8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

1/15

History

Pigeons, ducks, and geese were bred in China more than 3,000 years ago. Chickens, developed from the Asian jungle fowl, were domesticated probably about the

same time. In ancient and medieval times in the Old World, chickens were raised primarily for

cockfighting.

In the 16th century, chickens were introduced into America from Europe, and turkeyswere introduced into Europe from America.

After cockfighting was outlawed in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain in the19th century, poultry fanciers raised chickens for exhibition purposes.

The modern poultry industry began in the late 19th century in Europe and America asbreeders began to stress meat and egg production.

Although eggs were artificially incubated in ancient China and Egypt, this method ofhatching poultry was not used on a commercial scale until the 1870's.

T

he first college department of poultry husbandry was established in 1901 at theConnecticut Agricultural College (now the University of Connecticut).

Discoveries and inventions relating to the scientific housing, feeding, and breeding ofpoultry led to the rapid expansion of the industry after the 1930's.

Production and consumption of poultry products increased markedly during World WarII when meat from other livestock was scarce.

Since 1945, improved methods of storing and distributing poultry meat and eggs havehelped stimulate consumption of these foods.

Important in the expansion of the poultry industry has been specialization in raisingbroilers.

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

2/15

Raising Chickens:Then and Now

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

3/15

Then

Throughout history, raising chickens has been an informal farmyard activity. Each family kept a

flock of birds for eggs, meat and by-products such as feathers and manure.This is a Dutch farm scene from the early 20th century.

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

4/15

Extra birds were carried to market and sold or bartered.These girls are from Aosta, Italy (circa 1920's.)

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

5/15

There are many ways to transport birds to market.

This Chinese farmer is from Fukien Province. (circa 1920's)

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

6/15

A chicken wagon arrives at a Havana, Cuba market. (circa 1920's)These chickens were raised by many different producers.

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

7/15

Live poultry trains were used in the USA (1920's).Each car could accommodate about 4,600 chickens and each wasequipped with a water tank, grain crib and a room for an attendant

who cared for the birds. Eggs laid on route were the property ofthe train crew. The birds were raised by many different producers,

and sold to brokers who brought the birds to railway stops for transport.

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

8/15

As far as mass production of eggs and chickens for meat, the ancient Egyptianswere probably the first to succeed in this. Hatching ovens have been in use in Egypt

for many centuries and continued into the 20th century unchanged from the timeof Moses. Each facility produced from 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 chicks a season.

The operators who lived on the premises had no thermometers to help regulate the temperature,but by the "feel" of the air recognized when the fires needed attention.

There was a relationship between the huge labor force required to build the pyramids and theorganization and mass production of food, in this case, chickens.

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

9/15

In the United States masses of chickens were raised as free range flocks

housed in a variety of buildings. These chicken ranches were found acrossthe country and usually near large cities. This scene is in California, circa 1930's.

A farmer at the Rancocas Poultry Farm in Brown's Mills, New Jerseynear Philadelphia feeds his birds.

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

10/15

Joel M. Foster was the founder ofThe Million Egg Farm, as Rancocas was known.Foster was a pioneer promoter of humane and environmentally responsible mass production of

eggs and birds. Besides writing a how-to book on the subject (1910), he developed and marketeda line of products that included industrial incubators, sanitizers and feeders.

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

11/15

Now

Raising chickens for eggs and meat changed from free-range farmingto factory production methods gradually from the 1930's to the 1970's.

It was discovered that chickens would lay more eggs and get fatter faster if you confined themindoors and kept the lights on at night. Such large numbers of birds cooped up

required large doses of antibiotics and a floor of wire mesh for droppings to pass through

in order to keep them healthy. Birds needed to have their beaks blunted so they didnot peck each other. So a controlled diet of mush was developed as well, that thebirds could feed on with their mutilated beaks.

About Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

& the Poultry Industry

By 1965 one person could operate a plant producing forty thousand

birds a day. Factory farming on this scale is known as CAFO which

stands forConcentrated Animal Feeding Operations.

All CAFO's create massive amounts of manure which has to be removed.

Poultry manure is traditionally a valuable and important fertilizer.The chicken manure has always been recycled by spreading it on the land.

However, CAFO's produce so much waste that the land cannotabsorb it and the excess is contaminating ground water, rivers and lakes.

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

12/15

The nitrogen rich waste causes excess algae buildup in nearby waterways.

Lakes and streams are deprived of oxygen, killing plants, fish and other organisms.

Corporate poultry processors escape blame for this environmental pollution, by claiming it's theresponsibility of the farmers who supply their factories.

Processing

ThenNow

All parts of the chicken abattoirs are, of course, automated. The chickens are taken from thetrucks and hung upside down by their feet on a conveyor belt. The belt then moves through an

electrically charged solution, "shocks almost all of them senseless. From there they move to theKill Room where a knife-like instrument cuts their throats; then down the 'bleed tunnel' where

their blood drains away into a vat of hot water which loosens the feather sockets and then pastrubber finger-like pluckers which remove most of the feathers and through a flame that singes of

the fine fuzz." Next in the processing, the head and feet are removed. In the Eviscerating Room,the birds are gutted by machines and inspected and graded by government inspectors. Finally,

they are chilled, weighed and packaged. Nothing is wasted. Those parts considered inedible by

humans are made into pet food, or, as in the case of legs, considered a delicacy in the Orient,exported. Even the feathers are processed and made into a component of chicken feed.

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

13/15

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

14/15

Francisco M. Fronda (December 22, 1896-February 17, 1986)

the Father of Poultry Science in the Philippines for his immense contribution

to the poultry and livestock industry.Education

In his childhood in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija,he was regarded as unusually

precocious since he can read and write at the age of four. He attended

elementary school in the town ofSan Isidro, Nueva Ecija.

At the age of 17, without high school education, he enrolled at the Universityof the Philippines College of Agriculture in Los Baos, Laguna.

In 1919, he graduated from the six-year course with the degree of Bachelor

of Agriculture. He was sent the same year to Cornell University in New York

as a governmentpensionado.

A year later, in 1920, he obtained his Master of Science.

In February 1922, he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Poultry

science, major in Physiology and minor in nutrition and pathology.

He also earned the distinction of being one of the first five in the world who

had a doctorate in poultry science.

Career and Contribution

worked extensively on the Cantonese, a breed of chicken from Canton,China. For 15 years, he culled, selected and bred the Cantonese to improvethe breed. He succeeded in developing the chickens, but the line was not

8/6/2019 Poultry Lecture

15/15

continued since all the fowls were consumed due to famine during World WarII.

was also the first Filipino researcher to work on improving duck meat. Theseducks were often referred to as "Fronducks," in recognition of his success inbreeding them and in producing stocks.

author of a textbook in Poultry Science Production for students in agricultureand also co-authored a series of books for primary and secondary students,entitled the Let Us Raise Series. He also produced around 500 articles on thepoultry and livestock industry.

received numerous accolades for his work, such as the DistinguishedService Medal and Diploma of Honorfrom the President of the Republic ofthe Philippines; the citation as "The Father of Poultry Industry in thePhilippines" by the Philippine Association of Animal Science; the degree of"Doctor of Science" honoris causa; and the "Father of Thai PoultryIndustry" by the Kasetsart University, Bangkok, presented by the Princess ofThailand in 1982. In 1983 he was conferred as a National Scientist byFormer President Ferdinand Marcos.