the frequency range increased from 129 ± 36-1141 ± 50 Hz to 454 ± 86-1449 ± 75 Hz over the flock. The sound frequencies of feed system, heater, wing flapping and dustbathing varied from 0 Hz to over 18,000 Hz. The behavioral frequencies of wing flapping were continuously decreased from week 3 (17 ± 4 flaps/s) to week 8 (10 ± 1 flaps/s). For dustbathing, the behavioral frequencies decreased from 16 ± 2 scratches/s in week 3 to 11 ± 1 scratches/s in week 6. In conclusion, characterizing sounds of different sound sources in commercial broiler houses provides useful information for further advanced acoustic analysis that may assist farm management in continuous monitoring of animal health and behavior. It should be noted that this study was conducted with one flock in a commercial house. The generalization of the results remains to be explored.

Effects of riboflavin and Bacillus subtilis on internal organ development and intestinal health of Ross 708 male broilers with or without coccidial challenge.

In a companion study, we found that inclusion of different doses of riboflavin affected growth performance of Ross 708 male broilers' responses to coccidial challenge (by 5 Eimeria spp on day 14 of age) and dietary Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) supplementation. The current study was conducted to further test whether supplementation of B. subtilis and riboflavin will reduce negative impact and inflammation caused by Eimeria spp proliferation and help proper function of internal organs. A total of 1,248 Ross × Ross 708 male broiler chicks were randomly placed in 96 floor pens (8 blocks, 12 treatments). Treatments were arranged in a 3 (riboflavin) × 2 (B. subtilis) × 2 (Coccidial challenge) factorial arrangement in a randomized complete block design. Coccidial challenge reduced the weight of sampled birds on day 27 and day 36 and increased the relative weights of the internal organs of proventriculus, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and spleen to BW on day 27, which may be because of inflammation caused by proliferation of Eimeria spp. The increased relative weights of duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and spleen on coccidial challenged birds were lost on day 36. Correlation analysis also indicated that the jejunum weight was positively related to villus height, Eimeria acervulina, and Eimeria maxima on day 27 but was not on day 36. The loss of the positive relationships may be because of recovery of the birds from coccidiosis on day 36. Even though the coccidial challenge and riboflavin interactively affected feed conversion ratio and BW gain and supplementation of dietary B. subtilis reduced mortality from day 35 to 42 in the companion study, the same response of internal organs was not observed in the current study. Coccidial challenge compromised development of internal organs of Ross 708 male broilers at an early age, but the negative effects subsided with age of birds rather than supplementation of riboflavin and B. subtilis at current tested levels under our experimental set up.

Effects of broiler genetic strain and dietary amino acid reduction on meat yield and quality (part II).

Genetic selection and advances in nutrition have improved broiler growth performance. However, meat quality issues have gained preference over increased growth rate. These meat quality issues may be reduced by lowering dietary amino acid (AA) content. In the present study, 5 common commercial broiler strains were fed either a control or an AA-reduced diet. The control diet was formulated to contain the highest digestible AA (lysine, total sulfur AA, and threonine) levels recommended for the 5 strains. The AA-reduced diet was formulated to contain 20% lower levels of these 3 digestible AA than in the control diet. This resulted in a 5 (strains) × 2 (AA levels) factorial arrangement. A total of 1,280 straight run broilers were randomly allocated to 8 replicate blocks. The AA reduction decreased absolute breast weights of 3 strains on day 42 and 2 strains on day 56, and decreased absolute weights of tender, wing, drumstick, and thigh on both day 42 and 56 for all 5 strains. However, the absolute fat pad weight and relative fat pad and thigh weights to BW were increased in the AA reduction treatments on both day 42 and 56. The AA reduction contributed to the lower breast meat pH on both day 42 and 56, which may have been directly related to decreased severe woody breast myopathy (WBM) incidence on day 42 and moderate WBM incidence on day 56. The severity of WBM was positively related to breast weight in all 10 treatments on both day 42 and 56, with the exception of birds in strain 3 on day 56 that were fed the AA-reduced diet. At the same time, AA reduction was more cost-effective when WBM incidence was considered in a theoretical model. In conclusion, WBM severity was associated with higher breast weight in birds of most strains fed either a control or AA-reduced diet. Dietary AA reduction decreased processing yields but decreased WBM incidence, which may be more economical.

Sprinkler Technology Improves Broiler Production Sustainability: From Stress Alleviation to Water Usage Conservation: A Mini Review.

Global poultry production is facing several challenges including a projected increase in global demand for high quality animal proteins and the need to adapt to environmental contrasts including heat stress and the increasing pressure on natural resource (water, land, and energy) availability. Heat stress is one of the most challenging stressor to poultry production because of its strong adverse effects on welfare, production, mortality, and water usage. Most commercial poultry houses worldwide are equipped with a combination of tunnel ventilation and evaporative cooling system (pads, fogging, or low-pressure misting systems) as the status quo to overcome heat stress. Despite prior investments in these systems, critical problems continue to impede poultry production efficiency, which still declines during hot seasons. In fact, these systems tend to saturate the barn air with moisture (>70% relative humidity) which is counterproductive to the bird's own physiological ability to cool itself by hyperventilation (evaporative heat loss). The second challenge with these systems is the significant amount of water usage. This review will summarize some of the benefits of surface wetting of birds through sprinkler technology (SPRINK) that has higher efficiency to maintain birds' comfort with significantly less use of cooling water. Despite higher air temperature and lower relative humidity in the sprinkler house, the SPRINK decreased broiler body core temperature, reduced systemic and intracellular stress, preserved intracellular energy, and averaged six points better FCR compared to evaporative cooling system.

Accuracy of Broiler Activity Index as Affected by Sampling Time Interval.

Different time intervals between consecutive images have been used to determine broiler activity index (AI). However, the accuracy of broiler AI as affected by sampling time interval remains to be explored. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the sampling time interval (0.04, 0.2, 1, 10, 60, and 300 s) on the accuracy of broiler AI at different bird ages (1-7 weeks), locations (feeder, drinker, and open areas) and times of day (06:00-07:00 h, 12:00-13:00 h, and 18:00-19:00 h). A ceiling-mounted camera was used to capture top-view videos for broiler AI calculations. The results show that the sampling time interval of 0.04 s yielded the highest broiler AI because more bird motion details were captured at this short time interval. The broiler AIs at longer time intervals were 1-99% of that determined at the 0.04-s interval. The broiler AI at 0.2-s interval showed an acceptable accuracy with 80% less computational resources. Broiler AI decreased as birds aged but increased after week 4 at the drinker area. Broiler AI was the highest at the open area for weeks 1-4 and at the feeder and drinker areas for weeks 5-7. It is concluded that the accuracy of broiler AI was significantly affected by sampling time intervals. Broiler AI in commercial housing showed both temporal and spatial variations.

Effects of broiler genetic strain and dietary amino acid reduction on (part I) growth performance and internal organ development.

Genetic selection in broilers has resulted in improved growth performance, meat yield, and feed conversion efficiency. However, consumers have become increasingly concerned about modern broiler welfare that is related to their rapid growth rate, which may be alleviated by nutrient dilution. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary amino acid (AA) reduction on the growth performance and internal organ development of different genetic strains of broilers. A randomized completed block design with a factorial arrangement of 10 treatments (5 strains × 2 AA levels) was used. The 5 different strains of broilers were fed either a control diet, with digestible AA (lysine, total sulfur AA, and threonine) at the highest recommended levels for the 5 strains, or an AA-reduced diet, with the digestible AA being 20% lower than the control diet. Feed conversion ratio was increased by AA reduction in all 5 strains during day 0-14, 14-28, and 28-41 but was not affected from day 41-55. Body weight and feed intake responses to AA reduction varied in the different strains and ages of birds. Liver weight relative to BW on day 40, and weights of the duodenum and jejunum relative to BW on day 60 were increased by decreasing the dietary AA concentration. These results indicate that the birds had adjusted their organ growth and metabolism in response to increases in digestion, absorption, and utilization efficiency to accommodate a decrease in dietary AA content. Surprisingly, the cost of feed required to produce the same BW was decreased in 4 of 5 strains on both day 41 and 55, which was largely because of the lower price of the diets containing reduced AA levels and the later compensatory growth experienced by the birds fed AA-reduced diets. In the future, when dietary AA levels need to be adjusted to control growth rate and improve welfare status, the genetic strain, age of the birds, and targeted goals need to be taken into consideration.