For this week’s blog, we interviewed Dr. Gerald “Gerry” Havenstein, former head of the NCSU Department of Poultry Science. Dr. Havenstein discussed his highly regarded research on broiler performance changes over the past few decades, as well as his views on challenges facing the poultry industry in the future.
BRI Blog: As an expert in poultry genetics, you have researched how the poultry industry has improved broiler performance over the past half century. What has driven these changes? Nutrition? Genetics? Management?
Our research has shown that genetic selection for improved performance is responsible for about 85% of the increased growth rate and yield in broilers during the 44 years between 1957 and 2001. In a paper that several of my colleagues and I wrote about the growth, livability, and feed conversion of broilers from 1957 through 2001 (one of the most frequently cited papers in the Journal of Poultry Science), we observed that a male broiler used to take about 12 weeks to reach a target weigh of 3.5 lbs. Nowadays, typical male broilers are able to achieve that same weight in about 4 weeks.
BRI Blog: Where will further advances come from?
I believe that the greatest return on investment will come from genetic selection, both between and within lines. There is still lots of potential for increasing the growth and yield of broiler chickens. However, there is a concern with regard to the training of geneticists who will carry out the industry’s selection procedures in the future. That is fewer and fewer individuals are being trained in quantitative genetics due to the reduced number of positions available at breeding companies due to industry consolidation.
BRI Blog: What are the major challenges that poultry science will face in the future?
I think there are still three issues that must be addressed: 1) Food safety: Although we have the best food supply the world has ever known, there is still opportunity for companies to improve their food safety procedures. This is clearly borne out by the recent salmonella enteritis problems in a segment of the table egg industry. 2) Waste management: Technologies for managing farm waste have to become more cost-effective and must be adopted by the industry as a whole; but, until everyone is required to adopt such technologies, they will not happen. Companies who want to adopt superior methods currently are not doing so, because the costs involved make them non-competitive with companies who do not adopt them. 3) Transparency: I believe that technology has given us a very safe and better food supply, but some groups believe that free-range or organic farming is the only safe alternative to recent problems. Organic farming is fine for a certain small segment of the population, but production of the billions and billions of broilers that are required each year to feed the world in an affordable manner will continue to require large scale poultry production. The industry must step up and address the questions and concerns that their customers have about how they are growing and feeding the birds they market to them.
BRI Blog: What would you describe as your most notable achievements at NCSU?
I am very proud of what the Poultry Science Department at NC State achieved during my tenure as its Department Head, and it is hard to choose any favorites. Some of the important achievements during my tenure included the development of the Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center, the development of a new state-of-the-art instructional feed mill, the development of a training facility for poultry processing, and a new undergraduate poultry teaching unit. We also developed excellent collaborative research ties with a number of other universities around the U.S. and around the world. All of these things came about because of the excellent group of faculty that was present in the Poultry Science Department during my tenure.
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