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Brown chicken eggs are commonly found in Malaysia while white chicken eggs are rarely seen in Malaysia.

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1. Traditional breeding.

2. Nutritious feed specially tailored to different life stages of birds.

3. Comfortable living conditions through climate-controlled barns, technology and protection from extreme temperatures, predators and diseases.

4. Biosecurity measures.

5. Veterinary oversight.

(Source: Hafez and Attia, 2020)

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USES OF WATER THROUGHOUT POULTRY PRODUCTION PROCESS

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USES OF WATER THROUGHOUT POULTRY PRODUCTION PROCESS

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1. Water crops (namely corn and soybeans) for chicken feed.

2. As drink for birds.

3. To cool the birds via evaporative cooling cells during warmer temperatures

4. To clean and sanitize equipment in processing plants.

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=151&v=5H_VGdHqg-s&feature=emb_logo

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What Sustainability Means to Chicken Farmers

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Every farm is unique and successful sustainability is not a one-size-fits all prescription.

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Consumers purchase and consumes the products which are the chicken meat and chicken eggs respectively

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Layer farms is where the chicks that are raised from day old chicks to adult stage where they are sexually matured and are able to produce eggs.

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Layer hatchery farms produce day old chicks to be sold to the layer farms where they grow and mature sexually in order for them to produce eggs and earn profit for the farm. The chicks are separated by their sex through feather sexing by workers before sending them to the layer farms. Only hens are sent to the layer farms, roosters are either kept on the farm for breeding purposes or sold to other farms intended for meat production

Pullets are also produced to replace the hens as they age in the hatchery farms.

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Grower farms buys day old chicks to be grown to marketable sizes and sold to consumers. Normally broilers will not be separated by sex and will not reach sexual maturity as they are able to reach their marketable size before they are sexually mature

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Broiler hatcheries produce day old chicks to be sold to grower farms to reach marketable sizes. Broiler hatchery has their own parent stock and will also replace their parent stock from time to time to ensure the fertility of the parent stock.

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Layer farms focuses on egg production

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Broiler farms focuses on meat production

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Consumers are the final user of the line and consumes the chickens with the improved traits

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Multiplier farms are in charge of increasing the amount of chickens that came from the breeder farms with improved traits. Grower farms and hatcheries are part of the multiplier farms.

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Breeder farms are where the farmers try to satisfy the requirements and requests of the consumers with the improved traits and genetics of the chicken. Normally it takes them several cycles of selective breeding to produce satisfying traits of chickens. The chickens are then passed on to the multiplier farms to allow the multiplier farms to produce even more chickens that have the improved genetics and traits.

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The ancestors of the domesticated chicken that we eat today can be traced back to four species of wild jungle fowl in Southeast Asia.

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1. Controllers

Maintain temperature, lighting, ventilation and cooling coordinates energy across several systems.

2. Brooding curtains

Keep birds warm in particular area of the poultry house.

3. Insulation

Eg. Curtains help to maintain temperature in houses.

4. Attic inlets

Ceiling inlets supply pre-warmed air that circulates through the house, keeping the environment drier and prevent increase of ammonia levels and at the same time, reduce the need for fuels.

5. Circulation fans

Proper types and size of fan can heat houses more efficiently, thereby reduce reliance on fuels.

6. End wall doors

Ensure doors are strong, well-maintained and sealed to reduce leaks of heat and cooling.

7. Radiant heaters

Eg. Radiant tubes, quads and circular heaters are more efficient than forced air heaters. Radiant heating is efficient to heat litter pack, resulting in warmer birds and drier litter.

8. Ventilation fans

Clean shutters and well-maintained fans are important to reduce energy use as dirty shutter could reduce air flow of up to 40%.

9. Anaerobic digester

Produce biogas from waste stream and reuse that gas as a fuel to power or heat the facility. This reduces operating costs and reduce wasted resources.

10. Solar panels

Energy efficient

11. Light emitting diode (LED) lighting

Energy savings of up to 80% to 85% compared to traditional incandescent lightbulbs

(Source: Spackman, 2020)

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Water is mainly utilized for poultry consumption, cleaning and cooling (Ralte, 2017).

1. Ensure adequate water supply for birds.

Depending on age and climatic conditions, birds may require 1.6 to 2 times more water compared to feed.

2. Design and construct water-efficient houses.

Eg. Retrofitting barns or construct houses with proper ventilation systems would reduce overall water consumption by birds.

3. Choosing appropriate cooling system.

Eg. Evaporative cooking pads typically use less water compared to high-pressure nozzle cooling systems, depending on age and maintenance upkeep.

4. Use of efficient drinker system.

Eg. Closed-drinker systems are more water-efficient and hygienic compared to the open bell drinker systems where water is easily spilled or contaminated.

🤬 water system.

5. Manage leaks.

Leakages in water equipment pose water contamination risks, which can be a health risk for birds and ultimately have a negative impact on production.

6. Regular monitoring and controlling water systems.

Invest in automated water systems that allow for more efficient monitoring and managing of water and water meters that allow growers to monitor patterns of water consumption. By this, changes in baseline consumption rate could indicate problems in the health of flocks or equipment malfunctions, thus alerting growers to issues early, saving time and resources.

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Poultry litter recycling.

Eg.  Fertilizer from chicken litter is used on crops like corn and the corn is then used in chicken feed.

Rest of the litter is recycled as ‘slow release plant food.’

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Implementing practices to improve energy and water-use efficiency as well as manage wastes in a sustainable manner.

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Poultry litter is a valuable resource, as it can replace synthetic fertilizers and provide organic matter to a crop farms. Moreover, it contains valuable plant nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) (Boulan et al., 2010).

1. Apply technologies to convert litter into pelletized, processed fertilizer.

Pros: Manure converted into a form that can be safely and cost effectively packaged, transported, and distributed.

Cons: Require large capital input and current resources.

Poultry companies should coordinate and fund this process and multiple growers would need to engage to ensure that litter supplies are sufficient to break even for the purchase of this technology.

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1. Greenhouse gas and water quality impacts associated with feed production, energy use on farm, and litter management.
2. Poultry processing is more energy intensive compared to other meat sectors like beef and swine, where approximately 41% emissions within the chicken supply chain were from energy use (Vaarst, Steenfeldt and Horsted, 2015).
3. Run-off from poultry farms negatively affect sensitive ecosystems.

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ISSUES IN SUSTAINABILITY OF POULTRY FARMING

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ISSUES IN SUSTAINABILITY OF POULTRY FARMING

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DID YOU KNOW? Poultry farming can be so cruel >< (Agarwal, 2021). 

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DID YOU KNOW? Poultry farming can be so cruel >< (Agarwal, 2021). 

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1. Battery cages.

3 - 6 chickens is put in a cage meant for 1.

Chickens stand next to or on top of each other, with no room to wiggle, spread their wings or even easily turn around.

Development of many bodily deformities.

Cages are also stacked on top of each other - urine and feces from birds in the cages above are always falling on the birds caged beneath, creating the conditions for diseases to spread rapidly.

2. Beak trimming.

Prevent attacking one another due to stress.

Painful debeaking process, usually without anesthesia.

Beaks are trimmed using either heated guillotines or infrared lasers.

Process carried out when chicks are just a day-old baby, with hypersensitive nerves in their beak.

DOWNSIDES:

First day of their life is spent in pain and social withdrawal.

Trimmed beaks disable chickens to eat or drink properly, thus many face dehydration and die.

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According to Animal Welfare Act 2015 that is applicable to Peninsular Malaysia and the Federal Territory of Labuan, offences are given to those who is not capable of  supplying sufficient food, drinks and shelter to animals, those who cause unnecessary pains and suffers to animals , those mutilate animals without following manners certified and determined by veterinary authority and those that limits and confines animals in cage that dies not measure sufficiently in height, length and width (Animal Welfare Act 2015, 2015).

Codes and regulations in handling poultry
Objectives of of codes and regulations in handling poultry by Department of Veterinary Services Malaysia are to:-

1.  Ensure that the slaughtering processes and equipements in the premise prioritise the poultry welfare.

2. Ensure that labour who is responsible in slaughtering of poultry has competency and proficiency in prioritising poultry welfare during the slaugthering processes.

3. Ensure the poultry welfare during the transportation process.

4. Ensure that the transports transferring the poultry is equipped with basic facilities.

5. Ensure that trasnportation process is handled safely.

6. Ensure that there are no cruelty in trapping and holding of the poultry in transportation processes ( Department of Veterinary Services Malaysia, 2020; Department of Veterinary Services Malaysia, 2020).

Current animal welfare situation in Malaysia
Although Department of Veterenary Services Malaysia provides proper codes and regulations for farmers to follow, Malaysia still ranked 41 overall in terms of voiceless animal cruelty index which means a very poor performance in animal welfare with high level of animal production and consumption. This index includes three cruelties of producing, consuming and sanctioning into account.
In producing cruelties, Malaysia slaughtered 28.1 land-based animals per person/year where poultry accounts for 99% of it. In terms of consuming cruelties, Malaysians has a high proportions of 43.4% of land-based animal protein as diet while for sanctioning cruelties, application of animal protection law is limited as mutilations and confinements are still practiced (Voiceless, The Animal Protection Institute, 2021).

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A)   Food source

Poultry products like eggs and meat have high nutritional value. Among all edible meat, broiler meat has the least fat content. Poultry meat contains more protein and essential amino acids than other meats and is low in cholesterol content in comparison (Darre, 2017).

B)    Source of income

Poultry farming businesses generate incomes continually either on a daily basis, weekly basis, or monthly basis. For instance, if a farmer invests money on layers once they start laying, the farmer will be making money on daily basis, weekly basis, or monthly basis depending on how many eggs they sell (Manimekalai, 2010).

C)    Source of employment

Poultry farming has tremendous potential for expansion and employment generation. Youth in general and educated unemployed youth can take up this profession (Manimekalai, 2010).

D)   Poultry dropping are sources of fertilizer:

Crop cultivation and poultry farming are dependable. Crop production relies heavily on animals and their byproduct manure. Poultry droppings contain a high amount of nitrogen and organic materials which are considered valuable fertilizers for vegetable farming. Water retention and soil structure can be improved by adding poultry manure to a crop field (Darre, 2017).

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"Sustainable" livestock production:

Livestock systems economically more efficient.

Striking balance between meeting the rising demand of animal products and minimizing negative side effects and externalities from the livestock sector.

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Agarwal, N., 2021. Can Chicken Farming Really Be Sustainable?. [online] Available at: <https://sentientmedia.org/chicken-farm/ > [Accessed 2 August 2021].

Animal Welfare Act 2015. (Act 772). [online] Percetakan Nasional Malaysia Berhad. [Accessed 2 August 2021] Available at:<http://extwprlegs1.fao.org/docs/pdf/mal176896.pdf>

Bakst, M.R. and Dymond, J.S., 2013. Artificial insemination in poultry. In: A. Lemma, ed. 2013. Success in Artificial Insemination-Quality of 🤬 and Diagnostics Employed, London: InTechOpen. pp.722-723.

Bessei, W., 2018. Impact of animal welfare on worldwide poultry production. World's Poultry Science Journal, 74(2), pp.211-224.

Boulan, N.S., Szogim A.A., Chuasavathi, T., Seshadri, B., Rothrock, M.J. and Panneerselvam, P., 2010. Uses and management of poultry litter. World's Poultry Science Journal, 66(4), pp. 673-698.

Clauer, P., 2011. History of The Chicken. [Online] Available at: <https://extension.psu.edu/history-of-the-chicken> [Accessed 30 July 2021]

Dawkins, M.S., 2016. Animal welfare and efficient farming: is conflict inevitable?. Animal Production Science, 57(2), pp.201-208.

Department of Veterinary Services Malaysia, 2020. Kod Amalan Kebajikan Haiwan: Aktiviti Penyembelihan Unggas. Putrajaya. Department of Veterinary Services Malaysia.

Department of Veterinary Services Malaysia, 2020. Kod Amalan Kebajikan Haiwan: Aktiviti Pengangkutan Haiwan (Unggas). Putrajaya. Department of Veterinary Services Malaysia.

Hafez, H.M. and Attia, Y.A., 2020. Challenges to the poultry industry: current perspectives and strategic future after the covid-19 outbreak. Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

Hata, A., Nunome, M., Suwanasopee, T., Duengkae, P., Chaiwatana, S., Chamchumroon, W., Suzuki, T., Koonawootrittriron, S., Matsuda, Y., Srikulnath, K., 2021. Origin and evolutionary history of domestic chickens inferred from a large population study of Thai red junglefowl and indigenous chickens. Scientific Reports, [e journal], 11(2035), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81589-7

Lawler, A., 2020. The Chicken First Crossed The Road In Southeast Asia, ‘Landmark’ Gene Study Finds. [Online] Available at: <https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/chicken-first-crossed-road-southeast-asia-landmark-gene-study-finds> [Accessed 30 July 2021]

Mantica, Mainau & Temple, 2012. What is Animal Welfare? [online] Available at:<https://www.fawec.org/media/com_lazypdf/pdf/fs1-en.pdf> [Accessed 2 August 2021].

Mohammad, M.S., Mardenli, O. and AL-Tawash, A.S.A., 2021. Evaluation of The Cryopreservation Technology of Poultry Sperm: A Review Study. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 735(1) p. 012016.

Ralte, R., 2017. Water Management 101. [online] Available at:<https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/water-management-101> [Accessed 1 August 2021]

Rotz, C.A., 2020. Environmental sustainability of livestock production. Meat and Muscle Biology, 4(2), pp. 1-18.

Sinclair, M., Fryer, C. and Phillips, C.J., 2019. The benefits of improving animal welfare from the perspective of livestock stakeholders across Asia. Animals, 9(4), p.123.

Spackman, P., 2020. Simple Steps to Improve Energy Efficiency on Poultry Farms. [online] Available at:<https://www.fwi.co.uk/livestock/poultry/broilers/simple-steps-improve-energy-efficiency-poultry-farms> [Accessed 1 August 2021]

Vaarst, M., Steenfeldt, S. and Horsted, K., 2015. Sustainable development perspectives of poultry production. World's Poultry Science Journal, 71(4), pp. 609-620.

Voiceless, The Animal Protection Institute, 2021. Malaysia. [online] Available at:<https://vaci.voiceless.org.au/countries/malaysia/> [Accessed 2 August 2021]

Webster, A.J., 2001. Farm animal welfare: the five freedoms and the free market. The veterinary journal, 161(3), pp.229-237

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Dear readers, welcome to our blog!

This blog will be talking about the journey through a Poultry Breeding farm. We hope that you'll learn something new in this blog. Feel free to leave comments and likes on posts that you think are interesting.

As always, stay happy, healthy and safe 😉

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Background of Poultry farming in Malaysia

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Background of Poultry farming in Malaysia

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The process of domestication of chicken actually dates back to 2000 B.C. Chickens belong to the genus Gallus of the family Phasianidae and domesticated chicken that we eat nowadays are classified as Gallus domesticus (Clauer, 2011). In a study, the full genomes of 83 birds were collected and compared and the results has shown that the modern chickens we eat nowadays descended primarily from domesticated and wild varieties of chickens in chickens that are in Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and southern China and these few countries are the centre of domestication of chickens (Lawler, 2020) Historically, chickens were bred and used for rituals, including using the 🤬 to notify the hour of dawn and later on bred for entertainment such as cockfighting and also the establishment of ornamental chickens that are kept as pets nowadays (Hata, et al., 2021). The domestication of chicken has a very long history however, the domestication process is a continuous process and commercial chickens that we eat now are still selectively bred to improve the quality and also yield of the chickens.

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Economic Benefits
Mitigation of economic loss can be observed through improvements in animal products qualities, reduced moetality, reduces damages to carcass of poultry like bruising or wounding.
Mitigation of business risk of bad publicity and possible jeopardy of consumers.
Positive public's perception on business through positive marketing (Dawkins, 2016).
Strategic Business Benefits
Marketing of products through commercial opportunities with high welfare farming systems.
Willingness of customers to pay at a higher price than usual for meat which is more notable in developed countries  and provide business opportunities to local farmers for exports to western countries.
Beneficial in terms of management as animals become easier to control and handle, reducing the amount of labours thus reducing expenses of labour and medical.
Public Health and Environment Benefits
Reduce the devastation on environment.
Decrease the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics which surpress emergence of antibiotic-resistance of microbial organisms.
Reduce human health problems as high incubation of pathogen are found in farms with high confinement rate of animals, which will later cause respiratory problems and possible antibiotic resistance on human.
Beneficial to human mental health as animal welfare in farms is equal to human welfare (Sinclair, Fryer and Phillips, 2019).
It is clear that animal welfare is important in this era as its benefits ovewhelmingly outweight any potential negative impacts.

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The Five Freedoms

1. Freedom from hunger and thirst by having available fresh water sources and healthy diet.

2. Freedom from discomfort by having proper shelter and resting areas.

3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease by having proper and speedy diagnosis with proper treatment.

4. Freedom to express normal behaviours by having enough spaces, facilities and companionship of same species animals.

5. Freedom from fear and distress by having rapid conditions assesments and treatments to prevent mental suffering (Mantica, Mainau & Temple, 2012).

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Artificial insemination and fertility evaluation (🤬 = Sɛmen)

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Artificial insemination and fertility evaluation (🤬 = Sɛmen)

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Sperm/🤬 collection
Abdominal massage technique

massaging the cloacal region and squeezing of the regions around cloaca (also known as cloacal stroke (Bakst and Dymond, 2013)

Sperm/🤬 enumeration and dilution
Determining sperm concentration through packed cell volume (PCV) or optical density

PCV: Centrifuge 🤬 until sperm are tightly packed, then determine the percentage of packed sperm cell to original 🤬 volume

Optical density: Optical density of 🤬 is directly proportional to sperm concentration, thus can be determined using photometer

Dilution of sperm is best using 🤬 diluent formulated to sustain sperm viability (Bakst and Dymond, 2013)

Sperm viability assessment
Nigrosine/eosin (N/E) technique

Staining of sperm using N/E, then make a smear of the stained sperm on a slide

Viable sperm will remain white while non-viable sperm will stained pink
(Bakst and Dymond, 2013)

Cryopreservation of poultry sperm

Haven't achieved desirable success rate

Two basic stages

Slow freezing: Reduce temperature in a 1-10°C/min until reaching a temperature of between -70°C and -196°C

Vitrification: Uses high concentration of cryoprotectant and fast freezing in liquid nitrogen

Common cryoprotectant used in bird sperm:  dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), dimethylacetamide (DMA), Dimethylformamide (DMF) and glycerol (G)

(Mohammad, Mardenli and Al-Tawash, 2021)

Insemination

Deposit the 🤬 into the cloaca of the hen

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Ross

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Abilities of farm animals to sustain proper health conditions and not suffer. Farmers are responsible to ensure welfare of animals with good management practices (Webster,2001).  It is a subjecive state of animal that includes diseases , physical damages,  physiological, psychological and behavioural disturbances towards experiences and feelings of animals. It has to be thought as a balance between positive and negative influences. Outer stimuli or managements are considered beneficial only when the outcome of all managements is positive. Constant environment and good managements are not considered as well being as these do not necessarily provides animals with positive feelings as there are lack of environmental enrichment objects that are outside the range of basic behavioural needs of animals (Bessei, 2018).