Yark Osterndorff, Business Development Manager, opened the event and delegates were given a series of commercial updates and technical presentations. Eduard Taktarov, Sales Manager, reviewed Aviagen’s business in Russia, highlighting the local supply and support available to customers. Artyom Bolshakov, Technical Manager, spoke about the value added by different hatchery processes, Consultant Microbiologist Colin Russell explained why implementing consistent sampling methods is so important in modern poultry management and Barrie Fleming, Veterinary Consultant, updated the audience on the different types of Infectious Bronchitis variants currently found in Europe. He followed this by providing information and advice on the importance of flock health monitoring and the interpretation and analysis of the results.

Neil Clark, Regional Technical Manager, presented the annual Ross broiler and breeder flock awards. The main awards were presented for best individual Parent and broiler flocks. The PS awards went to Agrofirm Octyabrskaya, Yaroslavsky Broiler and Kalininskaya farm, with Sheksninskaya farm, Yaroslavsky broiler and Cherepovetsky Broiler the recipients of the broiler awards.

After the Flock Awards were presented, the delegates were taken to Aviagen’s Russian hatchery and office, located in Yasnogorsk, where they were given an interactive tour of the hatchery and a presentation on hatchery procedures by Elena Seregina, QA Manager.

Neil Clark said: "We look upon our relationship with our customers as a partnership and our annual seminar is always a great opportunity to share information and experience with each other. It is always rewarding to get feed-back and to be able to use our network of Aviagen specialists to focus on areas that are important to our customers.

My personal highlight was the presentation of the annual Flock Awards. A significant number of our customers achieved superb results at both breeder and broiler level and I would like to thank them for all their hard work and their willingness to supply us with information and performance data on a regular basis. This data is vital to enable us to benchmark performance effectively and ensures the development of our R & D programme in the appropriate directions."

Pavel Ivanenko, Production Director, GAP Resource commented: "Our company are regular attendees at Aviagen’s Russian seminar as it gives us the opportunity to hear the latest advice and recommendations for improving the performance of our flocks, educate our staff and talk with specialists in different fields of poultry business."

Valery Vashentsev, Deputy to General Director, Elinar-Broiler added: "Our company is a long-time partner of Aviagen. We continue to achieve excellent performance from our Ross stock and it is clear that Ross is the best bird for our business. The seminar and visit to the hatchery provides us with confidence that the quality and service we are given will continue to improve.”