The U.S. poultry industry has essentially doubled the amount of money it has spent per chick on hatchery vaccinations since 2010.
Mike Donohue, vice president of AgriStats, spoke about poultry health and economics issues – and how they often relate to each other -- at the Poultry Market Intelligence Forum, held January 31 at the International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta, Georgia.
According to Donohue, the broiler industry has more than shown that it is committed to raising healthy birds. According to figures shown by Donohue, the industry spent on the average of just below .60 cents per bird for hatchery vaccinations from January to June in 2010.
That figure reached the one cent mark around 2014, and it remained steady for another year before moving up further. Donohue said that in 2017, the amount spent per chick was around 1.2 cents.
Many hatchery vaccinations are given for specific needs, such as coccidiosis, Donohue said. But there are other needs and challenges that poultry producers will need to address with vaccinations, depending on things like the geographical region and the time of year.
Regardless of what the hatchery vaccinations are used for, it signals a commitment to good health for not only the birds being produced, but for the consumers that ultimately purchase the poultry products.
“It doesn’t come free,” Donohue told the IPPE attendees. “The industry is investing money in enhanced programs to allow it to create a good chicken, a healthy chicken that we can produce for our families and our friends and for consumers all across the country, and indeed around the world.”
Donohue was one of three speakers to give a presentation at the Poultry Market Intelligence Forum. Also speaking was fellow economist Paul Aho, Poultry Perspective, and Sonny Perdue, United States secretary of agriculture and former governor of Georgia.
