The WPSJ has been made aware of a plagiarism issue regarding a paper published in March 2017. The recent paper entitled ‘Host immune responses and vaccination against avian pathogenicEscherichia coli’ by T. Azeem, S.A. Abid, W. Ahmad, A. Aslam, M.L. Sohail, S. Jaleel and S. Umar (Volume 73, Issue 1 March 2017, pp. 29-44) has been shown to plagiarize elements of another review entitled ‘Avian colibacillosis: still many black holes’ published in FEMS Microbiology Letters, 362, 2015, fnv118 and authored by Rodrigo Guabiraba and Catherine Schouler. Multiple sections of text, Figure 1 and Table 1 were reproduced without adaptation or reference to the original publication.

As a result, WPSJ editors have upheld the concerns expressed and, after detailed assessment of the reproduced sections, and communication with the authors to ascertain whether or not permission was granted (which they could not confirm), it has been decided that this paper will be retracted forthwith.

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.

Dr Herbert H. Siegel, Vice-President of WPSA (1996-2000), passed on July 11. His poultry career followed the Triad Law, commonly known as ‘The Rule of 3’ i.e. beginning (farmer), middle (scientist) and end (administrator). After poultry farming for a few years, Herb returned to university and upon completing the PhD from Penn State joined the faculty of the Poultry Science Department at Virginia Tech where it was my good fortune to share an office with him. During those seven years Herb exposed and taught me much about the physiology of stress in birds. Our relationship, however was much more than collegial – we developed a friendship which has continued over decades. Herb was a ‘Renaissance man’, not only a fine scientist, he was a student of history, lover of sports, food, and music (try as he may he could not get me to enjoy listening to the Sunday afternoon radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera).

One of the high points of interacting with Herb was when he received the Poultry Science Association Research Award in 1961 for the paper ‘The relationship of social competition with endocrine weights and activity in male chickens’. This classic paper from over half a century ago demonstrates his visionary studies on the welfare of poultry.

In the mid-1960s Herb resigned from Virginia Tech to become a Research Physiologist with USDA-ARS. There, as a scientist and research director, he gained world-wide recognition for his studies involving stress physiology and disease resistance in poultry. A recipient of the British Poultry Science Gordon Medal of Research, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Poultry Science Association, a Fulbright-Hays Scholar at Wageningen, he routinely attended WPSA events. As Editor-in- Chief of Poultry Science from 1981-1986 and again from 1995-2002 he had a role in enhancing the scientific endeavours of others.

In 1984, Herb returned to his alma mater, Penn State where he served as Head of Poultry Science Department – The third leg of his journey. I recall very much a conversation during his retirement party at Penn State in 1991. Herb said that when he returned from serving in World War II and while farming that there was the ‘pull’ to do research with poultry. To do so was a big decision, yet doable because he had the full support of Rhea. Although ‘a star’, Herb was always humble and unselfish in crediting his family and others. The path he took enriched the lives of many, not the least of which is yours truly. Herb was a ‘mensch’.

Paul B. Siegel

It is with deep sadness that we report the passing of Marcelo J. Schang, a long term member of WPSA Branch Argentina. Marcelo Schang passed away on August 22nd of 2017. Our branch lost one of its very dear and most loyal members.

Marcelo was a retired researcher of the National Institute for Agricultural Technology (INTA) of Argentina, former Chairman of the Argentinean Branch of WPSA (1998-2008), Honorary President of the Branch since 2008 and a friend of the poultry industry and of all the colleagues who work for it.

He was an internationally renowned scientist specialized in the field of poultry nutrition. His expertise in these areas is reflected by his significant contributions. He obtained his degree of Engineer in Animal Production in 1971 (UCA) and his degree of Master of Sciences in 1975 (UNMdP). As Visiting Scientist, he was received by the Animal Research Institute - University of Guelph (Canada), the Salonic University (Greece), INRA (France) and SAC (Scotland).

Head of Poultry Section, Head of Animal Department and Coordinator of Non-Ruminant National Research Program during his professional activity at INTA, he also was an International consultant for IICA, BIRD, PNUD, Swedish Agency for Development, Winrock International and World Bank. Member of the Scientific Boards of Argentinean Feed Manufactures (CAENA) and Argentinean Poultry Producers (CAPIA & CEPA), he also did a great job as President of the Scientific Committee of 2011 Latin-American Poultry Congress (Buenos Aires, Argentina).

He was proud to be recipient of two awards during the last years, the Outstanding Poultry Professional Award from The Latin American Poultry Association (ALA) in 2005 and the Annual Award for his Contributions to the Argentinean Animal Feed Industry from The Board of Argentinean Feed Manufactures (CAENA) in 2011.

Marcelo is survived by his wife, his son and daughter and two grandchildren, and is going to be dearly missed by all his friends, relatives and colleagues here and abroad.

WPSA-Argentina