120 members and visitors returned in the Spring to the lovely campus of the University of York for the second Annual Meeting of the Branch to be held at this venue. Once again this was held in parallel with those of the British Society of Animal Science and the International Society for Applied Ethology, giving members of each the opportunity to mix with, and attend the sessions of the other two.

Another excellent programme had been arranged by Paul Rose and his organising committee, Ian Dunn, Sally Solomon and Nick Sparks, and the increased attendance demonstrated the growing popularity of this event.

Fifteen submitted papers and twenty four posters covered topics ranging from Nutrition to Behaviour and Welfare, Physiology, Growth, Health and Environment, with a number of students contributing the results of their research work in competition for the coveted President’s Prizes.

The highlight of the meeting was undoubtedly the Joint WPSA/BSAS Mini-Symposium on Lighting for Poultry, which occupied the afternoon of the first day.

Prof Trevor Morris, to whom the Lighting Symposium was dedicated.

A new format this year allowed for discussion on posters at the end of each session, giving authors the opportunity to better explain their work.

Gordon Memorial Lecture

The 2002 Meeting saw the twentieth Gordon Memorial Lecture, The immunologists debt to the chicken, given by Dr Fred Davison.

A group leader in the Immunology and Pathology Department of the Institute of Animal Health, Dr Davison led his audience through a spell-binding account of the development of the understanding of the immune system and of immune response, much of the early and current work having been done with the chicken. He heralded an exciting future for both avian and mammalian species with the development of new types of vaccines and a growing understanding of the role of the genome in disease resistance.