About this manual

This manual is designed to provide development workers with the information and tools needed either to begin or to improve poultry production. For those who are inexperienced in poultry production, this manual can identify and provide the basic information needed to raise and market poultry successfully. More experienced poultry workers may find the manual sections on cultural considerations, nutrition, extension and additional resources useful for adapting their knowledge and skills to the conditions of a new environment. No matter what your previous level of poultry experience, you can help expand poultry production by helping farmers observe, question and find the gaps between actual and potential production, by suggesting improvements and by helping farmers evaluate the results.

Numerous sources were consulted in the preparation of this manual in order to make it useful for raining poultry under varying conditions.

This manual explores many different aspects of raising and marketing poultry based upon these sources and the author's and reviewers' experiences. Because ideas about poultry production vary greatly in different countries, IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED WHEREVER POSSIBLE THAT A REVIEW OF THIS MANUAL BY A RESPONSIBLE OFFICER WITHIN THE APPROPRIATE GOVERNMENT MINISTRY BE PERFORMED BEFORE THE SUGGESTIONS MADE IN THE MANUAL ARE IMPLEMENTED. There are special climatic considerations, feed ingredient problems, disease considerations and so on which can make sections of this manual inappropriate in certain areas of the world. If there are questions about the appropriateness of recommendations made in the manual, the experience of local authorities should have priority until research can be done to show the value of the new methods. It should be noted also that sources consulted for this manual do not always agree. On one issue, four highly experienced sources each gave different recommendations for the same conditions. To make this manual

most useful, methods and tools described are based either on a majority opinion or upon the experience of the author.

Because this manual gives general instructions on poultry production, some recommendations and suggestions will not be relevant to every development worker's situation. Poultry workers will need to adapt methods and tools to their own specific needs. We would appreciate, therefore, your comments, corrections and suggestions for future editions of this manual. What information was the most useful? What was not covered that would be useful in revised editions? How did you use this manual? What was irrelevant or not useful? Please make comments and let us know how this manual helped you in poultry production.