Poultry India: Dr Mike Bedford on the future of poultry nutrition

AB Vista's Research Director Dr Mike Bedford discussed ‘Poultry Nutrition in 2025’ at the recent Poultry Knowledge Day in Hyderabad, India. 

The poultry industry will see further developments in the coming years, as the pressure to reduce reliance on antibiotics yet maintain production efficiency move us towards the need for an even greater degree of precision in nutrient delivery. 

In his talk, Dr Bedford explained how delivering the nutrient requirements of the bird very accurately – not under supplying, but not over supplying – will be crucial in maintaining production efficiency.

Know your ingredients

“In order to accurately feed your animal, you’ve actually got to know a lot more about the ingredients that you are using. And that means understanding the content of nutrients in your corn, in your soy, and all the raw materials that you’re using."

"Nutrient excess is to be avoided as much as deficiency - and a better understanding of the value of additives in improving digestive efficiency is needed so that the full value of their effects can be taken advantage of,” said Dr Bedford.

Key areas for development should therefore be:

• Improved understanding of physiological processes within poultry 
• Understanding how to extract more insight from analytical methods employed throughout the feed production process, examples being analysis of raw materials and feed production 
• Research within product areas to better understand mode of action, enabling further optimisation of product application.