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The increasing separation of the public from production agriculture means there is often a lack of knowledge among consumers about current production practices and a perception that increased productivity and economic efficiency are necessarily associated with a decline in animal welfare. A symposium was organized to present information about animal welfare issues and the challenges they pose for both scientists and the poultry and allied industries. Companion papers provide information about understanding public attitudes and physiological/immunological approaches to welfare assessment, while this paper outlines current and future challenges to egg and meat production and industry responses to those challenges. For broiler chickens, increases in growth rate result in corollary increases in metabolic heat generation and water consumption, leading to the need for continuing improvements in housing, ventilation, and litter management. Stocking densities, lighting programs, muscle myopathies, and use of antibiotics are also areas that require research attention. In the layer industry, the key challenge is housing, with the industry undergoing a shift from conventional cage housing to alternatives like enriched colonies or cage-free. While these alternative systems have hen welfare advantages, there are also welfare disadvantages that require the development of mitigation strategies, and it is also essential to address associated issues including economic, environmental, egg safety, and worker health impacts. Concerns on the horizon include euthanasia of surplus male chicks and spent hens as well as beak-trimming. The humaneness of slaughter methods is an important welfare and consumer confidence issue, and the current regulations for poultry slaughter in the USA are discussed and compared to those for livestock. The poultry and allied industries, including retailers, are responding to these concerns by consulting with experts, developing sciencebased animal care standards and auditing programs, strengthening training and oversight programs, promoting research, and improving communication channels. In future, intensifying multi-disciplinary research efforts and developing mechanisms to improve communication between scientists and stakeholders, including the public, will be critical to addressing these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US egg industry is being pressured from many directions to change its production practices, particularly to address concerns about hen welfare in conventional cage systems. Responding to similar pressures, in 1999, the European Union banned conventional laying cages starting in 2012. This now impending European ban has led to the development of several alternative housing systems. These include noncage systems like aviaries and modified (enriched or furnished) cages that include perches, areas in which the hens can forage and cli.istbathe, and nests. Understanding the European experience is valuable as the United States considers the future direction of the egg industry. In the United States, the proportion of eggs produced in alternative systems is small (less than 5% of output) but growing, in part due to market and political incentives for systems that provide hens with more behavioral freedom than conventional cages. Animal welfare, however, is only one element of a sustainable production system. Other elements include those related to public values, the environment, economics, worker health, and food safety and quality. Eggs are a primary source of animal protein globally, and the United States is the third largest producer of eggs in the world, behind China and the European Union. The national table egg flock comprises about 280 million hens housed in all regions but with approximately 60% of eggs produced in the 10 leading states. Adopting new housing systems will have substantial effects on costs and other aspects of egg production on both a regional and national scale, with some positive effects but also potential negative effects that need to be carefully considered. This paper discusses the US egg industry in the context of legislation and standards related to hen housing systems. It also addresses initiatives by retailers, nongovernmental organizations, and private certification organizations to shape production practices in the egg industry as well as how those initiatives might affect various aspects of the sustainability of egg produëtion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education and research in poultry science have resulted in outstanding contributions to the poultry industry. Despite the advancements in the poultry industry, the number of active poultry science departments has declined dramatically over the years, and this decline has been more significant in the United States. As a PhD student at the time of this writing, I have tried to discuss factors that might have contributed to this situation. The key message of this paper is that enhancement of the relationship between research centers and the poultry industry should always be one of our main concerns. Research projects need to have short- or long-term relevance to the industry. Synergism is what we really need today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, empirical information on the sustainability of commercial-scale egg production is lacking. The passage of state regulations specific to hen housing created urgency to better understand the effects of different housing systems on the sustainability of the egg supply, and stimulated the formation of a coalition, the Coalition for a Sustainable Egg Supply (CSES), to conduct research on this topic. The CSES is a multi-stakeholder group with 27 members, including food manufacturers, research institutions, scientists, restaurants, food service, retail food companies, egg suppliers, and nongovernmental organizations. A commercial-scale study was developed to better understand the effect of 3 housing systems (conventional cage, enriched colony, and cage-free aviary) on 5 areas related to a sustainable egg supply. These 5 sustainability areas represent effects on people, animals, and the environment: animal health and well-being, environment, food safety, worker health and safety, and food affordability. Five teams of scientists, each associated with a sustainability area, conducted an integrated field study at a commercial site in the upper Midwest through 2 flock cycles in 3 housing systems. This paper provides a brief overview of the CSES project to serve as an introduction for the papers that follow in this volume of Poultry Science. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presents the annual meeting of the association, 2005 in poultry industry in the U.S. Time and Place; Program chairs; Papers and Presentation; Nominations for awards and honors.

The author reflects on the impact of requirements for free electronic access to journals. He stated that the open access to papers published, has received support from universities and research institutes in Europe and U.S. He was proud to claim that the Poultry Science Association is one of those professional societies that have concern on the impact of requirements for free electronic access to journals.