Development of a Prototype Industrial Poultry Farming Unit
The poultry farming sector in Greece is one of the most dynamic sectors of the agricultural economy and represents about 5% of the total value of agricultural production. Organized poultry farming businesses in Greece produce a very large number of chickens and eggs annually, fully covering domestic demand. Poultry production is concentrated to the largest extent (>70%) in Epirus, while the remaining 30% is distributed in Central Greece, Macedonia, and Thrace”.
The aim of the proposed research project is the construction of an innovative model unit of industrial poultry farming in the Epirus Region, which will ensure the control of the nutritional quality of chicken meat products and the traceability of the authenticity of their ingredients along their production chain, so that full recognition and monitoring is ensured from the “bird breeding points to the plate”. In addition, the use of antibiotics in animal feed has been banned in the European Union. In this context, animal feed is now made without drugs, harmful chemical compounds, and antibiotics, with natural products and their derivatives, which are not harmful to animal health and can be accepted by the general public. Biochemistry, Biotechnology, and Immunology play a crucial role in exploring the improvement of animal nutrition with natural products, which, with the accumulation of knowledge achieved so far, are rapidly developing into an integrated, synthetic, and connective tool for ensuring and improving quality in this field. The studies will be conducted in two phases. In the first phase, measurements will be taken in farms that are part of existing conventional poultry farming units with the aim of recording the current state. In the second phase, farms will be established to improve the health and welfare of birds in the “Prototype Applied Poultry Research Unit”, which will provide the opportunity to test new breeding methods on an industrial scale. In the context of the project, the Immunology Laboratory at the Hellenic Pasteur Institute (HPI) will perform quality checks on conventionally farmed chickens and those from both phases based on the ratio of naturally occurring antibodies (NAbs) IgM/IgY(G) levels in chickens’ serum. Specifically, an analysis of circulating NAbs against actin and myosin cytoskeletal proteins, DNA, and the hapten trinitrophenol will be conducted in relation to the living and farming conditions of the chickens. Additionally, the immunoassays that will be developed under optimal conditions will be patentable.
