Improving Poultry Health and Production in Hong Kong (completed)

Project leader: Prof. Dirk U. Pfeiffer
Project members: Dr Denis Yau, Dr Ronnie Tong, Mr Tze Shing Lam, Miss Gina Lee, Mr Totty Sin

The overall aim of the project is to improve poultry health and production on individual poultry farms, while enhancing the economic and environmental sustainability of poultry farming in Hong Kong, for the benefit of individual farmers as well as society in general. The objectives are to identify the constraints to poultry health and production in Hong Kong; and develop interventions that will result in improved poultry productivity, health and welfare, as well as improved food safety, economic and environmental sustainability. These objectives will be achieved by performing an extensive assessment of the factors influencing the poultry value chain, as well as on-farm investigations of poultry health and production. Based on these findings, a poultry health and production management service tailored to each local poultry farm will be developed and delivered to Hong Kong poultry farmers. Data generated by this service will allow monitoring of disease and production on each farm, and be used to inform health and production decision making within each farm. For each farm, short-term and long-term interventions will be developed for the management of relevant constraints to health and production, as part of the tailored service provision.

The research will be conducted using qualitative and quantitative analytical methods, ranging from ethnographic studies to epidemiological analysis.

The project will be conducted in five phases, with an ambulatory veterinary service running in parallel throughout the project.

Funded by Sustainable Agricultural Development Fund, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department