Cuxhaven, October 2009

Editorial

Most of us are directly or indirectly affected by global issues like the recent financial crisis, rising energy prices or attempts to reduce CO2 emissions. Obviously, the burden to carry is not equally distributed and differs greatly between countries and individuals within a country, depending on the level of education and opportunities for productive employment. Each of us can contribute at least symbolically, e.g. by reducing energy waste and giving a good example for others. Major contributions have to come from inno- vations in industry and agriculture. Equally important is that more of the money “saved” by efficient food production is spent on education and Prof. Dietmar Flock, consumer goods which require less energy to produce and maintain. Editor Agriculture is challenged to provide adequate food for a world population of 6.8 billion in 2010, continuing to grow by 80 million per year. The FAO recently estimated that 1 billion people suffer from hunger. Major problems exist in developing coun- tries due to massive migration from rural areas with low-input family farming to big cities. For these low-income people it is essential to make use of existing knowledge in modern farming and animal production. We should keep this in mind while trying to make ends meet at home. This issue of Lohmann Information includes seven papers as „food for thought“:

1. Dr. Günther Eberz, Bayer CropScience AG, sets the stage with his review “Agriculture needs innovation and a sense of responsibility - challenges facing sustainable agriculture”. His key message is: we need a new initiative to drive agricultural innovation, a “second green revolu- tion”, to extend the potential of our crops to meet the needs in our time while protecting and preserving the environment for future generations. 2. The editor, Prof. Dietmar K. Flock, reviews genetic improvements in the efficiency of egg produc- tion since the introduction of “reciprocal recurrent selection” 60 years ago: “A history of layer breeding in Cuxhaven since 1959: from serendipity to sustainability”. The remarkable improve- ment in feed efficiency is also an important contribution in terms of sustainability. 3. Consumers demand safe food from healthy animals, while producers are trying to minimize mortality and loss of productivity due to common field infections. Consumer protection laws have eliminated the possibility to control diseases with antibiotic feed additives, and licensed vaccines are not avail- able for all diseases. Attila von Hankó, EW Group, in his paper "Autogenous Vaccines" presents an extended concept for farm-specific solutions applicable within the European Union. 4. New information on optimal nutrition remains of primary interest to many of our readers, and nutri- tion experts of Lohmann Tierzucht keep screening the international literature to update manage- ment recommendations. The article by Dr. Andreas Lemme, Evonik-Degussa, “Amino Acid recommendations for laying hens” is reproduced from a publication in AMINONews (July 2009). Optimizing the dietary amino acid profile helps to minimize feed cost per egg and N emissions.

Publisher: LOHMANN ANIMAL HEALTH GmbH & Co. KG; LOHMANN TIERZUCHT GmbH www.LAH.de · www.LTZ.de Cuxhaven, Germany Editor: Prof. Dr. Dietmar Flock · Akazienweg 5, 27478 Cuxhaven, Germany [email protected] The views expressed in the articles in Lohmann Information are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of LAH and LTZ. Copyright belongs to the author(s). Papers may be downloaded for personal use only. Editorial Vol. 44 (2), Oct. 2009, Page 2

5. Some of our readers are not only interested in poultry nutrition, but also in other species where producers are confronted with similar problems. Prof. Matusevicius and Prof. Jeroch, Lithuanian Veterinary Academy, Kaunas, report on the results of feeding trials with probiotic and phytobi- otic preparations in their paper “Efficacy of probiotic “ToyoCerin” a