The diet of the populations of the tropical zone is most often protein poor both quantitatively and qualitatively. The majority of the countries in this zone can expect no improvement in this area without an increase in food crops, livestock and fish farming.

Among these forms of production, poultry keeping often holds a prominent place in the development plans of many countries. This is for economic and dietary reasons and especially because of preference of the consumers for poultry products and because of the interest of the population in poultry farming.