Poultry breeding advances fuels Indian River’s expansion

As countries throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa experience skyrocketing demand for an affordable source of protein, Aviagen’s Indian River brand is responding by delivering high-performance breeder and broiler products to more customers than ever before.

The Indian River brand, formerly known as Lohmann Indian River, is featured this week in the Aviagen Booth Q002 located in Hall 101 at VIV Asia. The brand’s main product, the Indian River Meat, is based on Aviagen’s genetic selection processes and health programs.

From 2008 to 2010, Indian River saw its product placement volume increase 27%. The product brand is globally available with customers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Syria, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Zambia. Several of these countries are recent additions to Indian River’s popularity. In Jordan alone, Indian River delivered 3 million parent stock in 2010.

The growth is largely driven by the Indian River team’s hands-on involvement in Aviagen’s ongoing research and product improvement efforts. Those initiatives have produced a bird that is robust and easy to manage, with excellent feed conversion ratio (FCR) for broiler operations. For example, based on field performance over the past four years, the Indian River product has shown improvements in growth rate of 41.6 grams per year at 35 days of age, and in FCR of 1 point per year.

Aviagen also developed the Indian River Meat bird to address several unique requirements of the regions served by the business unit. For instance, the product’s robust nature makes it an ideal choice for customers operating in challenging climates. And the company’s renowned selection program is helping to develop a bird whose characteristics meet the growing preference worldwide for dark meat, as well as white meat appeal.

“Indian River may be a new brand for many customers outside of Asia, but it carries with it the years of steady improvement and advanced genetic progress for which Aviagen is recognized,” said Bill Souther, Senior Vice President of Aviagen Asia. “The growth we’re experiencing in these new markets is a testament to the outstanding characteristics of the Indian River bird, and the recognition of our hard work in creating healthy, high-performing breeders and broilers. Now, more customers in more markets have a choice of Aviagen brands designed to meet their needs.”

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