Surveying the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on the poultry supply chain: A mixed methods study

The effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the fruit juice industry: Insights from Türkiye

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major problems in many areas of the world and has deeply affected many sectors and industries. The food and beverage industry is one of the industries that has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to explore the impact of the pandemic on the Turkish fruit juice industry and the attitudes and behaviors of companies. In addition, the study seeks to identify the changes in the industry caused by the pandemic and discuss its long-term effects. The material used for the study consists of the data obtained from the surveys conducted among the companies producing fruit juices in Türkiye. The results show that the pandemic had a significant impact on companies' logistics activities, while supply activities were moderately affected. However, the effects of the pandemic on exports, sales, production, total profit, and R&D activities were comparatively limited. When comparing the pre-pandemic period with the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was observed that some companies in the industry experienced declines in production, sales, exports, and overall profit, whereas others experienced increases in these metrics. These variations were not associated with company size or length of operation, suggesting that the impact of the pandemic on individual companies was unique. Interestingly, some companies reported positive effects from the pandemic, such as increased demand for certain products, new export markets, improved food safety practices, new suppliers and improved crisis management skills. However, the fruit juice industry in Türkiye was found to be vulnerable in the areas of logistics and supply chain management. The study suggests that companies should strengthen supply chain management, improve stock management, and create online marketing plans to reduce potential problems in future crises. Additionally, it contributes to the development of strategies to mitigate the impact of future pandemics or bottlenecks that may emerge in the future, thereby promoting the efficiency and sustainability of the fruit juice industry as a whole.

Purchase, consumption, and ownership of chickens and chicken products among households in Maputo, Mozambique: A cross-sectional study

Background

Chickens are an important source of animal protein, nutrition, and income in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). They are also a major reservoir of enteropathogens that contribute to the burden of illnesses among children. Food systems present a risk for transmission of enteropathogens from poultry to humans, but there is a lack of population-level data on the pattern of purchase, ownership, and consumption of live chickens and their products in LMICs to better characterize that risk.

Methods

To assess chicken purchase, ownership, and consumption practices, we conducted a population-based survey using a structured questionnaire in Maputo, Mozambique in 2021. Multi-stage cluster sampling was used to obtain a representative sample of households in our study area. To minimize sampling bias and ensure a representative sample, we applied survey weighting using district-level population data and estimated weighted population-level values.

Results

Heads of 570 households in Maputo completed our survey. Approximately half of these households purchased broiler chicken meat (weighted percentage of households: 44.8%) and eggs (46.5%) in the previous week of the survey date, while indigenous chicken meat was less popular (1,950, 1.1%). The most common source of chicken products was corner stores (i.e., small convenience shops on streets), followed by wet markets. Live chickens were raised by 15.6% of households, and chicken feces were observed on the floor or ground at the majority of these households during house visits.

Discussion

Our findings suggest that poultry provides a major source of animal protein in this setting. With the predicted growth of poultry farming in LMICs in the coming decades, ensuring food safety at the primary sources of chicken products (corner stores and wet markets) in urban areas will be critical to mitigate health risks.

Fluctuations and disparity in broiler and carcass price before during and after covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia

This study aims to analyze fluctuations and disparity in broiler and carcass prices before, during, and after COVID-19 pandemic in five broiler-producing regions in Indonesia, including North Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, East Java, and South Sulawesi. Weekly data series were used to analyze fluctuations and disparity before (2017-February 2020), during (March 2020-2022), and after (January-June 2023) COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, Coefficient of variation (CV) and convergence models were also used during the analysis. The results showed that broiler price fluctuations in the five study areas were categorized as "medium" before and during pandemic. After pandemic, the majority of the areas were in the "low" category, except for South Sulawesi province, where CV was 10.02%. Carcass price fluctuations were categorized as "low" and "moderate" before and during COVID-19 pandemic. After the viral outbreak, all the provinces investigated in this study were classified as "low". This indicated that the variability in carcass price decreased across all provinces after pandemic. The coefficient value of β1 was less than 1 indicating that broiler and carcass price did not show significant disparity between regions at all periods. The primary drivers of fluctuations and disparity were related to production and availability factors, and the government played a role in maintaining stability in producing areas.

Impact of COVID-19 on poultry market in Bangladesh

As a result of COVID-19 spread, Bangladesh implemented a range of measures including general holidays, lockdown, no lockdown, and strict lockdown which resulted in the dramatic ups and downs of the price level of the products. This study aimed to examine the influence of COVID-19 on poultry products (meat and eggs) in Bangladesh using Gazipur-an intensive poultry growing area - as a case study. Monthly market price data of poultry meat and eggs, and primary panel data from the same respondents using a random sampling technique through a structured questionnaire-based interview, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), and Key Informant Interview (KII) were collected. The results reveal that after the incidence of COVID-19, the price of poultry products at farmgate, wholesale and retail levels dropped drastically for the first three months (February to April 2020). Following that, the market price of farm (broiler) chicken and eggs increased by 40% and more than 30%, respectively. On the other hand, the price of local (deshi) chicken increased by 15%, which was already high on the market. However, in the early phase of COVID-19, many smallholder poultry farmers and hatchery owners were forced to shut down due to less demand/no demand of the product along with high feed cost and inadequate support from external sources. The government should provide financial support with low or no-interest rate to the smallholder growers in order to enhance their resilience against shocks like COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, etc.

Non-target metabolomics reveals the changes of small molecular substances in duck breast meat under different preservation time

Poultry products are an essential animal source of protein for humans. Many factors could destroy the balance of the poultry production chain and cause an overstock of products, which need to be stored in the frozen storage warehouse for a long time. The long-term frozen storage may affect the quality of meat products. In this study, the changes of small molecular substances were revealed in duck meat during long-term storage using non-targeted metabolomics. The results showed that compared with fresh meat, even if the meat is stored under frozen storage conditions, the number of differential metabolites of frozen storage meat continues to increase with the prolongation of storage time, indicating that the meat composition has changed significantly with the storage time increased. With the increase in storage time, the nitrogen-containing small molecular compounds in duck meat increased (carnosine and anserine, aspartic acid, and tyrosine, 1H-indole-3-acetamide, 2-Hydroxyphenethylamine, 2-Naphylamine, allocystathionine, and O-phosphoethanolamine), the nucleotides decomposition process strengthened (IMP and AMP, GMP and UMP), and the content of organic acid increased (5-hydroxy indole acetic acid, 5-hydroxypentanoic acid and phenylacetate, taurine) and carbohydrate (1-O-sinapoyl-beta-d-glucose, 4-O-beta-d-glucopyranosyl-d-mannose, and alpha-d-glucose). These small molecular substances can be used as biomarkers to detect long-term stored duck meat deterioration. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that protein catabolism, nucleotide catabolism, fat decomposition and oxidation, and carbohydrate decomposition were the main metabolic processes of meat deterioration during the long-term storage of duck meat. In addition, Non-target metabolome technology is a powerful tool to reveal the meat deterioration process during long-term storage systematically. This study provided a reference for optimizing domestic poultry meat storage methods and ensuring food safety.

A fuzzy approach to support decision-making in the triage process for suspected COVID-19 patients in Brazil

Triage is a fundamental process in hospitals and emergency care units, as it allows for the classification and prioritization of patient care based on the severity of their clinical conditions. In Brazil, the triage of suspected COVID-19 cases is performed using a specific protocol, which involves manual steps, requiring the completion of four different forms, by four health care professionals. Aiming to investigate the possibility of improving the triage processes in Brazil, this article proposes the use of computational techniques for decision-making based on fuzzy inference systems. We argue that fuzzy set theory is appropriate to the problem because it allows the use of natural language to express the patient’s symptoms, making it easier for health care professionals. After modelling the problem in a fuzzy system we applied a pilot test. The model includes symptoms that health professionals currently use to analyse COVID-19 cases. The results suggest that the model presents convergence with the sample data, highlighting its potential application in supporting triage for the classification of the severity of COVID-19 cases. Among the benefits of the proposed model, we emphasize contributions as the reduction of the time and number of professionals required for triage as well as the reduction of exposure of health care professionals and other patients suspected of carrying the virus. In this context, this research provides an opportunity to obtain social contributions regarding the services in public hospitals improvement.

A Game-Theoretic Approach for CSR Emergency Medical Supply Chain during COVID-19 Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused high fluctuations in the demand for medical supplies. Therefore, emergency medical supplies enterprises have faced challenges in decision making and need to consider more corporate social responsibility (CSR) in production. At the same time, the government needs to take considerable measures to support emergency medical supplies enterprises. As such, our paper researches the decision and coordination problems for emergency medical supply chain considering CSR with the government, manufacturer, and retailer. The manufacturer produces emergency medical supplies. It has additional production technological innovation efforts to improve supply efficiency and assume CSR. The retailer faces uncertain demands and is responsible for undertaking CSR to meet the demands. The government must implement a certain degree of subsidies to ease the impact of the pandemic on emergency medical supply chain enterprises. Meanwhile, our paper further explores the obligations of the economy, society, and efficiency of enterprises under the COVID-19 pandemic and the decision making of enterprises for the implementation of CSR. Based on the principle of maximizing social welfare, we discuss decentralized decision making (without government and with government) and centralized decision making, respectively. On this basis, our paper not only designs a wholesale price–cost sharing joint contract coordination mechanism but also proves that a joint contract can achieve supply chain coordination under certain conditions. Through the analysis, we observe: (1) Government subsidies can improve the enthusiasm of supply chain members to undertake CSR; (2) With the improvement of the retailer’s CSR level, the profits of supply chain members and overall performance have improved to a certain degree; (3) To improve supply efficiency and assume social responsibility, the manufacturer implements technological innovation investment. However, it will impose some burden on the manufacturer. Government subsidies allow the manufacturer to balance between social responsibility and its profit.

A multi-period multi-modal stochastic supply chain model under COVID pandemic: A poultry industry case study in Mississippi

The poultry industry is one of the most important agricultural sectors, which constitutes a significant part of the per capita consumption of protein and meat. Integrating operations of poultry industry sections including production, distribution and consumption becomes vital. Although the proper poultry supply chain has been established and made plenty of benefits for a long time, the global outbreak of COVID-19 shows that operations under pandemic are still challenge for the poultry industry. In this paper, the impacts of pandemic on poultry industry is investigated by developing a multi-period multi-modal stochastic poultry supply chain. Two models are developed aiming to mitigate the negative effects of pandemic occurrence through product stocking policy. In the first model, distribution system is in accordance with a multi-component structure, while the second model allows direct connections between suppliers (farmers) and demanders (customers). In both models, poultry productions are negatively affected by COVID 19. Due to the complexity of the model, a hybrid solution approach based on Branch and Cut and Dynamic Programming is developed. To validate the performance of the proposed model and solution procedure, a case study on the broiler industry in the state of Mississippi is performed. The results show that storing poultry products in the pre-pandemic along with direct logistics during pandemic period can save the broiler supply chain cost up to 30%.

Performance of Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis of Emergency System in COVID-19 Pandemic. An Extensive Narrative Review

The actual coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the limit of emergency systems worldwide, leading to the collapse of health systems, police, first responders, as well as other areas. Various ways of dealing with this world crisis have been proposed from many aspects, with fuzzy multi-criteria decision analysis being a method that can be applied to a wide range of emergency systems and professional groups, aiming to confront several associated issues and challenges. The purpose of this critical review was to discuss the basic principles, present current applications during the first pandemic wave, and propose future implications of this methodology. For this purpose, both primary sources, such as scientific articles, and secondary ones, such as bibliographic indexes, web pages, and databases, were used. The main search engines were PubMed, SciELO, and Google Scholar. The method was a systematic literature review of the available literature regarding the performance of the fuzzy multi-criteria decision analysis of emergency systems in the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study highlight the importance of the fuzzy multi-criteria decision analysis method as a beneficial tool for healthcare workers and first responders’ emergency professionals to face this pandemic as well as to manage the created uncertainty and its related risks.