ELOGIO A LA AVICULTURA

MALTUSIANISMO 

Thomas Malthus (Surrey 1766 – Bath 1834) in his publication “An Essay on the Principle of Population”, 1798 (chapter I of Book One) defend the following idea: 

“The population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years, growing period by period, in a geometrical ratio. 

The means of subsistence, in the most favourable circumstances increase in an arithmetical ratio” 

And later affirms: 

“After wars and pestilences, with very high mortalities in a given region, the surviving population encounters a relative abundance of food resources. The growth capacity of the surviving population in favourable conditions, makes the original population recover in a short period of time.” 

On these affirmations, the Malthusianism extended in the nineteenth century society, the fear of periods of misery and famine if population growth was not controlled, either voluntarily or by imposed circumstances. 

Demographic reality gave him part of the reason. Thus, Britain goes from 15 million inhabitants in 1801 to 30 million in 1881, with similar developments in Belgium, Holland, Norway and Denmark. 

However, the industrial revolution development (industrial factories of consumer goods, new sources of energy and means of transport) of the nineteenth century takes away part of the reason at the time the goods available increase, at least to a significant part of society. 

This separation of social classes led to the emergence of social Darwinism and the enactment of protectionist laws. Thus, the Laws of Cereals (Corn Laws 1815 – 1846) introduced a system of taxes, on British imports of cereals, which were intended to encourage internal production. 

This situation of unstable balance, in Europe, remained until 1950 due to the two world wars. 

GREEN REVOLUTION AND POULTRY INDUSTRY

As of 1950, society became aware of the need to develop technologies that increase the productivity of plants and animals through selection and hybridization technics. 

Although there were many attempts, the majority failed or had limited successes, either due to poor genetic response or due to the consequences of activity such as soil and water pollution. 

However, two initiative had significant success: 

• Norman Borlaug, of the Green Revolution, selecting wheat in the Mexican state of Sonora.

• The Poultry Industry with the selection and hybridization of chickens for meat and egg production. 

Both initiatives contradict the prediction of Malthus because of the increase of food production at a geometric rate, matching or exceeding the growth of the human population. 

• Green Revolution

Norman Borlaug (1914 – 2009) is the creator of modern agriculture that gave rise to the so-called Green Revolution and earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. Their techniques managed to eliminate wheat rust first (1948), and then develop high yield dwarf wheat varieties (1956 – 1962). 

This allowed Mexico to achieve food self-sufficiency. This technology was also applied in Argentina, India, Pakistan and China. 

They went from 900 kg to 2.700 kg per hectare cultivated. 

• Poultry industry

Poultry selection began in the mid-nineteenth century in breeder associations in Germany, Belgium, France and United States, which groups from Canada and the United Kingdom joined at the end of the century. 

In the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris, the International Poultry Exhibition was held, which was followed in later years by Exhibitions in St. Petersburg (1902), the Hague (1921) and Ottawa (1927). 

The activity of these associations allows to determine the zootechnical characteristics of “native” breeds that in turn came from wild hens imported from Indonesia, India and other Asian countries. 

Two examples are the Livornesa hen whose origin is in Tuscany and which was exported to the United States in 1928, and to the United Kingdom in 1870. Based on the current Leghorn lineages capable of producing 320 annual eggs of 55g (17,6 kg of eggs) for a 2 kpv bird. 

The Cornish breed originates in Cornwall (England) around 1820 starting from Malaysian chickens. (1 kg in two years). Looking for a bird for the fights, a meat-producing breed was developed and was accepted in 1910 by The American Poultry Association. It is the basis of the current strains of meat, chickens with the capacity to achieve 2,5 kg in 32 days. Some bacteria commonly associated with this chicken are Salmonella enteritidis, Staphylococcus aureus y Campylobacter jejuni. 

ACTUAL SITUATION

It is estimated that 2.000 million birds were raised annually in 1930 for a population of 2.000 million people. 

Currently, for a population of 7.5 billion 90.000 million birds are produced, equivalent to 90.000 million tons of meat and 100 million tons of eggs. That is to say, for a population that has gone from 2.000 million (1930) to 7.500 million (2018), 3,75 times more, poultry production increased from 2.000 million (1930) to 90.000 million (2018), 45 times more. 

Malthus’s claims have not been fulfilled because of technologies in wheat, 2700 million tons in 2018, and in poultry farming, 190.000 million tons counting meat and eggs. 

As a summary, we can mention 4 stages of poultry improvement: 

1. Nineteenth and twentieth century until 1930, the characteristics of European and America races are established from Asian races. 
2. In the 1930s, morphological or phenotypic genetic techniques are used from standardized breeds lines. 
3. In the 1940s, it is complemented with quantum genetics techniques from crosses of the same line (white Leghorn for white eggs) or different breeds (New Hampshire and Plymouth for brown eggs and meat). Improvements in potential genetics must be accompanied by improvement in nutrition, and disease management and control. The controls are based on performance tests of birds housed in individual cages, in floor groups and in different countries with different climates. This establishes the heritability of each character. 
4. From 1990s molecular genetic techniques were introduced. The use of genetic markers allows to accelerate the selection process by identifying genetic characters prematurely. 

In laying birds, the three techniques (phenotype, quantitative and molecular) aim to fix internal quality, shell quality, the sequence of posture without interruption, the behaviour and nutritional parameters. 

In meat poultry, phenotypic genetics techniques are applied (feather colour, egg and crest type depend on few genes and the environmental influences is scarce) and quantitative (weight, consumption, egg production and fertility depend on many genes and environmental influence is high) seeking performance, conversions, meat quality, texture, protein, fat or cholesterol content. The new techniques of molecular genetics (macrochromosomes 1 to 5 contain most of the genes to improve birds) will also allow the evaluation of intestinal health, measured by footpad scoring quality, water consumption and general immunity, and the sensory quality of the meat (composition, tenderness and channel performance). Finally, we will have to pay attention to the characters related to tibial dyschondroplasia and deep pectoral myopathy. 

All this could be summed up in an improvement in the laying of 15 times in the annual number of eggs, of 30 times in the annual weight of the egg produced and of a meat improvement of 50 times more. No animal production has achieved such levels of improvement.

PRAISE OF POULTRY FARMING

The work of improvement and industrialization of poultry production has mostly been developed in the private sector. Hence its poor public recognition, despite its great influence on the socio-economic development of countries from the 80s. 

It is fair that, just as the Green Revolution deserved a Peace Nobel Prize, the poultry industry should also be recognized with this universal award. 

The arrival and development of the poultry industry in the different countries was achieved thanks to the efforts of farmers, poultry technicians, scientists, poultry associations and private capital. 

The development in each country has led to notable improvements in human nutrition (not only wheat feeds man) and the access of the disadvantaged classes to high quality protein at an economic price, which has contributed to the pacification of many countries. 

ORGANIC PRODUCTION

In a world with a forecast of reaching 10.000 million inhabitants, it is essential that agricultural and animal production be 100% organic, if we do not want contaminates soils and aquifers irreparably. 

In this context, the poultry industry has the necessary elements (high productivity, scientific knowledge of genetic, biochemical and physiological mechanisms and a minimal impact on waste and emissions production) to be one of the pillars of human nutrition of the future. His study is essential! 

IMAGES:

1. Imagen de Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International. Autor: Hallurg13  
2. “Dr. Norman Borlaug” by Texas A&M AgriLife is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0  
3. Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/it/photos/fattoria-di-pollame-polli-1544654/  
4. Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/it/photos/pollo-livorno-agricoltura-gallo-1339310/  
5. Image of Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. Author: Bodlina  
6. Image de Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International. Autor: Kanapkazpasztetem 
7. Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/it/photos/pollame-gallina-agricoltura-giovani-1904422/  
8. Ross 308. Aviagen Group 
9. Cobb 500. Cobb-Vantress 
10. Arbor Acres. Aviagen Group 
11. Hubad Breeders.