How poultry are housed and managed in order to ensure profitability, sustainability, and good levels of animal welfare are the challenging issues that commercial poultry keepers face, particularly where legislation is bringing about legal requirements for housing. This book compares and contrasts alternative housing with conventional and traditional systems for commercial poultry (laying hens, meat chickens, turkeys, waterfowl and gamebirds) with regards to welfare, disease, health, nutrition, sustainability and genotype-environment interaction.

Based on the proceedings of a recent symposium, this book aims to explore and ultimately define sustainability in the context of poultry production in Europe to create a durable industry for future generations. Four major themes are addressed in the book: resources - securing material supplies and maintaining a skilled workforce; market - strengthening positive links to end users; risk management - identifying and containing threats from disease and economic fluctuations; and environmental factors - maximizing contributions to waste management and food production while minimizing global...