The global need for poultry science education, research, and outreach.

The importance of poultry production worldwide is underscored by this statistic: poultry meat represents almost one-third of meat produced and consumed globally. Moreover, egg production, on a weight basis, is almost 80% that of poultry meat production. This was addressed in a previous editorial (Scanes, 2007b). The basis for the increasing importance of poultry worldwide has been research on genetics, nutrition, disease control, and management, with improved genetics being the largest single contributing factor (Havenstein et al., 2003a,b, 2007). What are the research challenges of today? Some that come to mind include • Emerging diseases, including zoonotic diseases such as avian influenza • Developing environmentally acceptable methods for disposal or utilization of animal and poultry waste • Enhanced genetics for improved efficiency, quality, and disease resistance • Employment of techniques and information of genomics proteomics and metabolomics • The changing nutritional needs and management of today’s poultry • Improving food safety • Ensuring optimal welfare • Understanding the biology (immunology, developmental biology, physiology) of today’s poultry • “Pharming” or producing protein drugs in eggs • Alternative production systems • Product quality including flavor and other gustatory characteristics. These challenges are pertinent to chickens (both meat and layer types), turkeys, ducks, geese, game birds, and to the ratites (ostriches and emus). There is a profound need for a progressive and sustainable increase in funding to universities or government laboratories for poultry science research, teaching, and outreach. For international bodies and national governments in the developed world, there is a moral imperative to support poultry research and education in view of the significant impact that poultry products are having globally on protein nutrition for people. There is a strong rationale to fund poultry research, education, and outreach to benefit the national competitiveness of the poultry industry in this country. Moreover, there is a strong case for poultry as a part of rural economic development programs in even the poorest nations. There are critically important roles for research and outreach from industry, government laboratories, and universities. However, the universities provide the education. Irrespective of whether the research is conducted in