Autumn 2005 Newsletter : 28th Poultry Science Symposium

The middle of September saw nearly 180 delegates attend the 28th Symposium in the Poultry Science series organized by the UK Branch of WPSA and held in Bristol. The topic “Avian Gut Function, Health and Disease” proved to be a sound choice and attracted not only a record number of delegates but also a record of over 100 from overseas, representing no less than 26 different countries!

Spread over three days of intensive sessions and discussion, no less than 25 papers were presented under 7 session headings and were backed up by 46 selected posters, many of which were also briefly presented by their authors.

It is impossible to summarise such a huge range of topics and to pick out one or two would suggest that some areas of the Symposium were more relevant than others. This would be entirely untrue as all agreed that the strength of the meeting was drawn from bringing together scientists with very diverse skills but all of whom contributed their valuable knowledge and

research findings about normal and abnormal gut function. Over the three days many interactions became clear and scientists from many disciplines found much common ground. Covering structure and function, gut flora, nutritional effects, pathology, immunological and pathogen control, monitoring and practical experience, absolutely nothing was left out. It is certain that the published papers will become a valued and much-used reference book.

The Symposium was organized by a WPSA Group working under the Chairmanship of Dr Graham Perry, backed up by Rita Hinton of the Langford Continuing Education Unit of the Bristol University Veterinary School. We owe them and all the contributors our enormous thanks.

The full published papers of the Symposium will now be collected, edited and peer reviewed and will be mailed to all delegates by Autumn 2006. Copies of the book will also be available at that time from the publishers CABI Publishing:
www.cabi-publishing.org/bookshop.