European Poultry Conference 2010

03-09-2010 | Home | Expert opinion

I had the opportunity to attend the 13th European Poultry Conference in Tours, France during August 23-27, 2010.

According to the information provided by the organisers of this conference, more than 1200 people from 69 countries (Europe, North America, Australia, Africa, South America, and Asia) attended this event. Geographical diversity of attendees was one of the most prominent features of this conference and I think that this is typical of World’s Poultry Science Association (WPSA) meetings. 54% of registrants were from the industry sector whereas this number for universities and research centers was 45%.

In addition to oral presentations, there were so many interesting posters on different topics. In my opinion, if some of those posters had been selected for oral presentations, they could have probably reached out to a broader audience. Complete information on the scientific program can be found on the conference website.

One of the sessions, amongst others, that I was particularly interested in was “Education and technology transfer”. Speakers of these sessions were from Europe, USA, and Australia. One of the main points discussed in these sessions was reduction in the number of students who are willing to enter into a Poultry Science program particularly at undergraduate level.

WPSA had also provided travel grants to a relatively large number of students from different countries in order to facilitate their trip to Tours by covering some of the costs associated with attending this meeting. This type of support can be of great help for professional development of students.

It was announced during the closing session of the conference that there will be a number of WPSA meetings at regional and/or international levels within the next couple of years (e.g., 18^th European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition in Turkey in 2011 and 24^th World’s Poultry Congress in Brazil in 2012).

I hope that your stay in Tours was beneficial from both scientific and recreational standpoints. Please feel free to comment on this blog.

Reference: www.epc2010.org