Animal nutrition in the 21st century - A poultry perspective

Poultry nutrition technologies in the 21st century will undoubtedly be similar to today's highly technical industry practices on numerous fronts. However, knowledge related to bird energetics, stress management and waste production appear to be evolving towards new management approaches. For example, recent and ongoing studies directed at evaluating the metabolizable energy (ME) system indicate that cellular energy supply is not necessarily reflective of ME consumption. A greater heat increment for protein ME calories vs those from starch and fat make low protein diets lipogenic. Increased understanding and application of cellular energy-nutrient relationships will be required to produce leaner birds. Oxygen required per unit protein synthesis is 380% greater than that for fat. Increased awareness towards atmospheric oxygen content will not only aid in reducing ascites, but also be necessary to produce leaner birds. Identification of growth limiting processes, following a period of stress mediated growth depression, may make it possible to minimize stress effects on overall bird performance. The focus in this area will likely be on intracellular environment-stress mediated perturbations and how to assist bird recovery. Heightened environmental concerns will force the industry to produce poultry products with minimal environmental impact. It is anticipated that these new opportunities and challenges will successfully motivate the poultry industry to reach higher production efficiencies in an ''environmentally friendly'' manner.