It is the last issue of the year again, which seems to come round increasingly quickly as the years go by in my role as Editor in Chief. The main event this year was the World’s Poultry Congress held in China. I would like to thank the organisers, especially Katie, for their efforts in making us all welcome and making sure everything was ready for us. For myself and the Board members, it was a week of meetings, and an opportunity to meet old friends and colleagues as well as enjoy various social events, including a wonderful conference dinner. However most of us managed to find time to explore at least a small part of Beijing and its wonderful sights and history. Congratulations to Prof. Ning Yang on his Presidency for the next four years. Ning has been a very useful and approachable member of the board in his time served so far. This year, there was a new element added into the normal Board Meeting duties – with Alan Gibbins (President of Asia-Pacific region) organising a workshop looking towards the future of the WPSA and how to keep things current and encourage our membership with new and exciting ideas and projects. This is all covered in the various reports from the WPC in this issue, so I won’t go into details here – but merely wish to thank Alan for his hard work in this area and the board members for some great discussion and decisions.

As for the journal, our five year impact factor remains firm and we are still ‘up there’ and very stable in the lists of agricultural journals, despite being a much smaller publication and only taking review papers, rather than experimental reports, the former being much less numerous. We continue to address costs and accountability of the journal, always trying to maintain and improve on quality as well as deliver a great service to our readers. As such, we are now scrutinising papers where the subject matter is rather broad, as these topics need closer focus, especially in areas where there is a large body of scientific data which cannot hope to be adequately covered in a 20 page review. However, where we have submissions regarding new and interesting topics, I am always happy for authors to contact me if they wish to send in a longer review. We remain committed to encouraging young poultry scientists to publish reviews with us and are always happy to help guide authors through the system.

So I remain to wish all our readers best wishes for the New Year, wherever you are in the world. Here is to another exciting and interesting year in the world of poultry science.

Dr Lucy Waldron

Editor

The science and practice of poultry nutrition has changed greatly over the last hundred years, moving from a backyard enterprise to the modern computer-controlled production of whole diets formulated to specific nutrient compositions. This has become possible as a result of the identification of individual nutrients and their metabolic roles. Although the word ‘protein’ was first used in 1834, it was not until the 1950s that the avalanche of research on protein and amino acid requirements of poultry started. Energy content of feeds did not become a consideration until the 1940s when the concept of metabolisable energy was introduced. The term ‘vitamin’ was first proposed in 1912 to describe the essentiality of thiamine. The term was later extended to cover other essential compounds needed in small quantities. By the 1940s all the remaining 12 vitamins had been identified, and in the 1970s the importance of the vitamin D metabolites was discovered. The importance of calcium and phosphorus for both growing and laying birds was identified in the early stages of poultry keeping and requirements and dietary ratios were established. More recently, the introduction of feed phytase has allowed lowering of both phosphorus and calcium concentrations. Carbohydrase enzymes have also been development for addition to feeds. The importance of sodium, phosphorus and chloride in maintaining electrolyte balance was identified. Trace minerals were usually supplemented in diets as inorganic salts but organic chelates or proteinates have been found in recent years to be absorbed more efficiently. Antibiotics were widely used as growth promoters but their banning, especially in Europe, has led to the search for alternative additives with growth or health benefits. Poultry nutrition is now a scientifically mature subject but changes in industrial practice can be expected to continue, though probably at a slower pace than in recent years.

Commercial poultry production is associated with various stresses affecting productive and reproductive performance of birds and their health status. In general, there are four major types of stress in poultry industry: technological, environmental, nutritional and internal stresses. This review considered main technological stresses: chick placement, increased stocking density, chicken weighing, grading and group formation in rearing houses, as well as bird transferring to breeder houses. The following paper analysed consequences of such environmental stresses as temperature stress and high levels of dust and ammonia in poultry houses. It has been proven that most of the aforementioned stresses suppress reproductive performance of parent birds, including reduced fertility and hatchability. Furthermore, stresses are associated with impaired feed conversion, reduced average daily weight gain, immunosuppression and increased mortality in growing birds. A growing body of evidence indicates that most of stresses in poultry production at the cellular level are associated with oxidative stress due to excess of free radical production or inadequate antioxidant protection. Therefore, the development of the effective nutritional solutions to decrease negative consequences of commercially-relevant stresses is an important task for poultry scientists. One of such approaches is based on vitagene concept which will be considered in the second part of the review.

The manipulation of the photoperiod by the use of lighting programmes is a useful tool, inexpensive and can help to reduce the negative effect on feed intake due to the stress caused by hot environments. Lighting programmes for broiler chickens are used to regulate feed intake, providing access to food and water, especially during the cooler hours of the day. The change in the length of the photoperiod can be an alternative way to improve the welfare, immune response and, consequently, the performance of birds that are subject to heat stress. The purpose of this paper was to review relevant research on the use of lighting programmes for broilers.

Inositol is a naturally occurring sugar-alcohol present in plants and animals, either in its free form, as a phospholipid component or as inositol phosphate (IP) esters. Dietary inositol is readily absorbed from the intestine via SMIT1 with levels being detectable in the blood as well as in various tissues. Recent studies have revealed a potential link between free inositol content and improved growth response in animals. There is limited data suggesting why an increase in inositol would result in improved growth; however, it would appear that inositol has numerous biological functions within the body. A number of tissues are capable of synthesising this polyol from glucose, although the kidney appears to be the primary site of catabolism. Studies investigating the effect of inositol deficiencies in various animal species have revealed a number of biological processes that are reliant on inositol to function. One of inositol's main functions appears to be its involvement as a phospholipid component of cell membranes and lipoproteins. Cell signalling pathways involving phosphoinositide phospholipids, such as the IP3/DAG and IGF/PIK/Akt pathways, lead to a number of cellular responses that are important for cell survival and growth. On a larger scale, inositol appears to be essential for both prenatal and postnatal development of peripheral nerves, CNS and bone. With regards to a potential growth response, upregulation of specific signalling pathways, such as the IGF/Akt/mTOR pathway, in the skeletal muscle has been shown in response to phytase supplementation and the consequential increase in free inositol. These signalling pathways are responsible for protein synthesis and increased glucose absorption in this tissue. Since inositol has also been shown to be an important regulator of the transport and deposition of fat, it may be possible to use inositol to support the growth of a lean animal.

Commercial poultry production is associated with various stresses affecting productive and reproductive performance of birds and their health status. Recently the vitagene concept has received substantial attention. In fact, the term vitagenes refers to a group of genes that are responsible for preserving cellular homeostasis in stress conditions. These genes play a crucial role in cell and whole organism adaptation to stress by regulating additional synthesis of stress resistance proteins, including heat shock proteins, thioredoxins, sirtuins and superoxide dismutase. Among four major types of stress, nutritional stresses have a special place, being detrimental for productive and reproductive performances of poultry. In particular, mycotoxins are unavoidable contaminants of poultry feed and at molecular level they cause oxidative stress in the body. Oxidised fat and nutrient imbalances are also detrimental for gut health, immunity, growth and development of chickens. Internal stresses, including peak of egg production and vaccinations are also of great importance for poultry production. Therefore, the development of the effective antioxidant solutions to decrease negative consequences of nutritional and internal stresses is an important task for poultry scientists. One of such approaches is based on the vitagene concept which will be considered in this review.

The relationships between metabolic pathways, nutrients and genes are the basis of the majority of current studies on poultry. The rapid advance of biochemical and molecular tools has now made it possible to understand the molecular base of important phenotypic characteristics. Fats are the main storage source of energy in animal body with important role in cell membrane structure, gene regulation and precursors of important regulatory metabolites. From a functional point of view, it has been suggested that dietary fats change liver fatty acid synthesis and other lipogenic enzymes by regulating mRNA synthesis. Nuclear hormone receptors are defined as ligand-activated transcription factors which directly and indirectly regulate a number of genes involved in lipid metabolism and inflammatory signalling. The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are members of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily of transcription factors. PPARs are involved in cellular differentiation, insulin sensitisation, cancer, atherosclerosis and several metabolic diseases. Three distinct PPAR genes have been recognised as α, δ and γ. The most important metabolic effect of PPARγ is its role in adipogenesis. PPARγ is a central gene regulator in adipose tissue and stimulate the expression of several genes involved in adipogenesis. Based upon examples taken from chicken lipid metabolism, it is possible to draw lessons from the study of PPARγ functions in order to approach the study of gene expression PPARγ functions regulatory pathways interactions.

The roles of beneficial microorganisms as important inducers in the development and functions of the gastro-intestinal tract of chickens has aptly presented a need for understanding of how these microbes exert health and growth promoting effects on the host chickens. This review focuses on the microbes-host interactions mechanism leading to the proliferation of beneficial microbes and the colonisation of harmful microbes in the gut of chickens. Insight is provided on gut microflora development and control as it influences productivity of chickens. The future role of gut microorganisms and microbial dynamics in poultry nutrition as the basis for optimal utilisation of feed resources and hosts’ immune development is highlighted.

Commercial poultry production is associated with four major types of stresses, including environmental, technological, nutritional and internal stresses, affecting productive and reproductive performance of birds and their health status. It has been suggested that at the molecular level most stresses are associated with overproduction of free radicals and oxidative stress. Therefore, the development of the effective antioxidant solutions to decrease negative consequences of commercially-relevant stresses is an important task for poultry scientists. One approach is based on possibilities of modulation of vitagenes, a family of genes responsible for animal/poultry adaptation to stress. In fact, the vitagene network includes heat shock proteins (HSPs), thioredoxin system, sirtuins and superoxide dismutases (SOD) and plays a regulatory role in most important cellular processes in stress conditions. Indeed, HSPs, including haem oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and HSP70, are responsible for protein homeostasis in stress conditions, while the thioredoxin system is the major player in maintaining redox status of the cell involved in protein and DNA synthesis and repair as well as in regulation of expression of many important genes. Furthermore, sirtuins regulate the biological functions of various molecules post-translationally by removing acetyl groups from protein substrates ranging from histones to transcription factors and orchestrate cellular stress response by maintenance of genome integrity and protein stability. Finally, SOD belong to the first level of antioxidant defence preventing lipid and protein oxidation at the very early stages. All vitagenes operate in concert building a reliable system of stress detection and adequate response and are considered to be key elements in stress adaptation. Indeed, further work is required to understand molecular mechanisms of the interactions of vitagenes with various signalling pathways and transcription factors in the cell to build an effective adaptive response to minimise the detrimental consequences of commercially-relevant stresses in poultry production.

Immune dysfunction can be either at the humoral or cellular levels and is mediated by a myriad of factors including virus-induced immunosuppression. Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) affects domesticated poultry and causing health problems mainly due to prolonged immunosuppression. Destruction of the immunoglobulin-producing cells is the principal cause of IBDV-induced immunosuppression, which leads to significant impairment of the primary antibody responses. Due to these effects, IBDV infection not only increases the susceptibility of poultry to other viral infections but predisposes the host to several other bacteria of variable pathologies. The IBDV-induced immune-suppression is well-known phenomenon, however, recently there have been significant advancements in understanding the molecular mechanisms of this immune-suppression. This review discuss current updates regarding the immunotoxic and immunosuppressive nature of IBDV in the poultry and highlights areas requiring future research attentions that may help to establish foundations for effective and improved vaccines against IBDV.

The bone is a mineral reserve for metabolic requirements and eggshell formation as well as providing support to the bodies of birds. Bone weakness in laying hens has caused many problems such as bone deformation, osteoporosis, cage layer fatigue and fractures. These problems result in economic losses and are detrimental to animal welfare. Breaking strength is a good indicator of the health and strength of bone and an increase in breaking strength in laying hens would be important to decrease economic losses and improve the welfare of animals. One of the main factors affecting bone breaking strength is nutrition, as it is closely related to dietary calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D and particle size of the calcium source, particularly when the dietary calcium is insufficient. It has been accepted that the composition of the diet, trace elements, especially boron, vitamins, and feed additives play important roles in maintaining bone health and improving the breaking strength of bone in laying hens. This article reviews the results of studies in laying hens wherein the effect of nutrition on the breaking strength of bone were examined.

Avian metapneumovirus (aMPV) infections are an economical issue for the poultry industry worldwide, and have been associated with upper respiratory tract infections and reductions in egg production in various avian species. The aMPV causes turkey rhinotracheitis (TRT) and is associated with swollen head syndrome (SHS) in chickens, which is usually accompanied by secondary infections that increase mortality. It was first reported in 1978 in South Africa and since then, has been seen in most regions of the world. It has been classified into four subgroups called: A, B, C and D. TRT and SHS are characterised by tracheal rales, sneezing, swollen sinuses, swollen head, and nasal and ocular discharge. The aMPV can lead to a drop in egg production and/or an increase in egg abnormalities in both turkeys and hens. Chickens may have antibodies without exhibiting clinical signs. Transmission requires direct contact among birds and its spread over long distances is uncertain, but wild birds are postulated as probable links. The aMPV infections can be diagnosed by serology (ELISA) and molecular methods (PCR). Good biosecurity and immune interventions are effective and necessary aspects of the control program. Live vaccines predominantly control aMPV infection in poultry flocks, but vaccine virus can be found for extended periods after application that may lead to reversion.

The ultimate goal of poultry hatching is to increase the hatching rate and to produce healthy hatched birds. In the incubation process, temperature is the most important factor for the egg hatching rate, the growth performance and offspring phenotype. This not only affects the early development of the offspring, but also has a continued influence on the physical characteristics of the birds, such as final body weight and meat quality. This article reviews the importance of incubation temperature on offspring phenotype, sex differentiation, organism immunity and the development of muscle fibre in poultry.

The importance of gulls as bioindicators, reservoirs and vectors of Escherichia coli strains resistant to the older generation of antibiotics, broad spectrum cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones is reviewed in the following paper. The aim is to highlight the fact that they could be a hot spot for the development of new resistance types. Even though gulls do not naturally come into contact with antibiotics, they are omnivorous and they often eat food in agricultural, rural and urban areas so they can be infected with resistant strains from livestock or human sources which they can spread again into the environment. They may then come into contact with poultry kept under free range conditions. More intensive investigations of this subject are required, as well as the need to find accurate and reliable preventive measures, are demonstrated in the present paper.

The World’s Poultry Science Journal is indebted to Prof J.A. Castello, Prof D.K. Flock, Dr M. Tixier-Boichard, Dr S. Cherepanov and Prof N. Yang for the translations of these summaries.

It is with regret that we announce the sad death of Christopher Wathes,OBE on 6th May 2016, a long term member of WPSA UK.

Christopher was emeritus professor of the Royal Veterinary College,London, former Chairman of the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) and a friend and colleague of many working in the field of animal welfare both in UK and globally.

Throughout his career, Christopher was an advocate for pragmatism in the approach to understanding and improving animal welfare. Christopher was a believer in evidence based decisions as well as plain common sense. I was privileged to work under Christopher’s Chairmanship of FAWC and during that time he oversaw its revised strategy at a time of economic constraints, always resisting attempts to compromise or diminish the independence and influence of FAWC. His development of the concept of a ‘good life’ and a ‘life worth living’ for all farmed animals kept for food production gave all involved a template on which to assess provisions and requirements for assessing welfare, and more importantly improving standards. Christopher was justifiably proud of any measures that could enable animal keepers and legislators to monitor and improve welfare. The concept of a ‘life worth living’ is a fitting and lasting legacy for his hard work and dedication.

During his earlier career he headed up the bioengineering division of the Silsoe Research Institute in the 1990s where he undertook work concentrating on animal’s preferences in their environment and its importance in chieving the best facilities to keep livestock. His move to the Royal Veterinary College in 2005 allowed further development of his interests in animal welfare and ethics from the animal’s perspective, which was the bedrock of his time chairing FAWC. At all times during his career Christopher showed a passion for animal welfare but also cared a lot about people. He encouraged good thinking and wanted those around him, students, peers and friends to grow and succeed.

He faced his latter health issues with stoicism and courage, but was clearly frustrated that it impacted on his lifelong skills of communication.

He was proud and deserving of the prestigious award this year from the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) with their Medal for Outstanding Achievements in Animal Welfare Science, presented posthumously, to his wife Claire, recently.

Christopher will be sadly missed by all who knew him and worked with him. He certainly demonstrated how to have a ‘life worth living’ and his legacy is that animal welfare has benefited from his considerable efforts and that he enriched the lives of people who knew him.

Dr George W. Barbour

On June 5, 2016, the Lebanon Branch of WPSA lost one of its very dear and most loyal members. Dr Barbour received both his BSc. and MSc. degrees from the American University of Beirut in 1982 and 1984, respectively. He then moved to the USA where he received his PhD from the Ohio State University in 1989. After this, he spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Alberta and a further two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. Dr Barbour returned to Lebanon in 1994 where he worked in the poultry industry for two years and then in 1996 he joined the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI) as a research scientist in poultry nutrition. He was also teaching on a part time basis at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik from 1996 to 2001. He then moved to teach also part time at the Lebanese International University while continuing his research activities at LARI. Dr Barbour has published many scientific and extension papers on the nutritional evaluation of local grains and oil seeds which is of value to poultry producers and feed manufacturers. He was a member of the Honour Society of Agriculture (Gamma Sigma Delta), American Poultry Science Association and the World Poultry Science Association. He attended most World’s Poultry Science Association congresses as well as American Poultry Science Association annual meetings. He has published many scientific and extension papers and provided numerous services to poultry producers and feed manufacturers in Lebanon and the region. Dr Barbour was one of my graduate students when he was working on his MSc. degree. I remember him as very hard working and meticulous in his work and always questioning things. He had the true spirit of a scientist.

Dr Barbour is survived by his wife Marwa Michel Boushi and is going to be dearly missed by all his friends, relatives and colleagues here and abroad.

Nuhad J. Daghir, President

WPSA-Lebanon