Rebecca Tierney, Poultry Advisor, outlines Broiler Net, Teagasc’s first EU-funded poultry project, supported by the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme.
The project aims to enhance the resilience and sustainability of broiler producers across the EU. It creates a space for broiler farmers to share the common issues, as well as the good practices which can help with those issues. It also offers a space for science to be put into practice through building relationships.
There are 13 partners and 13 Broiler Innovative Networks. These Broiler Innovative Networks are essentially our traditional discussion groups. The aim of the group is to identify and assess the urgent needs of broiler growers here in Ireland under three themes. These are reported back to a secondary group within the project, the Thematic Expert Networks. This group then picks the top three challenges under each theme. The themes are as follows:
- Environmental Sustainability
- Animal Welfare
- Animal Health Management
The Broiler Innovative Networks then come together again to discuss Good Practices which can help with the selected challenges. These Good Practices can be novel ideas, or more common practice management tasks or tools, which may not be common in other countries involved in the network.
Each cycle of the project, the top five Good Practices will be selected under each theme, and a Champion Good Practice will be awarded. There is three cycles of the project. The project is currently in its’ third and final year.
Ireland has had a Good Practices selected in the top five in each cycle of the project. These were:
Cycle 1
Installation of solar PV arrays on poultry units for electricity generation (Environmental Sustainability)
Cycle 2
Bacteria reduction through water treatment to reduce lameness (Animal Health Management)
Cycle 3
Carbon footprint calculator for broiler production (Environmental Sustainability)
Split house feeding (Animal Welfare)
Use of UV bulbs to reduce Enterococcus (Animal Health Management)