Opportunities and Challenges for Application of Poultry Science and Technology into the 21st Century

Prospects are briefly reviewed for further advances in current poultry industry technology in the foreseeable future. It is concluded that in the most advanced industries progress should continue at a similar rate to the recent past in conventional genetics and breeding, nutrition and disease control. Significant benefits will also follow in the short-term from the application of molecular biotechnology to disease diagnosis and vaccine production. Technical advances now make it possible to produce transgenic chickens at acceptable success rates but applications of this technology to poultry breeding will not become significant till we have sufficient knowledge of the poultry genome, and especially the genes involved in production performance. For the undeveloped and less advanced industries it is argued that the level of advanced technologies to be implemented in those countries should be decided largely on market forces, informed by objective assessment of the diverse options available. The need for urgent international action on conservation of poultry genetic resources is also stressed.