PHOTO: DICK VAN DOORN
INTERVIEW ▶▶▶ Sjaak de Wit
“Poultry education has to adapt constantly to the new reality”
Professor Sjaak de Wit holds influential positions in the poultry veterinary sector and has strong opinions on many poultry issues. De Wit’s view is that universities across the globe need to professionalise when it comes to poultry education.
BY DICK VAN DOORN P
rofessor Sjaak de Wit studied veterinary medicine in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at University Utrecht and obtained his PhD from Utrecht University in 1997 on the ‘Detection and transmission of Infectious Bronchitis Vi-
rus’. Since 1989 he has held the position of senior poultry re- searcher at the Dutch Royal GD (formerly Animal Health Service). In 1998 he was recognized as a specialist in poultry healthcare. In 2008 De Wit was one of the founding diplomates of the European College of Poultry Veterinary Science (ECPVS) of which he has been president since 2016, and is currently post-president (until 2022). De Wit is also junior vice president of the World Veterinary Poultry Association (WVPA). De Wit: “Every two years we organise a global conference but the WVPA has many national branches as well. These branches organise several national meetings a year that cover technical subjects, plus discussions of general poultry issues.” De Wit is still proud of the fact that in 2014 he was elevat- ed to the World Veterinary Poultry Association’s Hall of Honour.
Best of both worlds Since 1 July 2019 De Wit has combined the new position of Pro- fessor of Integrated Poultry Health Care in the Veterinary Faculty at Utrecht University (UU) with his work at Royal GD. “I am grateful that Royal GD enabled me to assume this role alongside my posi- tion as senior researcher at Royal GD. It brings together the best of both worlds, so to speak.” As both a professor and a poultry
veterinarian, De Wit can look at poultry-related issues from a more technical and holistic perspective. In terms of the global developments taking place in the poultry sector, in the Western world De Wit sees a change in thinking about production and sales. “In recent decades, since the Second World War and, by extension, in the context of the European Man- sholt plan, the primary sector produced poultry meat and super- markets or consumers purchased the meat rather uncritically. Everything that was produced found its way to market by default, that was essentially guaranteed.” In those days it was mainly all about the price per kilogram and there were few additional requirements, at most, only in terms of food safety.
Consumer demands and society Over the last decade consumer demands and society in general have had a dramatic impact on poultry production practices. Pro- ducers have had to tailor their production to meet additional re- quirements, especially in developed markets. Consider little or no antibiotic use due to the development of antibiotic resistance. And this issue is not limited to the western world either. In other parts of the world, like Asia, people there are also becoming in- creasingly critical about the use of antibiotics, animal welfare standards and environmental requirements. Making a major re- duction in antibiotic use is very demanding and not easy to follow through on farm. De Wit explains: “The pressure not to use anti- biotics can be so strong that – in some cases – this can even have a negative effect on animal welfare in flocks with sick animals.
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