Member news in 2024

We are looking forward to our next spring meeting, on 12-13^th March 2025, which will be held jointly for the first time with the British Veterinary Poultry Association, in Harrogate.

Details about the meeting can be found here: WPSA UK Branch Meeting 2025 – WPSA

Please note that abstracts are due on 18^th November, and the above link will take you to the abstract submission page, including guidelines that you must follow (also found here: WPSA Guidelines for the Preparation and Submission of Abstracts – WPSA).

The last meeting, held in Belfast in spring 2024, was a great success.  The abstracts from the meeting have been published in British Poultry Abstracts, and are available to view and download from the publisher here.  Please feel free to circulate this link with your colleagues.

The European Federation of WPSA branches, of which the UK is one, has a series of Working Groups that focus on specific areas of poultry science.  You can read about the types of working groups here Working Groups of the European Federation.  The UK branch can typically nominate two WPSA members per working group, to participate in the working group’s meetings and activities, but we currently have some vacancies for positions.

If you are interested in working more closely with colleagues throughout the European branches in your area of expertise, then please drop the UK branch secretary (info@wpsa-uk.com) a note on why you are interested and a CV.  The branch council will then review these and nominate people to the relevant Working Group.

Current Working Group vacancies for WPSA-UK members are as follows:

Working Group 1 (Economics)

As well as economic, market and marketing issues, this WG is also looking at sustainability and sustainability assessment along the poultry value chain – so UK members with expertise in this area are warmly encouraged to apply.

There is a vacancy for one UK member

Working Group 4 (Egg quality)

There is a vacancy for one UK member

Working group 5 (Poultry meat quality)

There are vacancies for two UK members

Working Group 6 (Reproduction)

This WG has a website with information about its activities: www.ifrg.be and is found on LinkedIn: WG6-IFRG.

There are vacancies for two UK members

Working Group 10 (Turkeys)

There are vacancies for two UK members

Working Group 12 (Physiology)

There are vacancies for two UK members

We are pleased to announce that the WPSA UK accounts have been updated and are now fully digital.  As the 2025 subscription period is approaching, we kindly request that members with direct debits update their payment information with the new bank account details to ensure a smooth renewal process starting 1 January.

The updated back account details for the WPSA UK branch will be communicated to all active members via an email in the first week of November.  If you haven’t received this email by 3^rd November, please contact the Treasurer for assistance (Farina.khattak@sruc.ac.uk). Thank you for your attention and continued support.

Did you know that WPSA-UK branch has a presence in the following places? Find us there!

• Linkedin
• Twitter/X
• Instagram

Norman Overfield, a long-time WPSA-UK member, died in August 2024.

After a degree in agriculture at Nottingham University in 1961, he obtained a British Egg Marketing Board grant to do a two years M.Agr.Sc in poultry production at Reading University under Prof. Trevor Morris. Fellow poultry postgraduates at that time were Drs Colin Fisher, Gerry Emmans and myself.

In 1963 Norman joined Thornber Chicks based in Mytholmroyd as poultry advisor. At that time Thornbers were the UK leading supplier of layer breed chicks. They were eventually driven out of business by the breeds imported from the USA. In 1968, Norman joined ADAS as their egg quality specialist. He quickly became recognised as the expert in this topic and his advice was highly valued. He retired from ADAS in 1996. He wanted to stay involved in the poultry industry so he joined BASF working in conjunction with Frank Wright Ltd bringing his egg quality knowledge particularly regarding shell quality to compliment the companies’ nutritional knowledge. He finally retired in 2000.

On his retirement he plunged into life in his home village, Bardsey, in Yorkshire. There he helped establish a new sports club building and various other amenities. With his engaging personality he must have been a real asset.

In his younger days he had been a good cricketer and also played rugby for both Nottingham and Reading University. Later in life he greatly enjoyed horse racing (watching rather than participating).

He married Janet in 1962 and they were married for 62 years. They had a daughter, Sue and a son, Timothy who all survive him.

Current council members

Current councillors and terms of office (where * indicates second term; ineligible for re-election) are:

The UK branch offers several generous awards to support its membership.  We are delighted to congratulate S Lambton and M Helwegen on their successful applications for Research Awards, in September 2024. 

Upcoming award availability:

Travel Awards (to the UK spring meeting) – due 17^th January 2025

These awards are to support attendance at the spring meeting.  To be eligible you must be a student or a retired branch member.  The grant covers full member registration, contribution to travel, accommodation and the conference dinner.  Students with accepted abstracts to the meeting will be prioritised.  Apply here: WPSA UK Travel Grant application – WPSA.

Summer Vacation Scholarships – due 25^th February 2025

This scholarship supports students who are undertaking a small project, normally as part of a BSc or MSc dissertation project.  Successful applicants are expected to submit an abstract based on their work to the next year’s spring meeting (i.e. for spring meeting 2026).  These are considered at the branch council meeting, which is next held on Tues 11^th March – awardees will be notified shortly thereafter. For more details, see here: Summer Vacation Scholarships – WPSA.

GD Rosen Academic Career Advancement Award due 28^th February 2025

This award is flexible, to support the broadening of horizons for a recent PhD graduate (i.e. within 5 years of the PhD viva).  The value is up to £2,000.  For more details, apply here: GD Rosen Academic Career Advancement Award – WPSA.

2024

World Poultry Show https://www.eurotier.com/en/programme/world-poultry-show – 12 – 15 November 2024, Hanover, GERMANY

2025

• WPSA-UK spring meeting, Harrogate, 12-13th March. Abstracts are being accepted now! See https://wpsa-uk.com/wpsa-uk-branch-meeting-2025/ for more details and how to submit.
• WPSA’s working group on Small Scale Poultry Farming – Asian Pacific Federation, will be holding its first World Native Poultry Conference during VIV Bangkok, Thailand on 12th March 2025. Read more about this conference here.
• VIV Asia, Bangkok, Thailand, 12-14th March. Read more about it here.
• XXIV European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition, Maastricht, The Netherlands (23-26 June 2025) Call for abstracts is NOW OPEN – Deadline is 1 December 2024. For details, see the ESPN 2025 website.
• XXVI European Symposium on the Quality of Poultry Meat and XX European Symposium on the Quality of Eggs and Egg Products, Zadar, Croatia (14-17 September 2025)

2026

• World’s Poultry Congress, Toronto, Canada (13-17 July 2026)
• 9th International Conference on Poultry Intestinal Health – Istanbul, Turkey, from April 22nd to April 24th, 2026. 

2027

• XII European Symposium on Poultry Welfare, Glasgow, UK (21-24 June 2027)

Like the recent weather as I write this piece, our Association is in a very good place.

Our Spring Meeting in Belfast was not quite so fortunate with the weather – most of us had “interesting” journeys by air or by boat due to the tail end of Storm Kathleen, but most of us arrived on time and were treated to a great experience across the water.

Thanks to the participation and interest of members and your hardworking and enthusiastic Council we had a very successful meeting in Belfast – good attendance and some truly excellent and thought-provoking presentations. Papers were delivered to an amazingly high standard by invited guests, researchers and our own members. Please bear that in mind for future meetings as we have within our ranks some top-notch science and practicalities to impart to all members, so don’t be shy in offering to speak. We have come a long way since acetates and overhead projectors (gosh, how old do I sound?!), and the quality of PowerPoint, including videos was outstanding!

Another highlight was the Gordon Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor Ian Dunn (a long-standing member of the Branch) giving us a fascinating insight into his work of many years and the part played in real genetics to bring about change and improvements in poultry health and welfare.

We also had a very enjoyable dinner and our guest of honour was Kelvin McCracken, on his home turf, having served on Council and as our very wise Treasurer for the Branch over many years.
For those of you who were unable to attend the proceedings and papers will be published and available in due course. A real mix of current research and reviews on a wide range of topics. My heartfelt thanks go to Eloise Lawlor and Laura Faller for organising the venue and speakers, along with the rest of a very active Programme committee.

The job of the President is made much easier by people like that, and the rest of our Council. Vicky Sandilands has filled the role of Secretary with ease and alongside Farina Khattak, as Treasurer, they steer us along in the right direction. Other Council members are also taking on duties as we move to develop our Branch in terms of awards and scholarships, as well as thinking of innovative ways to boost our membership. This currently stands at around 180 members, but I feel we need to have in excess of 200 active members to keep our critical mass and I ask ALL of you to keep flying the flag for the Association and encouraging new members to join us and take part in Branch activities for the benefit of all of us. Presentations and involvement this year included a lot of early career individuals, and it is that cohort I would like to encourage to be involved, for all our benefits, as they are the clear future of the Branch. Being a WPSA-UK member gives access to a diverse range of awards and scholarships, such as travel grants for students and retirees, summer vacation scholarships for students, research awards of up to £10,000, and the recently-launched GD Rosen academic career advancement award. As I say, we have an active group of Council members, but we are always willing to co-opt during the year anyone who feels they have ideas or interest to take part. We have taken on new members at this year’s AGM and I would like to make special mention and thanks to our two outgoing members, Maureen Bain and Caroline Donaldson, who have each served for their two full 4 year terms!

As a committed poultry veterinarian, I remain disappointed, and a little embarrassed, by the lack of veterinary members of our Association, especially as much of the research and science is so important to their work. To that end it is planned that the Branch Spring Meeting for 2025 will be held in conjunction with the British Veterinary Poultry Association, probably in Harrogate in late March 2025. This gives me an excellent opportunity to canvass for new vet members and for us to share a session or two on topics of mutual interest as we run our meetings in parallel. So mark that in your diary, enjoy this newsletter and take your part in making this YOUR Association.

• Stephen Lister, UK Branch President

A total of 52 people attended the spring meeting at Belfast in April 2024, which was held in the city centre. Day one started with egg-cellent guest speakers, David Brass from the Lakes Free Range Eggs Company who talked about his experiences on using technical innovation in pullet and hen farming. This was followed by Mike McGrew from Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh) talking about using genome editing to breed avian influenza resistant chickens.

In the evening, the Gordon Memorial Trust Lecture was given by Ian Dunn, who recounted the outcomes of his lifetime’s research on ‘Genotype, phenotype, selection and more: improving the skeletal health of laying hens’. Look out for the full paper on this review in British Poultry Science.

A further invited paper was given by Emily Burton and Dawn Scholey on the growing trend of cultured meat and plant-based proteins, and how these benchmark against poultry products for sensory values (such as taste, texture) but also nutrient profiles, costs, and energy & environmental costs of production.

There were many good presentations made by students, and the President struggled to narrow down his choice of award winners to just two (one for oral, one for poster, presentation). Congratulations to our student prize winners:

• Best Oral: Hugo Hannah, Queen’s University Belfast, Effects of reduced photoperiod or optional access to dark shelters during the first week of life on the health, welfare and performance of broiler chickens
• Best Oral: Sarah Clarke, University of Nottingham, The relationship between gizzard weight and bone integrity in end-of-lay hens
• Best Poster: Medhavini Saxena, Detection of in vitro gene expression from enteroendocine cells in chicken gut organoids

As well, the council awarded four Travel Grants to students so that they could attend the meeting. These grants are worth the full registration cost, plus contribution to travel, accommodation, and the conference dinner. Congratulations to our awardees, Hyungwook Kang (SRUC/ University of Edinburgh), Maisarah Maidin (University of Edinburgh). Mohammed Naeem (Nottingham Trent University), and Hannah Scott-Cook (Harper Adams University).

Looking forward to 2025, your Programme Organising Committee are excited to share that we will be having, for the first time, a joint spring meeting with the British Veterinary Poultry Association (BVPA). The meeting will be held in March 2025, in Harrogate (exact dates and location to be decided). We will update you later in the year.

Council have agreed to fund one Summer Vacation Scholarship for 2024. These scholarships help to support student projects that contribute towards the student’s Honour’s or Master’s dissertation, and provide funds for things such as consumables, travel and accommodation costs for up to 10 weeks. Recipients submit a report on their findings to Council, and are encouraged to submit an abstract for the Spring Meeting. We look forward to hearing more from the recipient in due course.

The President thanked retiring councillors and the current council members for their work to allow the smooth-running of the UK branch. The branch members agreed to accept the nominations of four new councillors to Council – we are grateful for their agreement to join us!

The secretary reported on awards given in 2023, including 3 Travel Grants, 2 Presidents Prizes, 2 Summer Vacation Scholarships. The treasurer and membership secretary reported on our current membership (180 people, the same as last year) and our accounts status. Our accounts remain healthy, which enables us to fund charitable activities with our members. We distributed over £10,000 in grants and prizes in 2023.

Did you know that one of our UK members, Peter Surai, ranked 15th in the Dairy and Animal sciences world’s rank for citations by Standford University (2023)? Well done, Peter!

If you have any questions about the renewal process or require an invoice, payment receipt, or any related assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to me, your treasurer and membership secretary, via email (farina.khattak @ sruc.ac.uk). 

Did you know that the European Federation of WPSA branches (of which the UK is one) has several working groups that specialise in areas of poultry science? See here for more information.

UK member Emily Burton attended the Working Group 2 (Nutrition) meeting in Maastricht in April. The focus was on the arrangements for the 24th European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition, which will be held in Maastricht (The Netherlands) on 23-26 June 2025. Abstract submission will open in September 2024.

UK members Jess Martin and Vicky Sandilands attended the Working Group 9 (Poultry Welfare and Management) meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia, in June. Country representatives talked about key production changes and research occurring in their nations, plus Vicky gave a presentation on developing plans for the next European Symposium on Poultry Welfare, to be held in Glasgow on 21-24 June 2027.

We are updating our membership list of the Working Groups. Please contact Vicky Sandilands if you are a working group representative, thank you.

Did you know that WPSA-UK branch has a presence in the following places? Find us there!

• Linkedin
• Twitter/X
• Instagram

New council members

We are delighted to welcome four new councillors to WPSA-UK branch:

Rizwhan Azhar, Rita Goncalves, Emma Lund and Antonija Simic

As well, we say goodbye to two councillors, Maureen Bain and Caroline Donaldson, who have served their two terms with us, with grateful thanks from all of us.

Current council members

Current councillors and terms of office (where * indicates second term; ineligible for re-election) are:

A full calendar of WPSA-related conferences are found on the website.

2024

• XVI European Poultry Conference, Valencia, Spain (21-24 June 2024)

2025

• XXIV European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition, Maastricht, The Netherlands (23-26 June 2025)
  • Call for abstracts is NOW OPEN – Deadline is 1 December 2024. For details, see the ESPN 2025 website.
• XXVI European Symposium on the Quality of Poultry Meat and XX European Symposium on the Quality of Eggs and Egg Products, Zadar, Croatia (14-17 September 2025)

2026

• World’s Poultry Congress, Toronto, Canada (13-17 July 2026)

2027

• XII European Symposium on Poultry Welfare, Glasgow, UK (21-24 June 2027)