This year’s symposium marked a special anniversary for the event – 30 years since its inception. As has been the case for the past several symposiums, this year’s event started on the Sunday evening with the Grate Debate. Chaired by one of Baiada’s nutritionists, Peter Chrystal made sure it was known to all in the audience that he was firmly in neutral ground (even though his wife, Natalie, was in the debate) by dressing in ‘neutral’ attire – the national dress for Switzerland! With a highly contentious topic of “Political correctness and the production of eggs and chicken meat”, both teams did well in providing some entertainment for the crowd, before the unofficial start of the conference came to a close.
Day One of APSS 2019 started with an overview on global poultry production, then moved onto the ever-present topic of low protein diets, with the day rounding off by mineral nutrition.
Day Two covered layer nutrition and intestinal health, while finishing off with some ‘Hot Topics’ like alternative feed ingredients, perch use for improved leg strength, and tools for accurately predicting live-weight during mixed-sex rearing of chickens.
Upon the close of Day Two, the masses disappeared in preparation for the famous APSS conference dinner. It was, as expected, a great event. Starting off with a ferry ride across the Harbour to Sergeants Mess in Chowder Bay, where a short walk from the dock was welcomed as it got the legs going after a day of conferencing. The restaurant location was fantastic, and the canape start was well suited to getting around to socialise before taking one’s seat in the main dinner hall.
Once the formalities begun, the winner for the Australian Poultry Award was announced, with Dr Ben Wells the well-deserved recipient. Dr Wells had put together one of the best rounded speeches an audience could have asked for – a bit of history, some notable mentions, and some future predictions, all covered by some clever moments of humour. CCD Animal Health congratulates Ben on his achievements and contribution to the poultry industry as he eases into retirement.
The final, and shortest day of this year’s event received a full complement of Health & Welfare, with Dr Stephen Page presenting a memorable review on antimicrobial stewardship.
With that came the close of the 30th Australian Poultry Science Symposium, and CCD looks forward to the next one in 2020!
Photo: Peter Bedwell – Poultry Digest.