PhD in Veterinary Sciences for Animal Health and Food Safety

Contacts

Supervisor

Achille Schiavone

Curriculum vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Phd thesis

Livestock farming is a major contributor to global pollution, impacting land use, soil erosion, and natural resource consumption, particularly the water required to grow crops for animal feed [1].

Among farmed animals, poultry has the lowest environmental impact, emitting 0.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide annually compared to 1.8 gigatons from cattle farming [2]. Poultry also provides an affordable, high-nutritional-value protein source that is free from most religious restrictions, making it a versatile dietary option [3].

To address sustainability, alternative farming systems, such as organic and free-range setups, require resilient, adaptable poultry breeds capable of thriving in low-input environments. Biodiversity plays a pivotal role here. According to the FAO, 55% of native poultry breeds are found in Europe and the Caucasus [4], and Italy has included 22 such breeds in its Indigenous Poultry Register [5]. Utilizing local breeds in extensive systems not only supports biodiversity but also enhances animal welfare and meat quality. Products from these systems are often recognized as traditional and are typically marketed as whole carcasses, increasing their value [7].

Project Goals and Scope

The project aims to advance research on sustainable, low-input poultry farming systems by reducing reliance on soybean meal and identifying innovative feed ingredients, such as protein peas, fava beans, and insects, including black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) [6]. A second objective is to protect biodiversity by expanding farming systems where local breeds, like the Bianca di Saluzzo, can thrive. These breeds, known for their resilience, perform well in low-input systems and support sustainability through their adaptability [6].

A key focus is improving animal welfare. Local breeds, such as the Bianca di Saluzzo, have longer farming cycles (150 days), necessitating well-designed housing and environmental enrichments to support natural behaviors. The Bianca di Saluzzo, a Slow Food presidium breed from Piedmont, was selected for the trial due to its suitability for slow-growing, dual-purpose farming.

Research Methodology and Design

The project investigates the integration of slow-growing local chicken breeds, sustainable farming practices, and environmentally friendly feeds. A trial was conducted with 192 male Bianca di Saluzzo chickens, starting at 39 days of age, divided into 24 pens (6 replicates per treatment group) and assigned to four experimental diets:

1. Control (C): Commercial diet.
2. Alternative (ALT): Soybean meal-free alternative diet.
3. Dehydrated Larvae (DL): ALT supplemented with dehydrated BSFL.
4. Live Larvae (LL): ALT supplemented with live BSFL.

BSFL supplementation constituted 5% of daily feed intake (on a dry matter basis).

Data Collection and Analysis

Growth Performance and Welfare Metrics

• Growth Parameters: Live weight (LW), daily weight gain, feed intake (DFI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were monitored.
• Behavioral and Welfare Assessments: Tests included fecal corticosterone levels, avoidance distance, tonic immobility, and feather condition scoring, complemented by video recordings every 28 days [7].

Carcass and Meat Quality Evaluations

• Birds were slaughtered at 147 and 174 days of age, with hot and chilled carcass weights, breast/thigh muscle weights, and yields recorded.
• Meat was analyzed for color, pH, and protein content using Near-Infrared scanning to detect abnormalities.
• Gut and organ samples underwent detailed examination, including chitinolytic enzyme activity analysis conducted by the University of Almeria [7].

Environmental Impact Assessment

The environmental impact of the diets was analyzed during a study abroad period at the University of Murcia, Spain, using a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach with SimaPro software. Impacts were assessed across four categories: global warming, human health, ecosystems, and resource use. Results demonstrated a 33% reduction in overall environmental impact for the alternative diet compared to the commercial diet.

Broader Implications

The project underscores the potential of integrating local poultry breeds and alternative feeds to enhance sustainability and reduce the environmental footprint of poultry farming. Through innovative practices, such as BSFL supplementation, and collaboration with partners like Entomo (Murcia, Spain), this research supports the EU-PRIMA project “SUSTAvianFEED”, aiming to promote biodiversity, sustainability, and animal welfare in poultry farming.

Conclusion

This study offers insights into sustainable farming practices for slow-growing chicken breeds and highlights the benefits of alternative dietary ingredients. By reducing dependency on conventional feed ingredients like soybean meal and optimizing local breed utilization, the project contributes to a more sustainable and environmentally conscious poultry farming industry.

References

[1]  G. Grossi, P. Goglio, A. Vitali, and A. G. Williams, “Livestock and climate change: Impact of livestock on climate and mitigation strategies,” Anim. Front., vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 69–76, 2019.

[2] FAO, The future of food and agriculture: trends and challenges, vol. 4, no. 4. 2017.

[3] A. Mottet and G. Tempio, “Global poultry production: Current state and future outlook and challenges,” Worlds. Poult. Sci. J., vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 245–256, 2017.

[4] FAO, “The Second Reports of the State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture,” no. May, 2015.

[5] A. Franzoni et al., “Overview of native chicken breeds in Italy: Small scale production and marketing,” Animals, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 1–13, 202.

[6] D. Soglia et al., “Distinguishing industrial meat from that of indigenous chickens with molecular markers,” Poult. Sci., vol. 96, no. 8, pp. 2552–2561, 2017.

[7] M. G. Strillacci et al., “Genomic and genetic variability of six chicken populations using single nucleotide polymorphism and copy number variants as markers,” Animal, vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 737–745, 2017, doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1751731116002135.

[8] R. Tauson, J. Kjaer, G. Maria, and R. Cepero, “Applied scoring of integument and health in laying hens,” Anim. Sci. Pap. Rep, vol. 23, no. Suppl 1, pp. 153–159, 2005.

[9]  V. Ferrante, S. P. Marelli, P. Pignattelli, D. Baroli, and L. G. Cavalchini, “Performance and reactivity in three Italian chicken breeds for organic production.,” 2005.

[10] R. B. Jones, “Fear and adaptability in poultry: insights, implications and imperatives,” Worlds. Poult. Sci. J., vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 131–174, 1996.

[11] T. Veldkamp and T. G. C. M. Niekerk, “Live black soldier fly larvae ( Hermetia illucens ) for turkey poults,” J. Insects as Food Feed, vol. 5, pp. 1–12, May 2019.

[12] I. Biasato et al., “Black soldier fly and gut health in broiler chickens: insights into the relationship between cecal microbiota and intestinal mucin composition,” J. Anim. Sci. Biotechnol., vol. 11, no. 1, p. 11, 2020.

[13] M. Cullere, A. Schiavone, S. Dabbou, L. Gasco, and A. D. Zotte, “Meat quality and sensory traits of finisher broiler chickens fed with black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L.) larvae fat as alternative fat source,” Animals, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 1–15, 2019.

[14] A. Dal Bosco, S. Mattioli, A. Cartoni Mancinelli, E. Cotozzolo, and C. Castellini, “Extensive Rearing Systems in Poultry Production: The Right Chicken for the Right Farming System. A Review of Twenty Years of Scientific Research in Perugia University, Italy,” Animals , vol. 11, no. 5. 2021.

Research activities

The sustainability of intensive farming system is considered low, and the situation will worsen every year. The main phenomena related to intensive farming are deforestation, greenhouse gasses emissions, excessive consumption and pollution of land and water [1]. Another side effect of this process is the reduction of genetic variability and the consequent vulnerability of animals to environmental stress [2]. Poultry farming has a better environmental impact than other animal production chains thanks to the high efficiency in converting feed into meat or egg. The shorter production cycle and the strong genetic selection carried out to increase production performance represent an advantage over ruminant or swine farming. This is particularly evident in the poultry meat production, in fact, modern broilers reach slaughtering weights in short cycles of about 40 days with a high percentage of meat yield [3]. Unfortunately, in addition to all the benefits listed above these high-performance strains (HPS) show welfare and health issues, skeletal imbalances, metabolic disorders, and muscle abnormalities, which affect the appearance of the meat, nutritional traits, and acceptance by consumers [4, 5]. These are some of the main reasons why new sustainable and alternative farming systems need to be identified. However, poultry meat and egg production rely on these HPSs presenting major animal health and welfare concerns [6]. As a result, there is a growing demand in developed countries for poultry meat and eggs from welfare-friendly farming systems [7]. Alternative poultry production is more expensive than intensive, but supports biodiversity, animal welfare, local economies and the multifunctionality of farms, providing eggs and meat to which a growing part of consumers attributes high ethical value, quality and taste [8]. Alternative systems (organic, biodynamics, free-range) require birds adapted to less controlled environment, high foraging aptitude, active immune response, and thermo-tolerance. The response of chickens to alternative systems and to different climatic conditions have not been sufficiently investigated and only few commercial breeds are available for these rearing systems, HPS, unlike Local Breeds (LBs), are highly unsuited to this purpose [9]. Nowadays, the preservation of poultry biodiversity is a key objective in all developed countries [10]. The possibility of improving LBs originates from the balance between the possible benefits (good health and welfare, resistance and resilience to heath stress, lower dietary requirements, reduced veterinary cares) and other unfavourable aspects (low performance, low meat yield) [11]. Accordingly, an essential step is the improvement of production efficiency in LBs. Crossbreeding is the main tool used in poultry, which normally involves a cross between HPS and LBs, with the aim of combining the production capacity of the former with the latter adaptability to natural environment. Cross breeding also maximizes the expression of heterosis and normally improves fitness characteristics [12]. Moreover, since the current HPS are specialized in either meat or egg production and egg production requires only females, the male of egg-type strain, due to their slow-growth rate, are killed at 1 day-old. Ethical reasons exist against this practice and the use of dual-purpose breeds could be a solution to this issue: the males and the females of local breeds could be farmed for meat and eggs, respectively. An additional reason to safeguard LBs derives from their ability to produce meat and eggs in alternative systems, with low-input diets and with outdoor run that produce meat and eggs with higher welfare standards [13]. These aspects meet the attitude of consumer in developed countries where people can make an opinionated decision about their meal taking in considerations animal welfare, sustainability, nutritional, sensory, and ethical factors. It is obvious that, in most countries where poverty and hunger is widespread, HPS still represents a good opportunity to provide quite cheap high value food [14, 15]. Worldwide, conventional farming systems account for 67% of poultry meat production and 50% of eggs; an increase in local poultry farming is therefore feasible if supported by a productive and economic perspective [16]. The conservation of native breeds is also an important component of poultry biodiversity. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) stated that 55% of all local poultry breeds are found in Europe and the Caucasus regions [16]. In Italy 22 breeds have been included in the Indigenous Poultry Register and most of them are included in the FAO Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS) database [17]

[1]       FAO, The future of food and agriculture: trends and challenges, 4 (2017)

[2]       M. De Vries and I. J. M. De Boer, Livest. Sci., 128, no. 1–3, pp. 1–11 (2010) 

[3]       M. J. Zuidhof, B. L. Schneider, V. L. Carney, D. R. Korver, and F. E. Robinson,” Poult.       Sci., 93, no. 12, pp. 2970–2982 (2014)

[4]       R. Relić, E. Sossidou, A. Dedousi, L. Perić, I. Božičković, and M. Đukić-Stojčić, Ankara Univ. Vet. Fak. Derg., 66, no. 4, pp. 423–428 (2019) 

[5]       M. Petracci, F. Soglia, and C. Berri, pp. 51–75, Woodhead Publishing (2017)

[6]       A. F. Soleimani, I. Zulkifli, A. R. Omar, and A. R. Raha, Poult. Sci., 90, no. 7, pp. 1435–1440 (2011)

[7]       W. M. Muir, H.-W. Cheng, and C. Croney, Front. Genet., 5, p. 407 (2014) 

[8]       P. Parrot and K. Walley, in Poultry quality Evaluation, pp. 313–334 (2017) 

[9]       A. C. Mancinelli, M. Guarino Amato, D. Meo Zilio, A. Dal Bosco, S. Mattioli, C. Castellini J. Dairy Vet. Sci., 4, no. 4 (2017) 

[10]     A. Franzoni, M. Gariglio, A. Castillo, D. Soglia, S. Sartore, A. Buccioni, F. Mannelli, M. Cassandro, F. Cendron, C. Castellini, A.C. Mancinelli, S. Cerolini, A. Sayed, N. Iaffaldano, M. Di Iorio, M. Marzoni, S. Salvucci, A. Schiavone, Animals, 11, no. 3, pp. 1–13, (2021) 

[11]     H. Nurcahya, S. Darwati, and I. J. Tambunan, 1, no. 1, pp. 63–73 (2020) 

[12]     I. Hoffmann, Worlds. Poult. Sci. J., 61, no. 1, pp. 57–70 (2005)

[13]     L. Baldinger and R. Bussemas, Org. Agric., no. 0123456789 (2021)   

[14]     P. Rosa, B. Ávila, I. Angelo, R. Chesini, T. Fernandes, J. Camacho, M. Bugoni, V. Roll, M. Gularte, Br. Poult. Sci., 62, no. 3, pp. 387–395 (2021) 

[15]     F. Kaygisiz, B. A. Bolat, and D. Bulut, Rev. Bras. Cienc. Avic., 21, no. 4 (2019) 

[16]     FAO, “The Second Reports of the State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture” (2015) 

[17]     A. Castillo, M. Gariglio, A. Franzoni, D. Soglia, S. Sartore, A. Buccioni, F. Mannelli, M.     Cassandro, F. Cendron, C. Castellini, Alice Cartoni Mancinelli, N. Iaffaldano, M. D. Iorio, M. Marzoni, S. Salvucci, S. Cerolini, L. Zaniboni, A. Schiavone, Animals, 11 (2021) 

 

Publications

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