Summer 2006 Newsletter : Annual Branch Meeting

In common with our fellows in BSAS, attendance fell rather dramatically at the Annual Scientific Meeting this year, being about fifteen down on the previous year. However, we should not be too despondent as the 85 members who did attend represent a very healthy proportion of our total membership of about 280.
40 papers had been submitted and were published once again as British Poultry Abstracts. Both the title and the costs of this publication continue to be discussed and will be kept under review by Branch Council, which is keen to listen to the views of members on the subject and to look for a possibly more economic method of publication.
This year’s Meeting, the last to be held at the University of York, was divided into six main sessions, the opening one of which was a poster review session giving a small number of the poster authors the opportunity to very briefly describe their work. This was followed after coffee by a session of four original papers on Behaviour and Welfare.
Following lunch there was a very well attended WPSA/BSAS Joint Session with three invited speakers talking about “Environmental issues for the intensive pig and poultry industry”. This included an interesting look at the current energy market, sustainable energy sources and IPPC.
The afternoon meeting concluded with a session of three original papers on Nutrition and Species Comparisons and was followed by the Gordon Memorial Lecture. This year’s lecturer was Prof Tom Humphrey from the University of Bristol who, under the title “Are happy chickens, safer chickens?” gave a fascinating account of the background to the relationship between stress and disease in poultry and food poisoning in man and then went on to discuss some new and exciting work which his team at Bristol is conducting.
The day finished with the Gordon Wine Reception followed by the WPSA Annual Dinner – another superb evening in the magnificent surroundings of St Williams College adjacent to York Minster.

Prof Peter Biggs presents the 2006 Gordon Memorial Medal to Prof Tom Humphrey (left).

Wednesday morning commenced with six short original communications on Poultry Nutrition and then, after coffee, Keith Hamilton from DEFRA updated delegates on the current Avian Influenza situation. He outlined the requirements of the Directive and the necessary planning, surveillance and action in case of the spread of the disease, including the influence of wild birds. He discussed the differences in high and low pathogenicities and also informed delegates that CVL Weybridge is the central reference laboratory for the disease. 

The Meeting concluded with a further four short papers on a variety of topics and with the presentation of the President’s Prizes to the two young scientists judged to have given the best poster and oral presentations at the Meeting.

New Venue
WPSA UK Branch 2007 Annual Meeting
Southport Theatre and Floral Hall Complex
Tuesday 3 / Wednesday 4 April 2007