**7. Conclusions**

MPPUs are designed to eliminate regulatory impasses and increase marketability and profitability for small-farmers. In addition to economic and technical aspects, there are also other ethical aspects connected with the use of MPPUs.

Nevertheless, positive conclusions exist concerning the effect of MPPUs on animal welfare and product quality. However, inconsistent findings are available regarding sanitary aspects due different equipment and procedures. However, considering that this system practically removes the need to transport poultry and it is used for small quantities of chickens, it is expected that the sanitary aspect can also be improved.

The MPPU could be judged a first step in the development of a new model of alternative poultry production, because it favours different types of change, from farmer to consumers and between the individual stakeholders. In Italy the difficulty to slaughter a low number of animals negatively affect the local productions. The MPPU beyond that to improve the marketing products could increase the connection between the small farms. Developing a network starting from the sharing of the MPPU could ameliorate the collaborations among small farms.

Concerning the Italian poultry sector, the farms have lost her entrepreneurship for the presence of the big companies that control all the production chain.

According to this view, MPPUs can be considered not only as a solution but also as a resource to emphasise the emergence of food circuits (e.g., farmers' markets and niche markets) which cannot feature within the global food chain.

Despite the improvement in poultry welfare (no transport or limited period of transport), the geographical and numerical limitations imposed by EU regulations mean that MPPU development for medium- or large-scale poultry production is unlikely to occur. European legislation has limited further improvement of MPPUs (e.g., different stunning system, carcass decontamination and water-bath chilling), confining PPP meat to local production and selling. Nonetheless, other countries could take advantage of the European experience and improve MPPUs according to national legislation.

In developing countries where the demand for livestock products is strongly increased and in many case the society is organized in small and poorly connected units, the MPPU could represent a real and feasible opportunity of progress.

**Author Contributions:** The individual contributions of the authors is the following: A.C.M., A.D.B. and C.C. for conceptualization of the full paper; A.C.M., A.D.B., C.C., S.M. for Writing-Review & Editing of paper; D.R. for chapter 6.

**Funding:** This research was funded by Filaviru project gran<sup>t</sup> number 44750049817and The APC was funded by Umbria Region.

**Acknowledgments:** We would like to thank Debora Renzoni for her help with the English.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
