Vetsweb reports that In October, for 10 days in October, the delegation visited companies in the poultry production chain in Spain, France and UK.

Visits were made to both headquarters as well as practical excursions to production sites, visiting the complete production chain, ranging from poultry farms, premix companies, compound feed manufacturers, hatcheries and slaughterhouses, up to fully vertical integrated companies, which includes even own supermarkets.

Some of European key players in poultry industry were visited during the tour, of which for instance Guisssona Food Group (Guissona, Spain), Vall Companys (Lleida, Spain), CCPA (Janze, France), Groupe Glon (Pontivy, France) and Arrivé Groupe (Saint-Fulgent, France).

Poultry production worldwide knows many similarities but also many differences. However, poultry nutritionists and veterinarians are facing similar kind of challenges. In face-to-face discussions differences in broiler production systems and potential solutions for current and/or future challenges were discussed.

The main focus points during discussion were animal health, animal nutrition, animal welfare and legislation. Creating new contacts develops an information exchange between EU and United States of which both sides may actively gather new ideas to improve broiler production even further and to stay an innovative key player within the industry.

According to Vetsweb, participants involved Dr Roy Brister, Head of Nutrition and Dr Bill Hewat, Director of Veterinary Services, both representing Tyson Foods, and Troy Lohrmann, vice president of QTI, the appointed distributor for Calsporin® within USA. The tour was organised by QTI and Orffa Additives, the EU distributor of Calsporin.