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May 10, 2023 World Poultry Day
In August 2012, the Hungarian initiative was supported by two world organizations operating in this field (WPSA, IPC), so May 10th is World Poultry Day every year. The event provides an opportunity for the product line, which plays a prominent role in feeding the earth's population, to draw attention to its role in nutrition, its current trends, and its future challenges. The role played by poultry in the world's national diet is indisputable, as poultry meat is currently the most produced and therefore consumed type of meat. It can be said without exaggeration that poultry meat and eggs together are the most significant source of protein for mankind today. With the increase in population, this role will continue to strengthen, as it is able to produce products of excellent quality and high nutritional value in a very efficient way, with a low environmental footprint and without religious prohibitions. It is no wonder, then, that both the world's poultry meat production and egg production are growing dynamically. It is important to emphasize that all actors in the production chain (breeding, husbandry, slaughter and processing) and the related business branches (feed industry, husbandry technology) are constantly working to use the diminishing resources of our Earth (arable land, water, energy) as efficiently as possible and thus ensure adequate quantity and quality of food for the ever-increasing world population. World meat production, Distribution of world poultry meat production. The important objective of the sector has been hampered and hindered by several factors in the past period. It is also a problem at the global level, and the bird flu epidemic has caused a serious problem in some geographical regions. In addition to the application of strict epidemic prevention measures, more and more countries are raising the possibility of vaccination against the disease. EU In the case of the European Union - primarily due to the extremely strict animal welfare, animal health and hygiene regulations in force - the growth is not very dynamic, but here too it is an undoubted fact that the poultry sector is of strategic importance, both from an economic and food point of view. In the EU's Food System, the sector boasts an estimated production value of 38 billion euros and annual exports of more than 2 billion euros, providing livelihood and work for more than 370,000 people. Chickens, turkeys and ducks are raised to a high standard on 25,000 family farms across Europe. Poultry meat production and species proportions in the EU. Unfortunately, the bird flu epidemic also caused serious damage to poultry flocks in the European region. The legal framework for vaccination use has been established by the Commission, and trials and tests ensuring the possibility of its application are ongoing. The Russian-Ukrainian war and its economic and political consequences are an inevitable event in poultry production in the European region. To help Ukraine, the EU has liberalised imports from Ukraine, leading to a significant increase of poultry meat imports (+60 % in 2022), but also feed materials and eggs. While helping Ukrainian citizens is a necessity, the poultry meat sector should not be the only one paying for the rest of the community. Especially when products imported from Ukraine do not meet the same standards that the ones imposed on EU producers. This is not only fair and equal competition, but can also be expected in terms of consumer expectations (antibiotics, animal welfare) and food safety for EU consumers. Furthermore, unlike EU and the European people, these measures do not help the Ukrainian people, but a few oligarch companies operating in Ukraine. In the future, we will have to seriously consider not only external but also internal threats. The European Commission is preparing to create numerous laws that could harm and drastically reduce the EU production of poultry meat. Among these, the Commission's draft legislation on animal welfare should be singled out. The community currently has one of the strictest regulations in the world. When modifying the animal welfare legislation, the Commission should pay equal attention to the principles of environmental, economic and social sustainability and not only focus on animal welfare aspects, without considering the consequences on other pillars of sustainability. At the same time, we support all initiatives that strengthen these pillars of sustainability. Such an initiative, called ‘Together for heritage protection’, launched on November 2, 2022, aims to collect one million signatures by November 1, 2023 at the latest to preserve the values associated with rural areas for future generations, as well as to support sustainable agricultural production, as well as rural goods and food production.
On May 12, 2023, the initiation country (Hungary) the representative organization (Poultry Product Board of Hungary) will celebrate the World Day event with a large-scale conference in Vajda Hunyad Castle.
Balázs Győrffy, the president of the Chamber of Agriculture, and the representative of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture will also give a welcome address at the event.
President of AVEC, Gert-Jan OPLAAT is a speaker, who draws attention to the most important issues of European poultry production.
‘How to continue eating meat?’ with his presentation, campaign manager Andrea BERTAGLIO (European Livestock Voice) sheds light on the fact that intensive livestock breeding and the products derived from it comply with other sustainability aspects.
András MEDVECZKI (Ceva – Phylaxia Zrt.) poultry veterinary health manager, in his presentation on ‘Avian flu vaccination protection’, in addition to providing information on the role of vaccines in protection, he also presents the complexity and intricacies of the topic to the audience.
The presentation ‘Automation, robotization in the poultry industry’ by Péter ZOLTÁN, consultant (UBM Fedd Zrt.), may still seem fantastic to many, but it excellently presents the development and development directions of the poultry sector.
