Scientific literature recommends that feed is withdrawn from poultry prior to slaughter to reduce the potential for carcass contamination from crop and intestinal contents. Much research focused on identification of optimum withdrawal times and conditions to maintain slaughter/processing efficiency of poultry. This paper reviews the basic research, as well as practical aspects of implementing feed withdrawal programmes under field conditions. It should be pointed out that, commercial application of feed withdrawal programmes may vary from one country to another, not only because of differences in live production capacities and practices but also in slaughter/inspection regulations. Potential for carcass contamination, both visually and microbiologically, live weight shrink, and saleable yield losses must be taken into account in designing, implementing and monitoring feed withdrawal programmes.

The two most important quality attributes for poultry meat are appearance and texture. Appearance is critical for both the consumers' initial selection of the product as well as for final product satisfaction. Texture is the single most important sensory property affecting final quality assessment. Appearance quality attributes include skin colour, meat colour, cooked meat pinkness, and appearance defects such as bruises and haemorrhages. Since appearance is so critical for consumer selection, poultry producers go to great lengths to produce products with the appropriate colour for a particular market and to avoid appearance defects which will negatively effect product selection or price. Historically, meat tenderness was primarily associated with live bird quality factors such as breed, sex, or age. However, modern production practices produce highly uniform young birds in which the major problems associated with meat texture are the result of processing errors or early deboning. Although other quality issues such as juiciness and flavour are important, they are more a function of product preparation and infrequent, but acute, production or processing errors which are usually easily corrected or avoided. An understanding of the major issues contributing to poultry colour and meat tenderness is critical to producing uniform quality products.

Post-mortem electrical stimulation (ES) is not a new technology but has only recently become a commercial possibility for use in broiler processing. In broilers, ES seeks to reduce the toughness of meat that is deboned prior to the normal aging (or maturation) period. This is different from its previous use in red meat in which it is largely used to improve many aspects of the quality of meat that is aged on the carcass. Although many different ES techniques have been studied, the systems can be grouped into low amperage (0–200 mA per bird) and high amperage systems (350–500 mA per bird). Both types of systems have been used by processors and high amperage stimulators are available from a commercial manufacturer. The low amperage systems vary in their conditions and are commonly combined with other, enhancing procedures. The low amperage systems accelerate rigor development and prevent sarcomere shortening in the breast fillet after deboning, while the high amperage systems also induce the additional effect of myofibrillar damage to further improve tenderness. ES is a complex technology with many factors that need to be controlled for its successful implementation.

The reduction in levels of organochlorine pesticide residues in food of animal origin in the past 30 years has been achieved especially by controlling entrance via the feed chain. A further reduction was achieved by registration and use of less persistent pesticides both for direct treatment of animals and of plant material. The remaining problems (e.g. dioxins and PCB's) are much harder to tackle. They are either of a ubiquitous nature and their impact might be enlarged by the present welfare trend requiring more contact of the animals with their environment, or they are of a sporadic nature making checking and control quite hard to execute. The present public demand for a farm animal production that is in balance with the animals' needs and a residue free product adds even more complications to the system.

Although thermophilic campylobacters have sometimes caused disease in poultry, both in challenge studies and under field conditions, the organisms are usually carried asymptomatically in the alimentary tract of infected individuals. There is, however, a significant association between campylobacters in poultry and human enteritis. Properties of Campylobacter jejuni that are associated with intestinal colonisation in the bird are discussed. The organism is morphologically and physiologically well adapted to its ecological niche in the mucus-filled crypts of villi, but establishment and maintenance of colonisation involve a complex interaction between bacterium and host that has yet to be fully elucidated. Bacterial factors include the possession of intact, functional flagella and the type of flagellin expressed. Also, colonisation has been shown to depend on the expression of certain stress-response and virulence genes.

Attempts to prevent or reduce campylobacter colonisation by establishing a competitive or antagonistic microflora in chicks have not always been successful, and possible reasons are considered. Some protection was obtained with bacteria such as mucin-utilising coliforms, but the protective potential of these organisms appears to be limited. In other studies, the natural occurrence of colonisation resistance has been demonstrated in broilers and its development followed. Experience suggests that the phenomenon depends on the presence of strictly anaerobic bacteria that have yet to be isolated and identified.

This paper gives a detailed description of the working method of dissection of the turkey carcase into its parts and additionally, the cutting of the breast and leg (thigh and drumstick) to obtain the proportions of tissues. The particular cuts during the dissection are explained step by step by means of twenty-eight colour photos. The paper is completed with a definition of terms concerning the carcase and with anatomical illustrations. The objective of the description is to establish a recommended standard for the dissection of the turkey carcase in order to allow comparisons of results.

Poultry can be managed under different feeding systems, depending on the husbandry skills and the feed available. These systems include the following: (1) a complete dry feed offered as a mash ad libitum; (2) the same feed offered as pellets or crumbles ad libitum; (3) a complete feed with added whole grain; (4) a complete wet feed given once or twice a day; (5) a complete feed offered on a restricted basis; (6) choice feeding. Of all these, an interesting alternative to offering complete diets is choice feeding which can be applied on both a small or large commercial scale. Under choice feeding or ‘free-choice feeding’ birds are usually offered a choice between three types of feedstuffs: (a) an energy source (e.g. maize, rice bran, sorghum or wheat); (b) a protein source (e.g. soyabean meal, meat meal, fish meal or coconut meal) plus vitamins and minerals and (c), in the case of laying hens, calcium in granular form (i.e. oyster-shell grit). This system differs from the modern commercial practice of offering a complete diet comprising energy and protein sources, ground and mixed together. Under the complete diet system, birds are mainly only able to exercise their appetite for energy. When the environmental temperature varies, the birds either over- or under-consume protein and calcium. The basic principle behind practising choice feeding with laying hens is that individual hens are able to select from the various feed ingredients on offer and compose their own diet, according to their actual needs and production capacity. A choice-feeding system is of particular importance to small poultry producers in developing countries, such as Indonesia, because it can substantially reduce the cost of feed. The system is flexible and can be constructed in such a way that the various needs of a flock of different breeds, including village chickens, under different climates can be met. The system also offers a more effective way to use home- produced grain, such as maize, and by-products, such as rice bran, in developing countries. Because oyster-shell grit is readily available in developing countries at lower cost than limestone, the use of cheaper oyster-shell grit can further benefit small-holders in these countries. These benefits apart, simpler equipment suffices when designing and building a feed mixer on the farm, and transport costs are lower. If whole (unground) grain is used, the intake of which is accompanied by increased efficiency of feed utilisation, the costs of grinding, mixing and many of the handling procedures associated with mash and pellet preparation are eliminated. The choice feedstuffs can all be offered in the current feed distribution systems, either by mixing the ingredients first or by using a bulk bin divided into three compartments.

The level of a single essential amino acid that is either deficient or in excess of requirement may result in a diet that does not optimise the economic efficiency of a laying hen production system. The objectives of this study were, first, to quantitatively describe the effect of increasing the dietary levels of a single limiting amino acid on the egg production characteristics of laying hens by a statistical analysis and assessment of the published literature. Second, to compare three methods of describing the dietary amino acid concentration; as a proportion of the diet (g/kg of feed), as a proportion of the crude protein (g/kg crude protein) or as a proportion of the ideal crude protein (g/kg ideal crude protein). Sufficient published experiments were available to give statistically valid comparisons of lysine (42 experiments), methionine (77 experiments), methionineplus cystine (77 experiments) and tryptophan (21 experiments). Amino acid concentration was described by three different methods; concentration in diet (g/kg of feed), concentration in the crude protein (g/kg crude protein) or concentration in the ideal crude protein (g/kg ideal crude protein). An exponential curve gave the best fit to these data sets for almost all variables. The exceptions were egg weights with tryptophan (no relationship (p>0.05)) and egg weights and egg mass output with methionine plus cystine (linear relationship only). Expressing the egg production responses as a proportion of the crude protein, as compared to a proportion of the diet, gave a reduction in the residual standard deviation and increased the proportion of explained variation for all variables examined. The results indicated that expressing amino acid supply as a proportion of crude protein is preferable in laying hen nutrition.