Aviagen's European Technical Seminar is a Success - UK - At the end of May 2005, Aviagen continued its series of European technical events with a seminar focusing on successful management of Parent Stock. One hundred and thirty one delegates representing Aviagen's distributors and Parent Stock customers from 17 different countries, ranging from Ireland to Russia, were invited to Edinburgh to hear about the latest developments and best technical practice for parent stock management.

The session was the latest in a series of seminars organised all over Europe to demonstrate Aviagen's commitment to sharing technical information with customers. Working in conjunction with its European partners Aviagen is able to address the issues important to the industry, with a focus on local markets. Attendance exceeded all expectations and proved extremely popular with both established and new customers.

The seminar comprised a number of presentations, which provided practical information on how to get the very best performance from Aviagen's high quality parent stock in the diverse range of markets that exist across Europe.

Alfons Koerhuis, Aviagen's Director of Global Genetics, opened the proceedings with an overview of the Aviagen Global Breeding Programme. The presentation demonstrated in detail the way in which Aviagen identifies the best birds for selection. He also highlighted the on-going improvements and new techniques employed within the selection process ensuring that Aviagen is continually responding to the needs of customers and producing the strongest, most profitable poultry stock in the marketplace. This was followed by a presentation from Santiago Avendano, a Research Geneticist with Aviagen. Santiago's presentation focused on how Aviagen selects birds for optimal reproductive performance, demonstrating a number of key initiatives to further improve the reproductive ability of the poultry sold to customers. This was followed by a presentation on male management advice from Lindsay Broadbent, Aviagen's UK Regional Accounts Co-ordinator. As a result of the current emphasis regarding Nutrition within the region Marcus Kenny, Aviagen's Technical Development Manager in Nutrition, presented information on how to optimise feeding of parent stock to get the best possible performance.

Further presentations were then given by Henk Steenblik, General Sales and Technical Manager, Ross EPI, Michael Longley and Jonathon Harrison, European Technical Managers for Aviagen, Nick Spenceley, Regional Technical Manager for Eastern Europe and Otto van Tuijl, Technical Director of Ross EPI, offering advice on such topics as hatching egg management and optimisation of performance.

The seminar also presented the opportunity to introduce new technical team members from Aviagen's extended European distribution network, following the acquisition of Ross EPI and the establishment of Aviagen kft.

Attendees were also given a preview of the latest product in the Aviagen portfolio. The Ross 708, which is currently enjoying considerable success in the North American market, is under trial with Aviagen's Italian distributor Ross Italia s.r.l. Valentino Brianza, Managing Director of Ross Italia, presented the early results from the Ross 708 trials and showed it as a product that is proving extremely popular with Italian integrators, with improved performance at both parent stock and broiler levels.

Dinah Nicholson, Regional Technical Manager - Europe, commented: "We were delighted by the demand and turnout for the series of seminars. This has been a great opportunity to further develop relationships with our European customers, and has been very successful in addressing technical areas where customers felt they would like further support. We'd like to thank all our customers who attended the event and the Aviagen technical staff for their excellent contributions."

Source: Aviagen - 4th July 2005