Between 5th and 9th November Dr Bob Pym, the new President of the WPSA, visited East Timor in connection with a small-scale poultry development project supported by the Australian Centre for Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The project work, which focuses on defining the constraints to meat and egg production from semi scavenging household chickens, is to be conducted by Mr Eduardo Serrao, former Head of Department of Animal Science at the National University of Timor Lorasa’e. The study forms part of Mr Serrao’s PhD through the University of Queensland, which is supervised by Dr Pym. Following surveys and monitoring of production and disease status (Newcastle Disease and HPAI) across five districts of east Timor and involving up to 300 household flocks, the aim of the project is, through a farming systems approach, to identify and test suitable interventions that will minimise bird mortalities and maximise profitability.
Indigenous chickens make a very important contribution to poultry meat and egg consumption in East Timor, especially in the rural areas; as there are no commercial broiler or layer units in the country. All of the available broiler meat and eggs from commercial layers, are imported. There is a real need for inputs to stimulate development of the poultry industry. Whilst there, Dr Pym held discussions with Mr Valentino Varela, the Secretary of State for Livestock, and with Mr Lourenco Fontes, the Director General of Agriculture, to explore possibilities for a role for WPSA in this regard. Arrangements are underway through Mr Serrao, for the development of an East Timor branch of WPSA.
Dr Pym went on from East Timor to Rome where he attended a 2-day meeting (13-14 November) of coordinators of reviews on the impact of technology on livestock production, for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations State of the World’s Food and Agriculture (SOFA) Report for 2009. Dr Pym was asked to coordinate the poultry technology review, which included chapters on: genetics and breeding; nutrition and feed processing; disease prevention; housing, environment and welfare; and poultry meat and egg processing . The other co-authors of the review were; Dr David Farrell, Dr Clive Jackson, Dr Phil Glatz and Dr Roel Mulder. The poultry review will be extracted for the SOFA report; the full review will be published separately in WPSJ.

The Lebanon Branch of WPSA held its annual meeting on November 1st, 2008, at the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences of the American University of Beirut. There were 38 members out of a total of fifty registered currently with the Branch, along with 15 guest delegates (non-members). The president of the branch, Dr N.J. Daghir, welcomed the group in his introductory remarks, pointing out that the branch is now 45 years old, having been established in 1963 and is one of the oldest branches in the Middle East region. He introduced the secretary of the branch, Mr Abdul-Ghani Mishlawi, who read the annual report which included all the activities of the branch and the work of the executive committee during the past year. This was followed by a presentation of the financial report, that was given by Dr Nada Usayran as the treasurer, Mr Samir Cortbawi, was absent due to illness.
The president introduced the main speaker Dr Hafez Muhamad Hafez, Head of the Institute of Poultry Diseases at the Free University in Berlin, Germany, and President of the World Veterinary Poultry Association. Dr Hafez lecture was entitled ‘Respiratory Disease: A Continuous Global Threat to Poultry Health’. The lecture concerned three key respiratory diseases; Mycoplasma, Avian Influenza and Infectious Bronchitis. In the case of Mycoplasma, Dr Hafez emphasized the importance of freedom of parent flocks from the disease and reduced dependence on medications. He then gave an excellent update on Avian Influenza World wide. In addition to basic information on Infectious Bronchitis, he stressed the importance of type of vaccine used, its concentration and its handling.
The organisers would like to thank all those who contributed and attended this meeting.

Between September 10th and 12th the Argentinean Branch of the World´s Poultry Science Association (WPSA) was pleased to collaborate in the organization of the 8th Meeting of the Poultry Veterinary Association (AMEVEA). This scientific meeting was held at Colon city, Entre Rios Province. It was attended by more than 300 producers, students and professionals, representing one of the most important events of the Argentinean poultry community. Delegates from Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil also attended the conferences.
The WPSA provided expert speakers to give two of the 16 papers of the meeting, supported by the “WPSA Bureau Speakers” program. One of the expert speakers was Dr Piet Simons, who presented a lecture about the global production, consumption and international market of poultry meat & eggs, and the other was Dr John Blake, who presented a lecture about broiler waste management.
Ever since Peter Hunton (Former President of the WPSA) visited Argentina in the year 2000 and began work with the local Council of the Argentinean Branch, the number of local members has increased from 27 to more than 90 members. The current aim of our branch is to bid for the organization of the World s Poultry Congress 2020.

Marcelo J. Schang, President

Julian E. Melo, Treasurer

Feed is the most important component in poultry production in terms of production cost. Therefore, feed is always an interesting and never-ending topic to discuss among scientists and practitioners. Lately, discussion has mostly been focused on the increasing price of feed and feed ingredients around the world. This has caused major concern to poultry producers at all levels. Especially in Indonesia, producers can not just increase the price of their products because the purchasing ability of majority of the consumers is low. Therefore, breakthrough solutions are required to deal with the situation.
The Indonesian branch of WPSA as part of an international organization feels obliged to make a significant contribution in dealing with the problem. A national scientific seminar was conducted on July 7, 2008, and a number of scientific information were presented by invited speakers from overseas and domestic. The one-day seminar was organized as a communication forum amongst scientists and practitioners in order to exchange information in dealing with feed problem, particularly in competition for ingredients between feed, food and fuel. One of the missions for WPSA-Indonesia is to actively be involved in solving problems faced by the national poultry industry, and this seminar was expected to produce some conclusions which can be used to address at least some of the problems in Indonesia. The speakers and their topic of presentations were:

1. Dr Piet C.M. Simons: ‘Commercial egg and poultry meat production and consumption and poultry trade worldwide’
2. Dr Torben G. Madsen: ‘Amino acid contents in alternative ingredients’
3. Dr Andreas Lemme: ‘Application of standardized ileal amino acid digestibility coefficients in broiler nutrition’
4. Dr Benito A. Oliveros: ‘Optimum vitamin nutrition in poultry’
5. Dr V. Raghavan: ‘Potential of using local raw materials in poultry diet’
6. Dr Marko Schuring: ‘ Nutreco poultry research into practice’
7. Dr Tan Seong Lim: ‘Occurrence of mycotoxin in feed samples’
8. Dr Arnold P. Sinurat: ‘Applicable technology in utilizing palm oil production by-products to be more valuable for poultry feed’

The seminar was opened by a representative of the Indonesian Directorate General of Livestock Services, and in his opening remarks he stated that the recent increase in feed price had raised a serious concern to the industry. The Indonesian government has managed to increase the production of corn, and reduced the amount of imported corn. The government also tries to encourage the use of by-products as feed raw materials, for example by-products from palm oil processing which are currently being exported almost all of them.
The conclusions from the seminar can be summarised as follows:

• The high population growth results in fast growing market and has caused livestock revolution and feed is the limiting factor in the growth of poultry production.
• Changes in production system within EU will alter trading patterns and might lead to greater imports into the EU. However, certain restrictions are applied for exporting poultry products to EU.
• Alternative raw materials are available such as copra meal, palm kernel meal, and rice bran. However, there is a very high variation in their amino acid contents, and if it is not controlled properly it can have a strong impact on the real value of the raw materials and therefore the feed cost and the production results.
• Poultry producers need to seek alternative raw materials, and by products are available and still under-utilized. Enzyme technology (Solid State Fermentation) offers a solution to reduce feed cost while maintaining their physical performances.
• Vitamins are not stable in the feed ingredients, but essentially required by birds in order to express their genetic potentials. Optimum Vitamin Nutrition (OVN) can improve growth rate, feed efficiency, resistance to high density stress, and prevention of bone problems. It can also improve the nutritive value of meat and eggs.
• Palm oil by-products can be used as poultry feed: palm kernel meal (PKM) and palm oil sludge (POS). However they contain high fibre which limits their usage in poultry feed. There are applicable technologies: grinding, sieving and enzyme supplementation (fermentation) for PKM; and drying, grinding, enzyme supplementation for POS.
• Recommendation for the use of PKM: 5-10% for broilers and 10-20% for layers.
• Recommendation for the use of POS: 5% for broilers and replace 25% of corn for layers.
• Amino acid requirements very much depend on: the strain and the health status.
• Continuous innovation in all parts of the production chain improves the quality of products and efficiency of production process.
• Feed optimization on the basis of standardized ileal digestible amino acids could maintain the performance of broiler at the level achieved by a corn-soy meal diets.
• The mycotoxin level in feed samples very much depends on: geographical location and type of materials.

Formation of Tanzania branch started with the idea of having Tanzania Branch of World Poultry Science Association, which was floated by Prof. U.M. Minga during Tanzania Veterinary Association Meeting which was held in Arusha, Tourist city in Northern Tanzania. Interested members convened for a meeting and the following office bearers were elected Prof U. Minga,-Chairman, Dr Akarro-Vice Chairman, Dr. A.P. Muhairwa-Secretary, and Dr. Dr. Kessy-Mrema- the Treasurer and Ms. T. Kuiwite as Publicity Secretary. After completion of registration procedures and paying membership dues the branch was officially registered by WPSA in June 2008.
The branch Secretariat is at the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Sokoine University of Agriculture.
Activities performed so far include:

• Election of office bearers
• Formation of branch subcommittees which are
  • Quality Control and Marketing
  • Commercial
  • Rural chickens and poultry other than chickens
  • Continuing education
  • Fund raising committee
  • Poultry Health committee

To date the branch has about 25 active members, these include academicians researchers and private entrepreneurs from different angle of the country. From December 2004 the Branch has held two general meetings under the Chairmanship of Prof. U.M. Minga. The members have determined to do the following

• To attract more members in the association and make WPSA TZ branch a pressure group for poultry development to the government, private entrepreneurs and individual poultry keepers in the villages.
• To recommend to the government about the importance of investing more money on applied research in poultry.
• To promote and advancement of knowledge and technology of all aspects of poultry science and the poultry industry.
• To encourage the promotion of poultry congresses at Local, Regional and District levels.
• To help national and international exchange of information and experiences regarding poultry science and industry.
• To disseminate knowledge pertaining to all branches of poultry industry and facilitate the exchange of such knowledge among members.
• To respond to requests from government or compatible organizations for its views on current matters affecting the poultry industry.

In time for the next World Nutrition Forum that will be held in Mayrhofen in Tyrol from September 18th to 19th, 2008, the new WNF Proceedings book will be available.
Following the success of our 2006 edition, the new proceedings book covers in more than 380 pages, the latest information concerning the scientific progress in healthy animal nutrition and improving animal performance.
More information about the book topics is available in the technical program which can be found on the World Nutrition Forum website.
The booklet will be available from the 22nd of September 2008 through online or fax orders.
For further details please visit the website www.worldnutritionforum.info.

The annual meeting of turkey scientists was held from 19-21 June 2008 in its established base at the Hotel Steglitz in Berlin, Germany. A warm welcome was extended to all delegates by the organiser, Professor Hafez, on the first day. Attendance at this meeting has held stable for the last few years, at around 200 delegates, with 202 registered participants at the 2008 meeting. Many countries from across the world were represented at the meeting, with scientists attending from the USA, as well as those from many European countries. The welcome focussed on the current football tournament being held in Europe, with many witty observations regarding the progress of certain teams! For any who missed the game, Germany beat Portugal during the conference.

The first session discussed anatomy, physiology and welfare of turkeys. Diverse topics were covered, including comparison of wild and commercial breeds, some very interesting novel work on optical welfare, pronutrient feed ingredients and the role of vitamins in turkey production.

Other sessions discussed turkey diseases. Topics included intestinal disorders, with a specific focus on histomoniasis and the problems in controlling this disease in the absence of suitable licensed drugs and ongoing turkey diseases (with several papers on ORT). A separate session was held on the all-important avian influenza and its impact on turkey flocks. Papers were given on novel ways to improve resistance to disease in turkeys via application of plant-derived compounds and understanding and improving immunity.

The conference dinner was to the usual high standard of food and convivial conversation. As always, the organisers are to be congratulated on the meeting, both from a scientific standpoint and their hospitality.

Dr Lucy Tucker
Editor WPSJ

A meeting was held in Dakar in Senegal in May 2008 to discuss the future of poultry production, for both large and small operations, across Africa. Nearly all African countries were represented, including European and American delegates with research and commercial interests in this region. Nutrition and welfare were the key areas of interest discussed, and the sessions were well attended by students, producers, veterinarians and academic staff.

Dakar is a very friendly city, and delegates received a warm welcome at the meeting. The Institute of Veterinary Medicine at Dakar University, where the meeting was held, was celebrating its 40th anniversary at this time. As a result, the opening ceremony included addresses from previous staff and students, as well as government officials who all commented on the invaluable work conducted by the Institute over the years. Witty and original comments at this ceremony demonstrated the friendly and open attitude of our Senegalese hosts. The students had been busy ensuring the celebration and the conference was well publicised with banners and painted messages surrounding the buildings. Organisation at the meeting was very good, and I would like to thank the organisers, especially Bara the student liaison officer, for his superb and unstinting assistance for all the foreign delegates, especially those with poor command of French.

Following the opening ceremony, stands showcasing businesses involved in aviculture and booths for each African country were open for delegates. This provided a useful insight into the relationships between commercial supply companies, farmers and the importance and variety of poultry production on a local basis.

The conference ran from 5-9 May, with many and varied topics covered, especially focussing on the control of disease and the need to reduce reliance on expensive imports of e.g. feed materials. Delegates were looked after very well, with an excellent dinner on the fourth night. Tours of local poultry producers as well as cultural visits, notably to Goree Island where many millions of slaves were traded across the world, were enjoyed by attendees.

Lucy Tucker
Editor WPSJ

Report on their recent seminar on the current feed crisis and potential solutions

A one-day seminar was hosted by the World’s Poultry Science Association’s Nigerian Branch on March 11, 2008 at the Events Centre in Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos State. The seminar was titled ‘Feed Crisis, the Way Out’, and over 300 delegates and invited media heard about the current trends in the Nigerian feed industry that have put pressure on the cost of poultry feed and additives. In addition, it reviewed the challenges to the feed industry in Nigeria and proffered practicable solutions.

Five experienced speakers drawn from both academia and the poultry industry were on hand to discuss the topics. The seminar was chaired by Dr G.O. Oyediji, who is president of the Animal Science Association of Nigeria. Invited speakers highlighted the challenges facing the poultry industry in Nigeria, which included:

• Post harvest losses (contributing between 5-10% of production cost).
• Regular power outage, which contributes about 20-30% of production cost.
• Infestation/spoilage of raw materials.
• Poor processing and storage facilities.
• Poor funding and marketing functions and
• Limitations brought about by suboptimal marketing/conversion of poultry products.

These speakers were unanimous in determining the following solutions to these problems:

• Increased local maize (Zea mays) production, with large scale commercialization of the cereal product.
• Bio-fuel by-products used as a substitute for grains in feed formulation.
• Increased use of alternative feed ingredients in feed formulation thereby reducing overdependence on cereal products as energy source.
• More research (Biotechnology-assisted) into the development and commercialization of feed ingredients.
• Higher budgetary allocation for agricultural development, particularly grains and feed ingredients.
• Government should subsidize the growing of grains and soybeans in order to enhance poultry production through reduced production cost.

Dr S.O. Peters
Secretary, Nigeria Branch

Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates, 25-26 March 2008

This regional symposium which was held in the green and beautiful city of Al-Ain in the U.A.E. was organized by the College of Food and Agriculture at the U.A.E. University in collaboration with the Federation of Arab Scientific Research Councils. The meetings were held at the Al-Ain Intercontinental Hotel and Resort and were attended by over 80 people from Universities, as well as from private and public sectors. The countries represented included U.A.E., Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Morocco, Libya, USA, Canada, Germany and India. A total of 15 papers were presented. The speakers at the opening ceremony were H.E. Dr Abdallah Al-Khanbashi, Acting Vice Chancellor of the U.A.E. University, Dr Ghaleb Al-Hadrami, Dean of the College of Food and Agriculture at the U.A.E. University and the Associate Secretary General of the Federation of Arab Scientific Research Councils, Dr Fathi Al-Mansoury. All three speakers elaborated on the importance of the role of the poultry industry in providing adequate supply of animal protein to the growing population of the Arab world. In addition, Dr Al-Mansoury spoke about the role of the Arab Scientific Research Councils in the development of the agriculture sector and the poultry sector in particular.

The first session in the symposium was chaired by Dean Emeritus at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the American University of Beirut, Dr Nuhad Daghir. The keynote speaker for that session was Dr Michael Hulet from the Department of Poultry Science at Pennsylvania State University with his paper entitled ‘Technology Transfer to The Poultry Industry: Bridging the Communication Gap’. Dr Hulet talked about the various new and unique technologies in coordination and training/educating personnel for the commercial poultry industry. He emphasized the importance of coordinating the training and selection of specialists in the region with the private sector and the cooperation of universities in the training of personnel.

Dr Mohamad Al-Ashwal, Dean of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine at Ibb University in Yemen spoke about the problems of poultry production in the Arab world and some possible solutions. He elaborated on the importance of good management in limiting the spread of disease and the effects of poor management on reducing efficiency and profits. He stressed the need for proper planning and adequate government legislation to encourage investment in the poultry sector.

Mr. Musa Freiji who represented the private sector presented a comprehensive review of the industry statistics for the 22 Arab countries. He mentioned that table egg production had reached 24 billion eggs with a per capita of 71 eggs and is expected to reach 83 eggs per capita in 2015. Per capita poultry meat consumption is expected to increase from 12.3 kg to 14.9 kg in 2015. Mr. Freiji emphasized the need to put more land under cultivation of cereal and oil seed crops. He stressed the importance of developing specific potent AI vaccines produced from the local strains.

Professor Hatem Abd El-Hamid, Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Alexandria University spoke about “Diseases of poultry in the Arab world” and the importance of biosecurity in disease prevention. He elaborated on Avian Influenza and methods of its control. Finally in this session, Dr Ahmed Hussein gave a paper on the need for a biosecurity network to protect the poultry industry’s physical components as well as enhancing consumer confidence in poultry products. The model provides a low-cost, easy to use documentation system employing already existing GSM networks available in most Arab countries.

The second session was chaired by Dr Ahmed Hussein, professor of poultry science at the UAE University. George Kunjn John, manager of Al Khaleej Sugar Co. spoke about sugar syrup as high energy feed for poultry, followed by Dave Mehool who discussed sugar syrup coating and presented information on a new coating technology. Dr Fady El Assad of Belhasa Biotek Solutions spoke about new technologies for safe production, including disinfection and the Hurdle technology concept. Dr Rashid Dafalla from the Emirates Modern Poultry Co. talked about the constraints of the industry in the UAE. Commercial poultry production in that country started in the mid 1970’s and has now expanded to levels of self sufficiency.

On the second day, the session was chaired by Dr Youssef Attia, Head of the Animal and Poultry Production Department at the Alexandria University. The first speaker was Dr Nuhad Daghir who gave a review of heat stress problems and solutions in poultry production, heat stress being the most serious constraint to production in that part of the world. Dr Daghir emphasized the need for research on acclimatization to heat stress. He described several management practices to improve performance in hot climates. Professor Abbaker Ali Idris dealt with several husbandry issues and major handicaps in production such as need for high capital investment, disease outbreaks, competitive marketing systems and reduced profit margins. Dr Youssef Attia gave an extensive review of poultry feeds and feeding in the Arab world. He spoke about the use of feedstuffs, anti-nutritional factors, etc. He also mentioned several methods of improving the nutritive value of these feedstuffs. Professor Ibrahim Yousif, from the University of Khartoum, Sudan, spoke about poultry breeding and the fact that the Arab world is completely dependent on strains which have been developed by breeding companies in the USA and Europe. He raised the issue of genotype x environment interaction in this situation and what could be done along those lines. Finally Dr M. Ahachad presented results of his research on poultry housing and applying the principles of thermal exchange to improve performance, a case study conducted in Morocco. He used the TRNSYS computer programme for the modelling and simulation of energy flows of poultry houses in northern Morocco.

The last session was dedicated to the preparation and discussion of recommendations determined at the Symposium, which included:

1. Importance of spreading information on new developments in poultry science through educational and training programmes conducted by highly skilled specialists.
2. Encouraging Arab governments to invest in poultry production enterprises and issue regulations for monitoring all industry inputs and outputs.
3. Increase production of cereals and oil seeds adapted to the countries of the region and support research for improving nutritional value of these products and their increased utilization in poultry feeds.
4. Encourage the establishment of databases for all production and disease control parameters and monitoring of these parameters.
5. Ensure provisions of government subsidies in case of natural disasters.
6. Enhance cooperation between research, education and industry sectors.
7. Biosecurity measures on farms should be legislated for economic as well as for human health considerations.
8. Support all areas of poultry science research with particular emphasis on developing specific vaccines produced from local strains. Research is also needed to develop suitable corn, sorghum and oil seed crop varieties that are heat tolerant and have low water requirements.
9. Recommend the establishment of more specialized poultry disease laboratories for disease monitoring and research.
10. Recommend to the Federation of Arab Scientific Research Councils to organize a poultry science symposium once every two years in one country in the region.

This symposium provided an excellent opportunity for poultry science specialists from all Arab countries to meet and exchange views on common problems. Special thanks should be expressed to Dr Youssef Attia for coordinating this meeting, Dr Fathi Al-Mansoury for his collaboration and Dr Ahmed Hussein for excellent local arrangements and for the preparation and publishing of a very good brochure on the symposium which included the programme as well as abstracts of all papers presented. Special thanks should also go to Dean Ghaleb Al-Hadrami of the UAE for hosting this activity and making every participant welcome.

N.J. Daghir
President WPSA-Lebanon Branch

The Benin Branch is gathering information on poultry and associated research from all over the world for use by its membership. It is also working on plans for the 1st Poultry Conference to be held in Benin, and is designing a branch Newsletter. Development of a summary on the scope of poultry integration in Benin is underway, and the development of modules of information on poultry practices that can be brought to the attention of poultry producers is also being considered. Development of a workshop on the diagnosis and treatment of the principal avian diseases is also being considered.

Félicien Prosper Durand
Branch Secretary Benin

The German Branch held its annual Spring Conference on March 11-12, 2008, in attractive new facilities at the University Halle/Saale. The business meeting was used to promote national and international WPSA events, focusing on the WPC in Brisbane. So far, 40 members from Germany have registered, 15 of which are supported by travel grants from the German Branch. The scientific programme included 8 invited papers and poster presentations on a wide range of topics. Almost 100 members and guests attended the meeting, and many of them participated in one of two excursions which were organized following the Conference. They had the option of visiting the former East German breeding center in Deersheim (which has been converted to 100% production of bio-eggs) or attending a cultural programme in Halle.

Dr Anke Förster
Branch Secretary Germany

Working Group 9 on “Welfare” held its annual meeting in Cervia (Italy) on March 12. During the meeting, the scientific programme and the organising aspects of the next symposium on poultry welfare was discussed. A symposium on poultry welfare will be held from May 18–22, 2009 in the Hotel Dante in Cervia, and the following website has been established: www.wpsa.it/cervia2009. This schedule will be as follows:

1st Announcement: July 2007;
2nd Announcement and call for papers: April 2008;
Deadline for abstract submission on web site: November 1, 2008;
Deadline for acceptance of the abstracts: January 15, 2009;
Deadline for early registration: February 15, 2009
Final deadline for registration payment: March 30, 2009

The main topics of the symposium include:

1. Welfare of meat producing poultry (broilers, turkeys, waterfowl, game birds)
2. Welfare of pullets and laying hens
3. Welfare of reproducing poultry (parent stock, breeders)
4. Welfare of organic poultry
5. Welfare and poultry nutrition
6. Welfare of poultry during transport
7. Welfare problems related to potential/actual outbreaks of Avian Influenza and other diseases
8. Welfare related to endo- and ectoparasites
9. Free papers