On behalf of the French Organizing Committee, the International Scientific Committee, and the French branch of WPSA, we are pleased to invite you to the XIIIth European Poultry Conference in Tours, France. The conference will take place on 23-27 August 2010 and will include such subject matters as recent scientific findings progress where technical experience and solutions to help the poultry industry face its future will be shared.

The XIIIth European Poultry Conference will be an occasion to demonstrate that the Loire Valley, well known for its past implication in French history and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, can contribute to the construction of the future of the European poultry industry.

TOPICS

Nutrition
Feed and feedstuffs – Feed technology - Digestion – Flora gut – Feeding behaviour – Additives – Metabolism – Requirements of growing and laying birds – Use of by-products – Feeding systems

Pathology
Emerging poultry diseases – Evolution of prophylaxis and diagnostic methods

Product Safety
Enriched products and human benefit – Bio security in commercial poultry production – Chemical pollutants – Poultry product processing and microbiological status – Salmonella and Campylobacter

Welfare and Behaviour
Welfare evaluation and management on farm – Welfare regulation – Welfare and behaviour in alternative poultry production systems – Poultry industry and welfare challenge

Economics and Marketing
Consumer expectations – Market segmentation

Education
Educational requirements for the poultry industry – New learning venues (distance education, internet)

Environment
Competition for the use of land – Reduction and valorisation of manure – Environmental constraints and impact on feed formulation – Poultry housing – Energy and water economy – Poultry housing

Genetics
Methods of selection on new production traits – Recent data obtained with QTL research and micro array tool – Management of genetic diversity – Epigenetic

Product (Egg and Meat) Quality
Non-food uses of egg compounds - Bioactive egg components – New technological methods (egg fractionation, evaluation of freshness of egg shell) – Traceability of meat products – Muscle characteristics and meat processing – Factors influencing meat quality from farm to slaughterhouse – Muscle growth and meat quality

Production Systems
Free-range and organic systems – Family poultry production

Reproduction
Rearing reproducing birds – Artificial insemination – Preservation of gametes – Embryonic development and incubation – Plasticity of sexual reversion – Germinal differentiation