High feed costs, regulations, demands bring uncertainty to poultry industry

With high feed costs, increased government regulations and consumer demands intensifying, the future of the poultry industry is difficult to predict. This was the focus of Alltech’s 10th Poultry Solutions Seminar, held in Hannover, Germany, recently.

At the seminar, a number of poultry industry experts gave presentations on their cutting edge research and on the issues that they believe will be of most importance.

Antibiotic resistance is getting more publicity and governments are starting to take notice. Dr Marcel Boereboom of the Royal Dutch Society for Veterinary Medicine discussed the impact this is having on the Dutch industry, following a study by the Dutch Health Council. He described how the Government of the Netherlands had, to date, banned certain antibiotics and implemented a targeted reduction of 50% (of 2009 levels) of the total amount of antibiotics used in food producing animals by 2013. This has had a huge impact on how poultry is produced.

Focussing on how to deal with this issue was Prof. Stephen Collett from the University of Georgia. He recommended a shift in emphasis in gut health management, from working against pathogens, to working with the intestinal microbial community. “This involves improving performance by accelerating the evolution and maintaining the stability of favourable intestinal microbiota. The three most important areas of an effective intestinal health management programme include: “seeding” the gut with favourable organisms, "feeding" the favourable organisms and "weeding" out the unfavourable organisms,” he said.

Prof. Roselina Angel of the University of Maryland described to attendees, research on how neonatal conditioning, resulting in epigenetic changes shows great promise in terms of improving phosphorus (P) utilisation. “By applying a moderate P deficiency in young chicks, the bird is conditioned to utilise P more efficiently throughout its life. The timing of the conditioning is critical and requires a clear understanding of skeletal growth, the main driver of calcium (Ca) and P requirements,” she explained.

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FNBNews, Monday, November 19, 2012

Safety issues concerning meat products put focus on specialised testing-[Transfreez Mobile Refrigeration -The Name stands for Refrigerated Truck]

The mislabelling of meat products sold for human consumption has serious implications from a safety and ethical perspective. With recent news stories of pork and horsemeat contamination in different parts of the world, a renewed need for specialised testing of the food supply has rapidly arisen.

For Muslim and Jewish communities, in particular, it is critical for consumers to know whether there is even the slightest contamination of foods that are considered permissible to eat (‘halal’ and ‘kosher’), having been prepared in accordance with Islamic or Jewish beliefs, respectively. 

To help serve the interests of these communities that together make up approximately 23% of the global population, scientists at the University of Münster, Germany, along with scientists from AB SCIEX, a global leader in analytical technology, have developed a new method for detecting pig and horse contamination of meat, including beef, chicken, lamb and others. 

Major concerns about inaccurate, fraudulent or misleading labelling of meat-based products were raised during 2013 following numerous reports of horse and pig meat being detected, but not disclosed as contents, in beef-based products sold in supermarket chains across Europe. Moving forward, this new method from the University of Münster and AB SCIEX allows food testing laboratories to test products quickly and easily for trace amounts of pig and horse contamination. 

“We are continuing our AB SCIEX tradition in partnering with experts in industry and academia to develop analytical tools that solve big problems,” said Vincent Paez, senior director of food & environmental at AB SCIEX. “The halal testing method is a new tool that effectively addresses the safety, religious, ethical and dietary concerns of consumers who avoid products with pig and horse meat.” 

The new method, which was recently published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, uses liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) to detect a number of biomarker peptides that are specific to pig and/or horse. 

“Scientists in routine testing laboratories worldwide will now be able to use this method to detect and distinguish trace amounts of pig and horse in many food products,” said Prof. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Humpf, head of the Institut für Lebensmittelchemie [Institute for Food Chemistry], University of Münster. 

As a leader in next-generation food testing technologies, AB SCIEX has previously developed similar methods for protein screening in food, including new techniques for detecting allergens such as eggs, milk, sesame seeds, nuts, and mustard simultaneously in food samples. Scientists at AB SCIEX are continuing to look into other similar areas of ethical concern, including detection of gelatin that has come from species such as beef and pork. 

Technical deep-dive 
The new mass spectrometry-based method offers a more accurate and reliable approach to meat speciation than other methods. It can detect markers of multiple, different animal species in a single run vs. traditional methods, such as PCR or ELISA. These older, widely-used approaches detect the animal’s DNA or intact animal proteins, respectively, but both of these approaches have limitations, particularly their lack of specificity, which can lead to false negative or false positive findings. 

The new method was developed using a two-pronged LC/MS/MS approach, utilising the TripleTOF 5600 system first to identify the unique protein markers specific to a meat species, then utilising the QTRAP 5500 system to detect and confirm the presence of targeted meat peptides in unknown samples. 

The QTRAP 5500 system uses multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) to detect each peptide and is then capable of providing sequence information by acquiring a product ion scan for each triggered MRM, which can be used to confirm the peptide’s identity. 

“One of our goals was to develop a method that could be widely and routinely used by scientists in food testing labs, many of which have suitable mass spectrometry platforms,” said Dr Jens Brockmeyer, research group leader, Institut für Lebensmittelchemie, University of Münster. “We also wanted to raise awareness of the new possibilities of MRM3 experiments with the QTRAP System, which can significantly improve sensitivity and specificity.” 

Horse and beef protein markers may differ by as little as one or two amino acids, so it is important to have confidence in the results when distinguishing between species in food testing. The new method presents the first MRM and MRM3 method for rapid and sensitive detection of both species (down to 0.13-0.25%), using routinely available MS techniques.

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Thursday, January 30, 2014 IST  Our Bureau, Mumbai

Govt offers 50% subsidy to upgrade meat shops, but MC fails to curb illegal roadside slaughtering [Transfreez Mobile Refrigeration]

While the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation is inviting applications from the meat shop owners to get 50% subsidy to upgrade the slaughter houses and increase the hygiene level, the majority of butchers working on roadside continue to mushroom under the nose of the civic body.

The butchers continue to slaughter animals in the open and that too near schools, hospitals, water bodies and religious places at various points in the city with tehbazaari team and health wing of the MC proving to be a complete failure in removing them.

Not only they slaughter animals in the open, there is no check on the disposal of biological waste. In clear violation of Slaughter House Rules 2001, they have failed to install any screen or black door to block the view for the general public.

Such roadside slaughtering is going on unabated at various places such as near Christian Medical College and Hospital, Daba road, opposite Sacred Heart School, BRS Nagar, near Shingar cinema, Buddha Nullah, the most polluted water body, Pakhowal road and Shimlapuri. It not only violates the rules of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act but also poses a danger to the health of consumers.

Talking to Newsline, Dr Sandeep Jain, a co-opted member of the Animal Welfare Board of India, said, “Providing subsidies to meat shop owners is not going to help much because the majority of slaughter houses run illegally on roadsides. They are not only polluting water bodies as there is no check on disposal of biological waste but they are also violating the Slaughter House Rules, 2001 which clearly say that an animal cannot be killed in front of another animal.

Neither they possess any deep freezers or hygienic equipment. MC needs to conduct raids at such points and stop these roadside meat shops first.”

An official from the health department maintains that there is neither staff nor vehicles to conduct raids. “We started raiding a few months back and removed some fish sellers and butchers but there is constant interference of councillors and political leaders who accuse us of snatching their livelihoods. Also, we do not have staff or vehicles to conduct raids daily,” said the official.

Talking about the subsidy scheme for meat shop owners, Dr Y P Singh from MC health wing said, “Ministry of Food Processing Industries at the Centre is inviting applications in which a meat shop owner can avail 50% subsidy on expenses incurred on upgrading his shop as per norms. The maximum subsidy amount is Rs 5 lakh and applications for the same are acceptable till February 15 at MC headquarters.”

Singh said that “February 4 is the last date for meat sellers to get registered and get licences”. “For a meat shop owner having an annual sale of more than Rs 12 lakh per year, it is necessary to get a license while for small shops, they have to get registered only.”
On roadside butchers, he said, “We are trying to remove them but staff shortage is a major roadblock.”

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Divya Goyal | Ludhiana | January 31

Suguna Foods to expand QSR chain Suguna Crisp & Crunch to 2,000 stores (Transfreez Mobile Refrigeration)

Poultry company Suguna Foods plans, which currently has one takeaway outlet in Bangalore called Suguna Crisp and Crunch (whose menu comprises fried chicken and burgers), plans to open 2,000 outlets across India in the next five years across the country. It will have frachisee-driven and small-format outlets.

“The prices of our chicken products are a third of what KFC or McDonald’s (Suguna’s competitors) offer, and we would definitely be more affordable. We will consolidate our presence in the southern markets before going national in the QSR category,” said Mohan V K, general manager, sales and marketing, consumer products, Suguna Foods. 

He added, “Our focus will be the Tier-II, III and IV cities, where major international chains are not present. It will be run on the franchise model primarily.” Suguna Foods will invest Rs 150 crore every year in new verticals in the foods business, such as the ready-to-eat, ready-to-cook, retail and QSR segments.

- FnB News

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India’s beef industry: trouble brewing

The slaughter of cows is banned in many states in India and the export of cow meat is prohibited across the country.

But go to any major Indian city and you will find steaks and beef burgers on the menu in high-end restaurants, a new phenomenon that has has led to confusion and protest alike.

Though India is the world’s second largest exporter of beef, a category that includes both cow and buffalo meat, domestic consumption is still very limited. This year, for example, India will consume 2.1m tonnes of beef and veal, according to the US Foreign Agricultural Service, while it produces 3.8m tonnes. Compare that with Brazil, which will produce 9.6m tonnes and consume 7.9m tonnes.

The anecdotal evidence, however, suggests this is changing.

“One just needs to look at the number of restaurants in cities serving beef and steak – they didn’t exist until recently,” says Arpan Sharma, spokesperson of the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations. “Much of that is from buffalo meat but as demand grows and people see there is profit to be made, some of that is obviously being served by illegal cow meat.”

        Among India’s urban middle class, beef is gaining popularity as some people travel abroad and develop a taste for the red meat and others move away from the traditional Hindu values their parents may have held.

        Take Basilico, an upmarket bistro in south Mumbai. There are more than 15 varieties of steak on the menu as well as beef burgers.

        “People prefer it because chicken, say a chicken sandwich, that has always been there and people want to try something new,” says Ajeeb Abdulla, the restaurant’s manager, who stresses that this is buffalo and not cow meat. “People are travelling more and more now, so they want the same thing to be available everywhere.”

        In fact, items labelled as beef in India are often buffalo meat. There is general confusion about the rules on eating, serving and producing cow meat in specific regions.

As the FT reports on Friday, the beef industry has become a highly political issue as religious groups have used the consumption and production of the meat to mark out minority Muslim communities, creating communal tensions.

        Before Partition in 1947, cattle were marched from Sindh in present-day Pakistan through the cattle belt of India and out into Bengal, notes Delwar Hussain, an anthropologist at the University of Edinburgh who has studied smuggling across India’s border with Bangladesh.

“This is a very, very old trade,” he says. “People have been managing to adapt their lives to the state’s attempt to try to control its border – this is Delhi, Dhaka, Islamabad, millions of miles away.”

        The pressures on the industry have been rising with demand, as the Indian public – very gradually – develops a taste for red meat and foreign markets take to buffalo meat.

This creates a large and dangerous black market. Officials at Peta, an animal rights group, estimate there are over 30,000 illegal abattoirs in India where cows are often slaughtered as well as buffalo – and it is widely accepted that this meat gets mixed up with the legal supply.

Chetan Sharma from People for Animals, an activist group, has raided six unlicensed slaughterhouses in the past year and says violence is inevitable. He describes these butchers as gunde, or thugs, and says they often position their operations near Muslim communities, who may not want Hindu values forced upon them, so they can stir up an insurgency if anyone tries to shut their business down.

        Another problem is that unofficial abattoirs often have very basic facilities and their owners have little understanding of public health regulation. As this meat trickles into India’s exports, the formal industry is suffering in terms of reputation as well as profits.

“You’re selling inferior products for export and there are quality issues,” says Fauzan Alavi, director of Allanasons, one of the country’s largest meat companies. “These exports aren’t from x company or y company, they’re all called Indian exports.”

        The government has been taking steps to support the trade and last year New Delhi introduced a new rule whereby exporters must show that they have sourced meat from abattoirs or processing plants registered with government authorities.

The next challenge is tracing meat across this vast nation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has been working with the government to develop a strategy for identification and tracking.

        “What happens is that animals will be transported, people have their own slaughterhouses completely illegally in a backyard and it ends up in an export cycle,” says Shweta Sood, a campaign coordinator at the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations.

As campaigning begins in the run up to this year’s general election, religious issues such as this are coming to the fore. It explains why, whatever support and regulation this vast and valuable industry needs, any government will struggle to push through hard-hitting reforms on this contentious issue.

Jan 02-2014: By Avanthika Chilkoti

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Largest Indian Food Processor Joins Ethiopian Meat Sector

The largest Indian meat processor, frozen foods producer and exporter, Allana Group, has invested USD 20 million to establisha a meat processing and exporting business in Ethiopia.

The government has provided 75 hectares of land in Ziway town, in the Oromia Regional State, and the company intends to begin commercial production by September 2014.

Aman R. Khan, head of the company, signed an agreement on Wednesday at the Ministry of Industry (MoI) with ETG Designers & Consultants Plc, a local private firm, for the establishment of a modern meat processing and exporting plant. During the ceremony, Khan asserted that the Indian-based Allana Group will strive to add value to the Ethiopian meat and the livestock sectors. According to Khan, the first phase of the project will see the employment of some 600 permanent staff. On the issue of environmental protection, Khan promised that a world-class effluent treatment plant will be constructed alongside the meat processing project. He said that the waste produced by the slaughterhouse will be processed to produce biogas, and the excess blood of the livestock will be re-used as animal feed.

Mebrehatu Meles (Ph.D.), minister of state at the MoI, said that Allana is in the process of acquiring additional land in the Borena Zone of the Oromia State, an area blessed with abundant livestock resources. The company is also looking at the Somali Regional State as it provides the rich and fertile ground ideal for meat processing. The minister of state urged that both Allana and the local companies commit themselves to meeting the deadlines. Allana hopes that the 'integrated meat processing plant' will be in production by September 2014, aiming to slaughter around 200 cattle and 5000 sheep/goats a day. Initially the plant expects to produce 75 tons of meat daily.

Allana Group, known as Allana Sons in India, exports frozen Halal buffalo meat, coffee, fruit and other commodities from India to some 70 countries. It was established in 1865 and has come to Ethiopia with its own capital and market know-how, Mebrehatu said.

The MoI is budgeting for export earnings of some USD 250 million in the 2006 Ethiopian fiscal year, yet its task is not helped by possessing only five slaughterhouses targeted at exports. The meat-processing sector of Ethiopia is the most untapped, but also the most treacherous, with perennial issues, including the illegal smuggling to foreign countries and supply side constraints. The Ambassador for India, Sanjay Verma, hopes the arrival of Allana will add more value to the Ethiopian economy, following on from the existing USD five billion investment by Indian companies.

BERHANU FEKADE, 4 JANUARY 2014
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Poultry Feed Prices in India Set to Drop

INDIA - Following a downtrend in the prices of key inputs over the last few days, poultry feed prices are set to turn cheaper within next couple of days.

Commodity expert Aditya Mishra told The Hindu Business Line that following a continuous fall in cost of production, prices of pre-starter mash and finisher products may drop by Rs 600-800 a tonne, respectively.

However, concentrate feed may remain unchanged currently, he said. Prices of soyameal, DRB and bajra dropped further this week.

In the physical market, soyameal dropped by Rs 150 to Rs 34,000 a tonne, while bajra dropped by Rs 150 to Rs 13,250 a quintal.

Di-calcium phosphate moved down by Rs 0.05 to Rs 34.70 a kg, while maize moved up by Rs 40 to Rs 1,490 a quintal. DRB dropped by Rs 100 to Rs 7,300, Rice bran oil eased by Rs 2 to Rs 53 a kg, MBM was at Rs 39 and mustard de-oiled cake ruled unchanged at Rs 14,700 a tonne.

Broiler concentrate quoted at Rs 2,010 for a 50-kg bag and broiler starter mash at Rs 1,550 for a 50 kg bag.

Pre-lay mash sold at Rs 1,040 for a 50-kg bag. “Layer concentrate 25 per cent” was at Rs 1,480 for a 50-kg bag while “layer concentrate 35 per cent” sold at Rs 1,165 for a 50-kg bag.

A mixed trend was witnessed in poultry products on Saturday. Broiler prices ruled firm at Rs 92-94 a kg, egg eased by Rs 0.15 to Rs 3.85, while chick went for Rs 27-29, up Rs 4 from previous level.

-The Poultry Site
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Demand May Perk up Poultry Products

INDIA - With domestic demand rising, prices of poultry products may increase, while feed prices may continue to rule around current levels over the next few days, said trade experts.

Aditya Mishra, a commodity expert, told The Hindu Business Line that ultry products have improved and it may improve further in the coming days, he said.

To reap better margins, poultry farmers have been selling broilers after letting the broiler to become a little heavier, resulting in an increase in feed consumption, said trade sources.

Meanwhile, with the cost of production being steady, prices of feed products remained unchanged on Wednesday.

In the physical market, soyameal dropped by Rs 50 to Rs 34,150 a tonne, while bajra dropped by Rs 200 to Rs 13,400 a quintal.

Di-calcium phosphate moved up by 15 paise to Rs 34.75 a kg, while maize was unchanged at Rs 1,450 a quintal. DRB went dropped by Rs 100 to Rs 7,400; Rice bran oil was at Rs 55 a kg, while mustard de-oiled cake dropped by Rs 100 to Rs 14,700 a tonne.

Broiler concentrate quoted at Rs 2,010, while Broiler Starter Mash sold at Rs 1,550. Pre-lay mash sold at Rs 1,040. Layer concentrate 25 per cent was at Rs 1,480, while layer concentrate 35 per cent was sold at Rs 1,165 for a 50-kg bag.

A positive trend was witnessed in the poultry products market on Wednesday. Broiler went up by Rs 5 and was at Rs 90-95 a kg; egg improved by 14 paise and was at Rs 4, while chick went for Rs 25, unchanged.

ThePoultrySite News Desk
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New year wishes from India's Leading Refrigerated Truck Manufacturers