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Aviagen Turkeys Ltd (ATL) held an exclusive 'Customer Open Day' giving a unique insight into a selection of techniques that are applied in the Aviagen Turkeys Breeding Programme, to breed the birds for the future.
ATL welcomed many valued customers to the Customer Open Day. The event started on Monday 17th March with a drink’s reception and a private dinner at Carden Park Hotel. The evening was a great opportunity for everyone to socialise and network before the annual event.The event continued on Tuesday 18th March at Carden Park Hotel. Clay Burrows, Managing Director of ATL, kicked off the day with a welcoming presentation and demonstrated the new facilities, improvements and major projects within ATL, Le Sayec, and Aviagen Turkey Inc. Leading on from this Clay also showed the estimated industry poult placements as well as some current trial results relating to the B.U.T. 6 and B.U.T. Premium.
Dr. John Ralph, Director of R&D then gave a presentation on ‘Driving Turkey Production Efficiency’. This focused on ways ATL is breeding for improved efficiency through selection traits and breeding programme operation. Firstly, he showed the competitiveness between turkey and the other meats, discussing how to grow turkey consumption in areas such as feed conversation and genetic improvements with balanced breeding goals. John concluded his presentation by explaining what to expect with the annual improvements in the coming years with the B.U.T. 6 and B.U.T. Premium. He showed how far we have come since 1977 and how far we can still go with these breeds.
The customers were split into smaller groups and taken around four different demonstration areas. This included a presentation from Dr. Samuel Sosa, Research Geneticist. Samuel spoke about “Innovating Turkey Breeding: The Role of Genomics in Shaping Tomorrow. Samuel Sosa delivered a presentation about how ATL has applied genomics in its turkey breeding programmes over the years. He explained the relationship between genomics, genetics and animal breeding. This led to an introduction of the two breeding programmes at ATL, the selection scheme and the importance of genomics for the turkey industry. He described how genomic information is utilised, starting from the genetic markers (SNP -single nucleotide polymorphism), through to the SNP-array, genotyping, the machines used and the entire process at Aviagen’s Genomic lab in Scotland. The next part described the main implementations of genomics in ATL from checking pedigree integrity though to the use of genomic evaluations in the selection process. He highlighted the remarkable impact of genomics in improving rates of progress in breast, health and reproductive traits. Finally, he spoke about future developments in genomics.
Luke Ramsay, Management Specialist, spoke about “Broody Control and preventing this behaviour”. Luke began his presentation by describing the definition of broodiness, along with the factors that promote the behaviour and also the signs to look out for to recognise it. He then went on to talk about the different systems that can be used to identify broody birds, such as spray marking and manual inspections. This then led to Luke discussing the design and use of broody pens, including the daily management and possible duration of the broody treatment. The final part of the presentation focused on management of automatic nests where Luke presented internal trial results to show training the females to use the nests will help to reduce the number of females laying eggs on the floor, and in turn help the effectiveness of broody control.
Greg Hansen, Poultry Intellimetrics, Inc, was invited by Aviagen Turkeys Ltd to present at the customer open day. Greg began with explaining the systems for grading birds, defining grade A standards and common defects which result in downgrades. He then went on to discuss how downgrading occurs and how to investigate when or where the decline occurs. Within this presentation, Greg also discussed breast blisters, live weights and foot pad scoring. Greg then stayed on for the TSPC conference on behalf of Aviagen Turkeys to present a similar presentation to a larger audience.
Sam Jones, General Manager of Production, had a hands-on presentation with virtual reality (VR) headsets. The audience were given VR headsets and were able to view Sam taking them on a tour around one of the pedigree rearing farms. Within this virtual tour, customers were able to see all of our biosecurity measures on farm, understand how our feeding systems work and explore the housing of our birds. This was thoroughly enjoyed by all customers, making them feel like they were on farm experiencing all the aspects of an Aviagen Turkeys pedigree facility.
After some lunch Customers visited our Research & Development commercial trials farm. Dr. John Ralph, Director of R&D, gave a presentation on our commercial trials. Firstly, he spoke about how and why we run these trials and their key role in breed and technical development. He discussed our facilities, differences between our breeds and competitor breeds, improvements in performance over time and some of the highlights from technical and nutritional research over the years. This helped customers to understand our breed testing that is carried out alongside how we develop management and nutritional advice to help the industry reach the maximum potential from our turkey breeds.
The Customer Open Day was a great success. ATL would like to thank their customers for participating in the event and hope they appreciated the insight into the workings of ATL’s breeding operations.
The remainder of the week was then spent at the 17th Turkey Science and Production Conference (TSPC), the leading meeting point for the turkey industry, which welcomed over 330 delegates. ATL continues to support and sponsor the event that aims to provide an opportunity for members of the turkey industry, suppliers and ancillary bodies to update on the latest scientific developments and production trends. ATL had two representatives presenting at the conference, which included:
Dr. Kenton Hazel, ATL’s European Veterinary Health Director, along with Gerard Leveque will discuss ‘Strain typing of Pasteurella outbreak isolates and biosecurity implications’.
Greg Hansen, Poultry Intellimetrics, Inc, on behalf of Aviagen Turkeys Ltd, will deliver ‘Turkey Grade and Condemnation’.
The whole week was a huge success and a great opportunity to network with everyone involved in the turkey industry.
Open Day: Click here to view slideshow >
TSPC: Click here to view slideshow >