Professor Colin Whitehead
Prof Colin Whitehead from Roslin Institute was elected to be one of only four World Vice Presidents to serve for the next four years.
Colin Whitehead was brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, receiving his B.Sc, Ph.D and DSc. degrees from Edinburgh University. He joined the Poultry Research Centre in 1969 carrying out research in poultry nutrition. An early success was establishing the aetiology of biotin in preventing broiler fatty liver and kidney syndrome. His research extended to many other vitamins, latterly to vitamin D in particular. He widened his fields of interest to become an authority in poultry bone biology and has carried out extensive research on nutritional and genetic factors in body composition and bone abnormality. He has authored or co-authored over 350 papers in refereed journals and other publications. He is a former President of the WPSA UK Branch and Secretary of British Poultry Science and is Secretary/Treasurer for the WPSA European Federation and Chairman of the Nutrition Working Group. Active in conference organisation, he holds professorships at Glasgow and Guangxi Universities.
Colin was also selected to be one of only five new members out of 13 nominations to be presented into the prestigious WPSA International Poultry Hall of Fame. Very many congratulations to him on these double honours. We look forward to working closely with him over the next four years.
Professor Geoffrey Mead
Also elected to the International Poultry Hall of Fame was Prof Geoff Mead who has had a long and distinguished career working in the field of food hygiene and has contributed much to the quality and safety of poultry meat worldwide During the 1970s, whilst at the Food Research Institute (FRI), he was involved in the controversy over the EC proposal to ban water-immersion chilling of poultry on hygiene grounds. His underpinning research led to the Council of Ministers finally adopting a modified system, operated according to a newly developed code of practice.
From 1979 to 1985, Prof Mead was Head of the FRI Poultry and Eggs Group, carrying out research in support of the UK Poultry Industry. With a growing need to improve control of foodborne pathogens in the industry, his research focussed on the behaviour of these organisms in poultry processing and manipulation of the intestinal microflora to reduce symptomless carriage of salmonellas in the live bird. His group was the first to develop a defined-flora treatment preparation based on the 'competitive exclusion' principle.
The hanging of uneviscerated poultry was another EC controversy that affected the traditional farm-fresh turkey market. Therefore, Prof Mead undertook research to determine the requirements for optimum product quality, now widely used in the UK and elsewhere.
After a period as Head of the Hygiene Section of the new AFRC Institute for Food Research in Bristol in 1985, the Institute closed in 1990.
In 1992 Dr Mead was appointed Vestey Professor of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health at the Royal Veterinary College, London where he gave a high priority to the food safety aspects of poultry production, becoming a member of the ACMSF Working Group on Poultry Meat. He retired from full time work in 1999 but remains a busy Food Hygiene Consultant. Over the years, Prof Mead has been involved in several WHO expert consultations. He is also a consultant to the UK Food Standards Agency, advising on poultry research requirements in the UK. He is a prolific author, a regular international conference speaker, member of several scientific editorial boards and recipient of many prestigious awards.
Prof Mead was President of the WPSA European Federation of Branches from 1994 to 1998, in which role he re-vitalised the technical activities of the Federation.
As a long-standing member of Working Group 5 (Meat Quality), he was its Chairman from 1985 to 1990 and initiated the standardisation of some of the available methods for measuring meat quality parameters.
He has also served two 4 - year terms as a valued member of the Council of the UK Branch of WPSA, which warmly congratulates him on his award.
80 new members worldwide
Following on from his initiatives at European and UK level, long-standing UK branch member Dr Gordon Rosen again generously offered to subsidise the first year's membership of any young members joining WPSA at the World's Poultry Congress. This resulted in over 80 new members. Well done, Gordon!