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The Big Impact of a Small Change in Poultry Production

May 8, 2023
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What does 1% do? If I can improve something by 1%, what does it mean?

In May 2022, we spoke with Mike Donohue, Vice President for Agristats, about how small improvements in the health and performance of broilers can make a significant impact on the economics of poultry production. Mike is a 42-year veteran of the chicken industry and recently celebrated his 25th anniversary with Agristats.

An Industry Responsive to Consumer Demands

To start our conversation, we asked Mike to describe the evolution of the chicken industry, both in the U.S. and globally. “The growth of the chicken industry over the last 35 to 40 years, not just in the United States, but around the world, has been almost explosive,” he said. “China didn’t have anything really until 1980 or so when they started commercial chicken production, and they’ve grown to, I believe, the third largest producer in the world. Brazil is a similar situation; they’ve grown in both domestic demand and international demand. And the U.S. production has probably doubled in the last 15 to 20 years.”

The U.S. industry has also seen shifts in the products they produce, to better cater to consumers who are looking for easy-to-prepare, nutritious protein — at a good price. “We’ve been leaders, the chicken industry, in bringing affordable protein to people, not just in the U.S. but in pretty much every other corner of the world. You can see that by any statistic from the government or others on per capita chicken consumption.”

The Impact of 1%

Healthy birds are needed to supply the millions of tons of chicken meat to consumers, so we asked Mike about the importance of maintaining bird health and the impact bird health has on production. He stressed that all chicken producers are concerned about being good caretakers of their birds, by providing good husbandry and trying to mitigate disease and environmental challenges.

Keeping birds healthy allows for better production performance and livability. Mike explained that livability is an important factor for producers and provided the example below on what 1% improvement in livability can do for revenue.

  • The average chicken operation grows about 30 million live pounds a month.
  • A 1% increase in livability means:
    • 300,000 more live pounds
    • 240,000 more finished product pounds (at 80% yield)
    • At $1.20/pound, an extra $288,000 in revenue

But increased revenue is just half the story — costs are also affected by a 1% improvement in livability. “Whatever we can do from a management standpoint, from a husbandry standpoint, from a nutrition standpoint, from a veterinary standpoint, to bring more birds to the plant, to bring healthy birds to the plant, the better the performance is going to be and the better the cost of production is going to be for the company,” Mike said. And when input costs are as high as they are now, a healthy bird is even more important.

“How do we get a balanced diet, at the most accessible cost, that helps birds grow quickly and efficiently and live well, all the way through the life of that flock? That’s part of what I work on; that’s part of what the industry works on day after day.”

Investing in the 1% Improvement

If birds aren’t healthy, they don’t convert feed as well, and that’s an added cost to producers. Mike explained that if you can change something in your production setting (e.g., an alternative feed ingredient) that improves bird health — even if it’s an added cost — it typically means a better feed conversion ratio (FCR), which can make a big difference to revenue. But you need to make sure your return on investment makes sense. In the video below, Mike outlines an example of how adding an extra cost that improves FCR by 1% could definitely be worthwhile.

Improving the Bottom Line

A large part of Mike’s job is helping his customers find the 1% they can change — the poultry industry works with some big numbers, so small changes can add up quickly. In this way, Mike and Amlan have similar goals — we want to help our customers make changes to their operation that improve their bottom line. Our range of natural mineral-based feed additives help support optimal bird intestinal health and productivity, while adding value for producers. Thank you, Mike, for showing us the big impact a small change can make.

Calibrin®-Z Decreases Gizzard Erosion in Day-Old Chicks

January 10, 2023
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The gizzard is an important part of the gastrointestinal tract of poultry. The gizzard works to grind feed which enables digestion and absorption of nutrients to take place in species that lack teeth.

While the gizzard is a tough, muscular organ, the lining of the gizzard can be susceptible to damage as it interacts with the feed coming through the gastro-intestinal tract. Damage to the gizzard lining can cause reduced feed intake, low growth rates, poor feed conversion, and in severe cases increased mortality – all leading to poor flock performance. Gizzard erosion has numerous causes and is seen as early as day-old chicks. Early damage to the gizzard lining leads to increased morbidity and mortality in newly hatched chicks and can be attributed to the incubation process or to the hen’s diet.

Gizzard damage is not a new problem in the industry. It was discussed in research publications in the 1930s. But gizzard damage, and the loss of performance that it causes, continue to be a prevalent problem. In 2018 gizzard damage was reported as the most common enteric problem of flocks in Asia (Elanco Field Report presented at the 11th Asia Pacific Poultry Conference March 25-27, 2018). “Gizzard erosion can act as a hidden destroyer of performance in broilers. While it rarely outright kills the birds it will make them back off of feed and decrease growth rates. Field data has shown that hen feeds containing mycotoxins can have a negative impact on progeny.  The transmission of mycotoxins through the egg can produce gizzard erosions in chicks before they ever take the first bite of feed themselves,” said Jay Hughes, Director of Global Technical Service for Amlan International.

In addition to gizzard damage from nutritional deficiencies reported in early research, numerous further causes have been found for gizzard erosion (Figure 1). These include genetic predisposition, management factors such as feed outages or feed form, infections agents such as adenovirus and Clostridium perfringens, or toxins such as aflatoxin or gizzerosine. It has long been known that the diet of the hen could impact the newly hatched chicks. This was reported in research published in the journal Poultry Science as early as 1942. Tepper and Bird showed that gizzard damage in day-old-chick could be reduced by the changes to the hen’s diet.

Several poultry breeder farms in Asia were experiencing gizzard erosion in day-old chicks (Picture 1). The farmers theorized that toxins in the diet they were feeding their hens could be the problem. Calibrin-Z, available in select international markets, has been shown to bind multiple biotoxins, including Aflatoxin, Cyclopiozonic Acid, and the toxins produced by clostridium perfringens – all of which can contribute to damage to the gizzard. Therefore, the producers tested Calibrin-Z to see if adding it to the breeder flock diets would solve their problem. Several farms ran experiments to find this answer.

Picture1. Damage in gizzards of day-old chicks prior to adding Calibrin-Z.

 

On Farm 1, 30 newly hatched chicks were collected at random in the hatchery. Calibrin-Z was fed for one month, at a dose of 1 kg/metric ton of feed.  After feeding the hens Calibrin-Z for one month, 30 one-day-old were examined at hatch. Adding Calibrin-Z to the diet decreased gizzard erosion. Calibrin-Z was fed for another month at a stepped-down rate of 500 g/metric ton of feed. When 30 chicks hatched from eggs collected at the end of that period were examined the erosion problem had continued to improve, with zero gizzard erosions that were classified as severe or moderate (Picture 2).

Picture 2. Gizzards from one-day-old chicks from breeder hens fed Calibrin-Z for fifty-one days. Erosions improved at 30 days and improved further by day 51. No gizzard showed moderate or severe erosion after 51 days of feeding.

In a second experiment, five one-day-old chicks were dissected, and all 5 chicks had severe gizzard erosion. Calibrin-Z was added to the hens’ diet at 1 kg per metric ton and fed for 30 days. Chicks hatched from eggs collected at that point were examined. There were no observed gizzard erosions in those chicks.

A third breeder farm had a similar gizzard erosion problem in day-old chicks, but this farm also observed that the chicks hatched with discolored livers. Livers had a yellow coloring, which sometimes indicates incubation stress or mycotoxicosis. Calibrin-Z was fed at 1 kg /metric ton for one month and chicks from eggs gathered at the end of that period had normal, healthy colored livers and no gizzard erosions.

In both experiments, the results show feeding Calibrin-Z to breeder hens significantly reduced gizzard erosion in day-old chicks. The health status of newly hatched chicks can be affected by the quality of the diet fed to hens. Breeders can help reduce gizzard erosion and other clinical signs of mycotoxicosis by adding Calibrin-Z to their diets. To learn more about Calibrin-Z and to start a breeder hen trial, contact your local representative.

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