The 56th General Assembly of the Association of Poultry Processors and Poultry Trade in the EU (AVEC) was held in the splendid city of Valencia last week - an appropriate location as the local version of one of Spain's iconic national dishes, paella, features chicken instead of the more usual seafood [pictured].

With nearly 130 participants representing 14 countries and a fine and varied programme of presentations, AVEC's annual General Assembly was hailed as a great success for the organising hosts.

The theme of the meeting, explained Federico Félix, was 'Continuing the success of poultry learning from research and practice'. Mr Félix is the President of ProPollo, the poultry meat association of Spain and also the current President of AVEC.

Also in the EU, Europe’s farmers now know where they stand on payment changes, following the completion of the political negotiations on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. This is a significant milestone in the modernisation of policy for agriculture for the 21st century, aiming to shift the focus from support for agribusiness conglomerates towards greater sustainability and the rural economy.

Looking further afield, China has announced its decision not to appeal against the decision of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The announcement on 25 September by the US Trade Representative that the WTO has formally adopted the recent dispute settlement panel’s report in China’s anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases against imports of US chicken products cam as welcome to the US poultry industry.

Finally, turning to Bird Flu News, Nepal continues to grapple with the H5N1 virus in its poultry flocks; 43 separate outbreaks affecting almost 350,000 birds were officially reported in a two-week period around the beginning of August. Two young Cambodians have been infected with the H5N1 virus, one of whom has died. And in China, an official warning has been made that the avian H7N9 flu strain is highly likely to return and affect humans in the coming months.