Making the most of research in small scale poultry keeping

11:00am-12 noon in Ring 2

Dr. Oluyinka Olukosi is a senior researcher in the Animal and Veterinary Sciences group at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) in United Kingdom where his research comprises applied and basic nutrition research areas. Prior to his appointment at SRUC, he obtained B. Agric. (Hons) and M.Phil (Animal Science) from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria and Ph.D. (Animal Sciences) from Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana in USA. His applied nutrition research is mainly in the areas of feedstuffs evaluation and strategies to enhance nutrient utilisation in poultry and pigs.

His basic nutrition research themes are in nutrient metabolism (especially minerals) and nutritional strategies to improve gut health. In the last nine years, Dr. Olukosi has authored, or co-authored, more than 130 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference abstracts or proceedings papers – all in the thematic areas of his applied and basic research. Dr. Olukosi is currently on the editorial board of Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture as well as serves as regular reviewer for several journals.

Smallholding, or family, poultry flocks offer many advantages in terms of traceability of poultry products, relatively low input economics and as a source of extra income in some cases. Smallholding poultry can effectively avoid, or at least significantly reduce, the negatives associated with large-scale poultry production including the effect of such large scale systems on degradation of the environment.

Nevertheless smallholding poultry production is not without its challenges including how to maximise the efficiency of its production, how to minimise the cost of production, disease outbreaks, stress, and nutrient excretion to the environment. Some of these same challenges are being addressed in reference to large scale production system and the proffered solutions can be scaled down to be relevant to smallholding poultry flocks.

The aim of this talk is to apply some of the solutions to the big challenges to smallholding poultry flocks. The talk will focus on (among other things) minimising stress and stressors in poultry flock, using your diets as sources of nutrients and prebiotics, approaches to maximising production efficiency (focusing on product quantity and quality), as well as reducing nutrient waste.

Full programme of events