Student ID Number B007*****

Student Name John Smith

Extended MSc IB/ MSc Marketing (Graduate
Programme Title
Certificate)

Module Code and Title BMG575 Research Methods

Module Leader QAHE /

Matt Thompson / Leigh Stevens / James Mshelia
Lecturer

Presentation Title Title of Research Project

Academic Declaration: Students are reminded that the electronic copy of

their ppt/essay may be checked, at any point during their degree, with
Turnitin or other plagiarism detection software.
Date Submitted
Title of research topic: Challenges in Egg Production in UK poultry farming

Student name

Student ID no.
Introduction

All around world, Eggs are the main part of people’s breakfast as it is the main source of protein
requiring by human body. Eggs meal has the ability to replace the organic food and agri-food.
Poultry farming is substitute part of agriculture with fastest growth and became evident during
1990s and 2000s. To fulfil the demand of food industry, supply and logistic business totally depends
on production of Egg measurements. In this area, the production is d=facing many issues such as
birds dying due to bird flu, lack of management in shed handling for birds as on an average grill shed
held by 25000 and 40,000 birds in the year of 1990 and 2000 respectively. This research identifies
and analyse the possible challenges of egg production in UK poultry farming sector and also will
focus on sustainability issue of industry.
My Opinion on Research

As the egg is key source of protein as well one of the main ingredients of meal, it is highly important
to determine the foundation of egg production by focusing the challenges and solution to sustain
the poultry farming business. The egg production sales value has increased over year from 2008 to
202o with the value of 25.86% to 87.23%. Egg has the different variety in itself causing to understand
its demand in people as we have Barn, Free Range, Enriched and Organic eggs. Different people like
different eggs and that is why it has the impact on the procedure of egg production from producing
to packaging and buying patterns. My research will helps to determine the issues and challenges that
are facing by egg production poultry farming industry.
Research Aim
The research aim is to analyse the impact of bird flu disease & problems faced by Egg
production and other challenges that has the emphasis in poultry farming industry.
Research questions
1. What are the major challenges that UK poultry farms confront in egg production?

2. What are the welfare concerns related to egg production in UK poultry farming?
3. What technical breakthroughs and innovations can be used to tackle egg production
issues in UK poultry farming?
4. How can the environmental sustainability concerns related to egg production in UK
poultry farms be addressed?
Research objectives
1) Examine disease management options for increased egg production
2) To assess the welfare status & the standards of housing systems like free-range
systems, organic farming, barn, and enhanced cages.
3) Examine how environmental elements such as temperature, illumination, and air
quality affect egg production in UK chicken farms. Determine the ideal environmental
conditions for increased egg production;
4) Innovations in technology and automated systems that can improve efficiency,
production, and welfare in UK poultry farms.
Research rationale

The rationale for my research is bird welfare, sustainability, and reacting to consumer tastes
are all reasons for researching the issues of egg production in UK chicken farms. By tackling
these issues, one can help to design more ethical, efficient, and sustainable egg production
systems (RSPCA, 2017) which will benefit the industry, consumers, and environment. The
paper is academically important because it generates knowledge, scientific understanding,
innovation, education, and collaboration and adds value to a better understanding of the
poultry industry & improves operational practices. Moreover, it is essential to ensure food
safety, regulatory compliance, disease control & consumer satisfaction.
Literature Review

The poultry farming industry puts more emphasis on animal welfare regulations as they all
are forced to follow the rules and regulations published by government of UK. As the
European Union suggested some guidelines related to availability of more rooms for hens,
nesting area, perches, and opportunities for more natural growth. Due to that enhanced
cages, qualitative barns and free-range procedures adopted by poultry business (Mcdougal,
2022).

Animal Welfare Standards in UK

A survey has been conducted by UK government agencies on public opinion towards current
UK farming practices highlights the points such as 17% believes that UK has very high
animal welfare standards on farming. Majority of people says that UK has high standards on
animal welfare but there are still some bad cases with highest percentage as 61. 8% people
agreed on low animal welfare standards on farms but sill there are good cases whereas,
very few people believes that UK has very low animal welfare standards with only 1% and
rest of the 13% people are unaware bout the effectiveness of animal welfare standards on
UK farms (AHDB, 2021).

Source: (AHDB, 2021)

Crisis in UK Egg Sector

The main crisis in UK egg sector are scale of high cost and startling speed. Due to this rise
in cost, many of farmers are in serious danger of stepping back from business if returns do
not improve and that resulted in startling down fall in chiks being placed by the organization.
In Joice and Hill poultry conceive one third of UK lying hens says that 1.5 million shortfall has
been reported during winter season because of avian influenza. In 2020 and 2021 UK faces
sharp decrease in flock to 37 million to 40 million adult lying hens. (Department of
Environment, food and rural affairs, 2021). In July 2022, adult lying population faced 3 million
less than 2021 and 2020 and also this trend was continued as time passes. With this reason
some of the producers forced to going out of business and leave the industry and some has
cancelled chick and pullet orders that became a tension for future poultry farming sector.

Beak Trimming Challenge

Many countries in mainland Europe banned on beak trimming and Denmark and Germany
implementing rules and law through code of conduct. Andreas Mackes from Germany has
90,000 birds in barn system found that full beak birds ate more feed per day that beak
trimmed birds. He also used a colour light on multi-tier system and observed that red light
helped to decrease in feather pecking. The effect of infra-red beak treated reared to organic
standards and this will helps to reduce injuries whilst feather pecking in a flock. Prior to
legislation, a large egg pecker from Netherlands created focused activity on forthcoming
beak trimming ban. This protocol concerning a challenge related to what to check for,
meetings for monthly observations, constant support and strategies with the timeline when
ban become compulsory. This mechanism requires full knowledge, and expertise of person
and also cost behind implementation of the system.

Enrichment Challenge
Enrichment is essential in poultry houses to keep the birds busy and occupied but this
enrichment required further research into component. Many farms are using pickPuck
system. The rotation of feed is given via feed tracks on specific days of whole week as an
example, Mondays, Wednesday and Friday. A birds with full beak leads to enrichment not
going last for long so producer may facing extra cost and that leads to overall cost of
production of egg