Gary ThorntonGary Thornton is editor and publisher at ClearPoultry.com. Email him at [email protected].From the Author - Page 6Chicken Marketing Summit NewsMcDonald’s to discuss poultry antibiotics policyMcDonald’s USA Director of Quality Systems Ernie Meier will speak about the fast food chain’s vision for antimicrobial stewardship in food animals during the National Chicken Council’s Chicken Marketing Summit July 10-12, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.Consumer TrendsPoultry at center of retail grocery upheavalChanging consumer demographics have made health and wellness concerns – including the availability of natural and organic poultry and meat proteins – a crucible for success or failure in the retail distribution channel.Consumer TrendsMeat, poultry have rising protein competitors – plants!Protein is the hot consumer trend, but plant-based proteins are trending up in sales and vying for position with meat and poultry in the protein food space.Processing & SlaughterSecrets to antibiotic-free poultry productionIf there is a secret to antibiotic-free poultry production it is that producers are using powerful tools to make their ABF programs successful – in most cases these tools are old ones just better applied than in the past. Combine those tools with the customized use of prebiotics, probiotics and organic acids, and you have the formula for maintaining competitive performance in ABF poultry production.Processing & SlaughterTop US turkey producers rebuild flocks, invest after AIHighly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) interrupted the U.S. turkey industry’s expansion in live production in 2015, according to WATT PoultryUSA’s poultry company rankings, but investment in further processing capacity proceeded even while turkey producers continued to rebuild production.Processing & SlaughterTop 10 US chicken producers grow in new directionsNo. 1 ranked Tyson Foods, the largest producer of broiler chicken in the U.S., was one of only four broiler producers to register a reduction in ready-to-cook chicken production in 2015, according to WATT PoultryUSA’s Top Poultry Companies Rankings, but it was a stellar year for the Springdale, Arkansas-based producer of meat proteins.HomePoultry bites into beef’s position in retail meat caseRetail prices of fresh meat and poultry played a major role in the results of the National Meat Case Study (NMCS) for 2015 with whole-muscle beef losing space in the fresh meat retail case to ground beef, pork and poultry. Fresh meat packaging, at the same time, registered an increase in natural/organic labeling claims, more store branding and vacuum packaging. Organic meat product claims, for example, increased in 2015, with claims on chicken packaging up 6.7 percent.Broilers & Turkeys2016 chicken production under control, profitableDespite lower broiler chicken prices, chicken supply is under control – expected to rise by 2.5 percent in 2016 – and U.S. chicken producers should be profitable in the coming year. Speaking at the 2016 Annual Meat Conference, poultry industry economist Dr. Paul Aho said chicken prices are lower than in 2015, but feed and fuel prices are likely to remain low through 2018.Processing & SlaughterGlobal warming potential of US broiler productionU.S. broiler chicken producers have a phenomenal record of production efficiency. But what does that mean for the broiler industry’s environmental impact?Processing & SlaughterAntibiotics in poultry requires ethical dialogueDo poultry and meat producers often make the wrong arguments for the use of antibiotics in their flocks and herds? Possibly so, and this is reflected in public opinion.Broilers & TurkeysPoultry antibiotics policy begs for science, dataThe veterinary landscape for the production of food animals is changing with the FDA’s Veterinary Feed Directive, but, even as the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals comes under direct veterinary supervision, important scientific and ethical insights to drive future policy to reduce antimicrobial resistance are missing.Processing & SlaughterThe other side of poultry production transparencyWhen three executives from companies in the meat and poultry supply chain participated in a panel discussion at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) Antibiotics Symposium one might say they were in the hot seat – a high pressure situation in which a great deal of attention and scrutiny is focused on a person or organization.Previous PagePage 6 of 29Next Page