In the early 21st century, genetic modification of chicken primordial germ cells (PGCs) had not been possible before their transfer and recovery through germ line. Chicken PGCs resist deliberate genetic modification, probably by silencing the transgenes in the genome. The use of mobile genetic elements (transposons) in genetic modification and germ-line transmission of PGCs has recently overcome this problem, so that PGCs can be used for further chicken genome modelling in order to study developmental biology, non-coding RNA (ncRNA) functions, viral DNA-RNA hybridisation, silencing of transgene expression, together with epigenetic modification, and gene function. Application of the transposons, viral integrase, zinc-finger nuclease and site-specific recombinase in whole genome elucidation is not sufficient. The chicken PGCs can be used as a model of choice to establish a new generation of methodology for genome modelling. For this purpose the livesome vectors are proposed.

This paper is an applied case study of production optimisation in case of pâté production in Slovenia. Pâté production within the poultry industry is performed on modern high speed fully automatic production lines. These have large capacities, and technical efficiency is crucial since it as a large impact on production costs and profitability. In this paper the results from empirical research on the technical aspects and costs efficiency of pâté production by using overall equipment efficiency (OEE) and overall cost efficiency (OCE) framework is reviewed. The data shows significant reserves which are favourable for using OEE - OCE methodology as daily tools to monitor production management.

A number of studies have indicated that there is a relationship between the colour of pheasant eggshells and their quality, as well as hatchability results. For example, eggs with light coloured shell colour have higher water and cholesterol content than darker eggs. At the same time, blue and light-brown eggs contain more lysozyme in their albumen, compared to the eggs with different shell colours. On comparing the microbiological contamination, it was found that the dark-brown and olive eggs had a similar and higher total bacteria count (TBC) in the shell compared to the blue ones. Similarly, these eggs had lower ergosterol (EGR) content in the shell (indicator of microscopic fungi presence) compared to the eggs of blue colour. Also it was demonstrated that poorer hatchability of fertilised and set eggs with blue shell is the result of factors mentioned earlier. In summary, it appears that, from an economic viewpoint, the start of breeding in ring-necked pheasant should be considered and the eggshell colour should be included in the selection index. In addition, it is worth paying attention to the possibilities of environmental factors and nutritional modification in order to improve hatchability parameters in pheasants.

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.

The eye is a vital sense organ under neuro endocrine regulation in order to allow sight in the bird. It responds to light stimulus and photoperiodicity of the environment of the birds, where they are reared. The effects of photo stimulation are mediated via the various components of the eye. The physiologic roles of avian eyes have been under-utilised in poultry management to enhance production and consequently, economic efficiency of the birds. Regulatory mechanisms of avian eyes’ function, response of components to photo stimulation and utilisation of photoperiod to enhance production in poultry have been reviewed. In conclusion, avian eyes respond to light stimulation and photoperiod, and these responses may be utilised for commercial poultry production in terms of eggs and meat, as well as for improving the welfare of the birds.

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

Protein is the main limiting factor and the second most expensive feed component of poultry ration after energy. In many developing countries, poultry feed prices are consistently increasing because of the dependency on imported soybean meal. In order to decrease the dependency of the poultry feed sector on soybean meal it is necessary to find sustainable alternative protein sources. This review summarises recent findings on the nutritive value of maggot meal, earth worm meal, meal worms and silkworm meal and discusses their potential as an alternative protein source for poultry feed sector.

Severe feather-pecking (SFP), whereby birds vigorously peck at and pull out the feathers of conspecifics, is an extremely injurious, highly prevalent behaviour. It has acute negative impacts on the egg industry worldwide, in terms of both animal welfare and production efficiency. A large volume of research has been conducted to investigate the underlying causes. However, although many contributing factors have been identified, it remains largely unpredictable, and very difficult to control. Environmental influences during the rearing period, feeding behaviour, feather-eating and individual bird differences play important roles in the expression of SFP. This paper provides a review of some of the literature on the aforementioned causes of SFP in laying hens.

The relationship between the use of pesticides and grey partridge poisoning, mainly due to irregular use of rodent baits, is reviewed in the current paper. The aim of this review is to emphasise the existing problem of partridge extinction and how it would impact the agriculture ecology. A drastic decline in the population of Grey Partridge Perdix perdix has been observed in the Republic of Serbia as well as in many other countries, due to intensive agriculture, predominantly caused by the abuse of pesticides. Pathological and toxicological findings indicate poisoning, and this can be confirmed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Actions such as monitoring and reporting incidents in the future should provide questions of how to improve and implement the established regulations.

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

Infectious diseases are major constraint that hinders the poultry industry. Among them parasitic diseases are very common and Ascaridia galli is one of the most common parasitic roundworms found in poultry. Haemorrhages, diarrhoea and listlessness are signs of infection. Parasitic infections such as A. galli are treated with chemical anthelmintics (piperazine, albendazole, levamisole, Ivermectin, benzimidazoles and fenbendazole). These synthetic chemicals can promote resistance, so there is need for alternative ways to treat the disease. Medicinal plants have the potential to combat such parasitism and the development of anthelmintic resistance appears to be very slow against such treatment. This review covers the studies related to the screening of plant materials having in vitro and in vivo anthelmintic activities against A. galli throughout the world. Medicinal plants showing in vitro anthelmintic activity include Anacardium occidentale, Allium sativum, Tribulus terrestris, Bassia latifolia, Piper betle, Morinda citrifolia L.I, Cassia occidentalis L. and Aloe secundiflora while in vivo studies include the use of Psorelia corylifolia, Piper betle, Pilostigma thonningi, Caesalpinia crista, Ocimum gratissimum and Anacardium occidentale. In conclusion, medicinal plants appear to have good anthelmintic activities in poultry and may substitute conventionally used synthetic drugs, and their use may moderate drug resistance in endemic pathogen populations and drug residues in poultry meat.

Based upon its economical perspective, the phenomenon of forced moulting in the poultry industry has become a common practice to increase the productivity and reproductive life span of birds. Different feed supplements, including vitamins, minerals, probiotics and prebiotics have been extensively used by poultry farmers for many years. In the last decade, researchers have reported advantageous effects of these supplements in improving different health biomarkers of post moult poultry birds. Therefore, including with these supplements in post moult feed is believed to exhibit better results than moulting alone. The current review is aimed at highlighting the empirical data available on the importance of various feed supplements that are considered favourable in ameliorating the health status of moulted poultry birds.

With great sadness we have lost a good friend and scientist. On February 1, 2016 Ir Douwe Arnold Ehlhardt passed away in a hospital in Amsterdam at the age of almost 80 years. Douwe, born in Leeuwarden on February 18, 1936 graduated at Wageningen University in 1961. After completing his military service, he started in 1963 his professional career at the Cooperative Poultry Breeder Institute (CPI) in Nuland. Here Douwe became secretary of the scientific breeding committee to advice members of the layer breeder’s cooperative on genetic selection issues.

In 1971 Douwe became senior scientist at the Spelderholt Centre for Poultry Research in Beekbergen with a special focus on turkey research.

Following the fast increase in broiler meat consumption during the sixties it was believed that turkey meat consumption would follow the same trend. This made Douwe to decide to visit Prof Karl Nestor in Wooster (Ohio). In 1972 he went to the USA and worked together with Prof Nestor at his institute to improve his knowledge on breeding, hatching, feeding, housing and disease control of turkeys.

Back in The Netherlands, Douwe became secretary of the Dutch Branch of WPSA, which position he held until 1977. In that year he went for two and a half years with his family to Naivasha in Kenya where he, on behalf of the Dutch Government, built an applied poultry research station. After returning to The Netherlands Douwe was asked to become secretary of the European Federation of WPSA, a position he accepted in 1981 and remained in until 1993. During these twelve years he was involved with the organisation of the 7th European Poultry Congress in Paris (France) in 1986 and the 8th European Poultry Congress in Barcelona (Spain). A few months after the congress in Paris, Douwe received the ‘Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole’ during a special event at the Spelderholt Centre for Poultry Research. This high decoration, handed over by the French Ambassador in The Netherlands, was given to Douwe because of his great contribution to the conference.

During the eighties the Dutch poultry industry received increasing numbers of public comments on how layers were held in cages. Animal protection groups and activists fought for animal rights. Following many difficult discussions between poultry behaviour scientists in the governmental Spelderholt Centre for Poultry Research, animal protection people and governmental officials as well as politicians, Douwe Ehlhardt initiated research on keeping birds in the aviary system. He had to solve many issues including cannibalism, handling manure (including nitrogen emissions), in-house climate conditions as well as preventing floor eggs. Since then most of these problems have been resolved and, following the ban on layer cages in 2012, provide layer farmers an opportunity to keep layers efficiently in non-cage systems. Today more than 80 % of the layers in The Netherlands are kept in aviary systems.

In 1993 Douwe was asked by the Dutch government to lead a poultry development project in Saudi Arabia. He accepted the offer and spent two years in Riyadh at the Ministry of Agriculture solving poultry husbandry problems in Saudi Arabia. In 1995 he rejoined Spelderholt but had to move to Lelystad when research activities on ruminants, pigs and poultry were concentrated in one research institute called ID-DLO. He worked there till his retirement in 2001.

Ir Douwe Ehlhardt contributed a great deal to poultry research in The Netherlands and worldwide. We have lost an integral scientist, a friend to his colleagues and fellowworkers and a man who, due to his language skills, made people laugh. We will sadly miss him.

Low pathogenic avian influenza virus (LPAI) subtype H9N2 in poultry has occurred in many countries since the mid-1990s. Outbreaks due to H9N2 have occurred in Korea, Germany, Italy, Ireland, South Africa and the USA. Most recently, H9N2 infections have been reported in several Asian countries, the Middle East and Africa, causing widespread outbreaks in commercial chickens. In these countries, vaccine has been distributed with the aim of controlling the disease. However, H9N2 infections have become endemic in commercial poultry in a significant number of countries. This review is aimed to shed light on the current situation of the LPAI world-wide.

This review discusses various techniques of storage of avian genetic resources. Semen cryopreservation still seems to represent one of the most effective and feasible methods for preservation of genetic resources. Various cryoprotective agents, cooling rates and semen packaging methods are discussed. The use of ovarian tissue, embryonic cells, such as primordial germ cells (PGCs) or blastodermal cells, is the most promising approach because both male and female genetic information can be preserved. A relatively innovative technique; transplantation of cryopreserved testicular cells into adult animals with subsequent production of donor-derived progeny is also mentioned. This transplantation method may contribute to the preservation of endangered avian species and to maintaining their genetic variability.