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EDITORIAL |
The importance of poultry production worldwide is underscored by this statistic: poultry meat represents almost one-third of meat produced and consumed globally. Moreover, egg production, on a weight basis, is almost 80% that of poultry meat production. This was addressed in a previous editorial (Scanes, 2007b). The basis for the increasing importance of poultry worldwide has been research on genetics, nutrition, disease control, and management, with improved genetics being the largest single contributing factor (Havenstein et al., 2003a,b, Havenstein et al., 2007).
What are the research challenges of today? Some that come to mind include
These challenges are pertinent to chickens (both meat and layer types), turkeys, ducks, geese, game birds, and to the ratites (ostriches and emus).
There is a profound need for a progressive and sustainable increase in funding to universities or government laboratories for poultry science research, teaching, and outreach. For international bodies and national governments in the developed world, there is a moral imperative to support poultry research and education in view of the significant impact that poultry products are having globally on protein nutrition for people. There is a strong rationale to fund poultry research, education, and outreach to benefit the national competitiveness of the poultry industry in this country. Moreover, there is a strong case for poultry as a part of rural economic development programs in even the poorest nations.
There are critically important roles for research and outreach from industry, government laboratories, and universities. However, the universities provide the education. Irrespective of whether the research is conducted in industry or government laboratories or universities, the universities provide the education and training to the researchers. Universities also provide consultants who understand poultry production and who can provide recommendations as "honest brokers."
The relationship between the poultry industry and university or government research laboratories will continue to be close. It is important to citizens and governments to have sound policy recommendations based on strong science. Equally for the poultry industry, it is critical that management and investment decisions are made based on science. Furthermore, educating the next generation of poultry scientists (to work in the poultry and allied industries or in universities or government laboratories) requires research-based knowledge as well as faculty with an understanding of the industry and of the science.
It has been argued that there has been a sustained decline in poultry science, and particularly in poultry science departments (Vizzier-Thaxton et al., 2003). The increase in the numbers of papers published in Poultry Science and the improving impact factor (Scanes, 2007a) support the ongoing strength of poultry science research worldwide. Different models for research, education, and outreach/extension on poultry have been proposed. This trend will continue with more innovative approaches employed. Examples of different approaches include the following:
Critical to the further development of poultry research, education, and outreach programs will be experimentation with different innovative approaches and building on existing strengths. There is not a "one size fits all" solution. Multiple approaches can and will be successful. There is clearly a need for poultry research, teaching, and outreach to gain higher priority for funding by governments (multinational, national, and state or province) globally. One of the reasons for this investment is to strengthen the competitive position of geographical regions with the availability of a well-educated workforce. Moreover, it is in the vested interest of the poultry and allied industries to provide sustaining funding in support of poultry research, teaching, and outreach.
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REFERENCES |
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 TOP REFERENCES |
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Havenstein G. B., P. R. Ferket, and M. A. Qureshi. 2003a. Growth, livability, and feed conversion of 1957 versus 2001 broilers when fed representative 1957 and 2001 broiler diets. Poult. Sci. 82:1500–1508.
Havenstein G. B., P. R. Ferket, and M. A. Qureshi. 2003b. Carcass composition and yield of 1957 versus 2001 broilers when fed representative 1957 and 2001 broiler diets. Poult. Sci. 82:1509–1518.
Scanes, C. G. 2007a. Editorial: Poultry Science: Celebrating its impact factor, impact, and quality. Poult. Sci. 86:1.
Scanes, C. G. 2007b. Editorial: The global importance of poultry. Poult. Sci. 86:1057–1058.
Vizzier-Thaxton, Y., J. A. Cason, N. A. Cox, S. E. Morris, and J. P. Thaxton. 2003. The decline of academic poultry science in the United States of America. World’s Poult. Sci. J. 59:303–313.[ISI]
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