Well the WPC is upon us! And here’s hoping for an excellent turn out of trade, commercial and academic delegates. The Chinese Branch have been very active in their organisation leading up to the event and should be congratulated on their hard work. Of course, this is the year when new board members are elected, or old ones retained, and I would like to pass on my regards to our new President Dr Ning Yang. We will have two meetings as a consequence, one for the outgoing board and one to welcome new members. I look forward to seeing both old colleagues and new.

The Journal continues to grow and diversify, and I trust you will enjoy this current issue. For potential authors, please be aware that we no longer take INFPD papers unless they have special global reach – and all papers for this field should now be redirected to DrFallou Gueye at efgueye@refer.sn who is now publishing these papers for a more targeted readership.

Recent papers given in the USA by the WPSA branch there have further highlighted the role of micro-organisms on the gut and how they can affect behaviour via production of neurotransmitters, as discussed by Dr Lyte (see association news). New topics within poultry science such as this are very good to see. As an association we continue to grow and adapt to the new challenges of poultry science including generating interest in young scientists to stay within the industry. Often it’s the students that are investigating novel new concepts that lead to new chapters in the field. I always try to be encouraging for our younger scientists to become published – especially as many are writing literature reviews on new areas as part of their thesis submission. Please feel free to contact me regarding such review papers, if you are in any doubt about relevance.

Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you at WPC, especially the Editorial Board members, without which the Journal would cease to function. Thanks to them for all their input!

Dr Lucy Waldron

Editor