Metabolic disease in poultry - shared mechanisms of cardiovascular and muscle pathologies?

摘要

The global production and demand for poultry continue to increase. Recent estimates suggest that currendy in excess of 6.8 billion laying hens produce over 1.2 trillion eggs per annum and that in the poultry meat sector 60 billion broiler chickens and640 million turkeys are slaughtered each year (FAO-Stat, 2015). It was estimated that global demand for poultry meat would increase by 1.6% in 2014 and by an average 2.3% per annum until at least 2023 (OECD & FAO, 2013). In the UK approximately 900 million broiler chickens are slaughtered per annum at an average body weight of around 2.2 kg, indicating the production of 1.6 million tonnes of meat and a value of ￡1.8 billion to the UK economy. The staggering scale of output in the poultry sector has been supported by tremendous improvements in bird production traits achieved by the genetic selection for high levels of performance and feed conversion efficiency, the development of optimum nutrition strategies and defined and accurate environmental control. It has been proposed that in meat animals, selection for continued improvement in growth and efficiency should take account of potential physiological limits to growth and consider that approaching such limits may account for problems with animal health and product quality (Webb & Casey, 2010). Such problemshave been addressed and reviewed by Julian (2005) and are described as "production and growth related disorders or metabolic diseases".