With a rapidly growing PS market in the country, this was the second of the now annual seminars to be held.

More than 70 people from 14 farms across Belarus attended the seminar in Minsk to hear presentations on nutrition, ventilation, hatchery management and vaccinations.

The Ross 308 has been very successful in the country: Since the first chick delivery to PPR Broiler in October 2008, which signalled the start of the GP partnership, PS production has risen from 214,000 in 2009 to a projected 1.5 million in 2011.

Eduard Taktarov, Aviagen's Sales Manager for the region, said: "The Ross 308 has been a great success; however, we never rest on our laurels and are always keen to offer support and advice to the wider industry. We promised to organise an on-going programme of events as part of our overall technical support and we are delivering on that. Belarus is an important market and the country has a real commitment to developing a sustainable, local food supply. Ross parents and broilers are a vital part of that initiative as the Number 1 choice in the country."

Speakers at the event included Barrie Fleming, Aviagen Veterinary Consultant, who gave a presentation covering different vaccination programmes and their objectives, types of vaccines and vaccination techniques. The presentation was specifically tailored to the Belarus market, taking into consideration local field pathogen strains and farms’ own particular veterinary issues. REO vaccination was covered at the request of the seminar attendees.

Leonardo Linares, Aviagen's Nutrition Specialist, talked about breeder nutrition and separate male feeding benefits, while Timea Torma, Hatchery and QA manager at Aviagen Kft, gave a presentation about monitoring the process of incubation. Timea also explained how to use some simple but effective methods for measuring egg weight loss, the window for adjusting incubation times and improving the quality of chicks.

Petro Kurechko, Technical Service Manager for the region, talked about the importance of correct ventilation control and monitoring the effectiveness of the systems.

Nina Bernatskaya, PS Production Manager from Poultry Farm Druzhba, said: "We would like to thank Aviagen for very interesting presentations and information that we will be able to use in our daily production. Such get-togethers give Belarusian Ross 308 PS producers an opportunity to meet each other and share our knowledge and experience."