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The World's Poultry Science Association is a long established and unique organization that strives to advance knowledge and understanding of all aspects of poultry science and the poultry industry. Its major role is to encourage, and help facilitate, liaison among research scientists and educators, and between those in research and education and those working in the many diverse sectors of the industry. As a non-profit making organization, it relies for its income almost entirely on membership subscriptions, although a number of poultry companies around the world provide generous sponsorship to help meet some of the production costs of the World's Poultry Science Journal.
With a large and truly international membership of 8,000, the organization's objectives are promoted in various ways. These range from high-profile international congresses and conferences to the many diverse meetings organized by WPSA national branches (of which there are about 80) and two federations of branches - in Europe and in the Asia-Pacific region. Within the Association there are many working groups and committees covering various aspects of poultry science and technology. Dedication to the spread of knowledge, education and training is ranked highly amongst the interests of WPSA members. All WPSA members can attend the regularly held World Congresses and regional conferences, together with many other meetings on various aspects of poultry production and poultry science. In return for their annual subscription, members also receive the World's Poultry Science Journal four times per year.
The World's Poultry Science Journal (WPSJ) has developed a high international reputation for its content, which covers virtually all aspects of production and science in the poultry industry. Collectively the reviews in the WPSJ provide an unrivalled reference source. Other contents include book reviews, book lists, news items on WPSA Branches, technical working groups and a calendar of events around the world, including education and training courses. The WPSJ is currently published four times each year. The address of the Editor is included under Officers of the Association.
For two decades, Professor Samuel (Sammy) Egyir Aggrey (University of Georgia, Athens, USA) has conducted basic and fundamental research in quantitative, molecular and cellular aspects of feed and nutrient utilization in meat type (broiler) chickens. The biological measure of feed efficiency, residual feed intake (RFI) was introduced in 1965 and remained a black box for over a half a century because it combined the efficiency of maintenance and efficiency of growth into one component. Professor Aggrey dissected the components of RFI, delineated what had been a black box, and offered additional tools for genetic improvement. Based on the molecular dissection of feed efficiency, it became apparent that feed efficiency is highly related to protein (nitrogen) utilization efficiency. Whereas mammals use the ornithine cycle for nitrogen recycling, avian species use the purine biosynthesis pathway. Professor Aggrey showed that chickens use both the purine biosynthesis and the salvage pathways to recycle dietary nitrogen and further offered the molecular mechanisms utilized by both feed-efficient and inefficient birds in nitrogen recycling. Professor Aggrey has also been developing biomarkers for heat stress, coccidian infection and gut health in the era of antibiotic free production. Professor Aggrey co-edited ‘Poultry Genetics, Breeding and Biotechnology’ and was the lead editor for ‘Advances in Poultry Genetics and Genomics’.
Prof. Kokou Tona started his research career after completing his MSc in Tropical Animal Production at the Institute of Tropical Medicine Prince Leopold, Antwerpen, Belgium in 1998. Having completed his PhD in Applied Biological Sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, Prof. Tona has gone through the ranks at the University of Lomé and became a full Professor since 2015. Having played a pivotal role in securing a World Bank grant for the establishment of the Regional Centre of Excellence in Avian Sciences (CERSA) at the University of Lomé, Prof. Tona became the Director of the Centre, which has made tremendous impacts in the region, focusing on Masters, PhD and short course programmes of over 180, 60 and 1000 students, respectively, from about 13 countries in Western, Central and Eastern Africa. The vision of the Centre is to develop and improve capacity building in the agricultural sector in general and in the poultry industry in particular, in order to consolidate food security in West Africa. Prof. Tona has been instrumental in developing a functional curriculum for the Centre, which has received international accreditation for the Masters programme. The research of Prof. Tona has focussed on the following: avian physiology; technical knowledge of hatchery management and day-old chick production on industrial scale; improvement of poultry production through adapted management practices in sub-Saharan Africa; and development of the Tona-scoring system for measuring one-day-old chick quality. He developed a renowned method of chick quality scoring in the year 2003, which has been accepted globally. He has also been involved in the development of short course modules for poultry industry and implementation in West African countries, training poultry industry stakeholders in different countries, advisor and monitoring for poultry industry stakeholders in the sub-region. organization of poultry symposiums in Togo having attendance from different countries, and Organization of the first Pan-African Poultry Conference in 2019 (PPC 2019). Prof. Tona has over 100 articles published in reputable journals to date. He has successfully supervised numerous undergraduate, Masters, PhD, and Postdoctoral students. He established the Togo WPSA branch in 2007 and also successfully hosted several international conferences in Togo. The award will further enable him support for development of the Bioethics and Animal Welfare Masters programme.
