Over 25 delegates attended the meeting in Antalya, Turkey, and were welcomed by Regional Technical Manager Puzant Dakessian. The opening day included discussions on chick quality with services and support also covered during the three day event. Attendees also had the chance to join in interactive, practical and ‘hands-on’ workshops over two days. Day one showed how to check fertility in 12 day old incubated eggs, while the second day looked at fresh eggs. Real egg break outs were done to underline the methods being discussed; something everyone found very helpful and applicable to every day work in the field.

Puzant Dakessian said: “Our objective at these meetings is to bring together global and regional knowledge and best practice. It helps us discuss various issues and find solutions based on experience, to pass on to our distributors and their customers as well as assess and compare our overall Ross product performances. Ensuring best practise is always a great way to guarantee strong flock performance, hence the need to look at the support we give to our distributors and customers as well as the latest advice.

“The poultry industry in Turkey, the Middle East and Africa continues to grow and expand despite all the regional political turmoil and increased production costs. We are lucky to be in an industry which produces affordable protein for human consumption and also to be in a region of significant growth in the population and hence in demand, which keeps attracting international breeding companies and independent entrepreneurs to invest in the region for the future.”

Day two provided an opportunity for individual national round-ups from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq and Sudan. The third and final day of the meeting covered topics including the Aviagen SPIDES technology and an overview of the Aviagen Schools in the USA and Europe. Day three also saw presentations and discussions on the very important topic of ‘the golden rules of controlling major diseases’.

Mr Dakessian added: “The Ross product is performing extremely well in this region. One of the major factors allowing our distributors to have the upper hand in their competitive markets and for the Ross bird to be the breed of choice is achieving and maintaining quality and healthy birds, backed by experienced and knowledgeable local technical teams across the whole chain of production, securing a quality output to their local markets.”