PHOTO: KOOS GROENEWOLD
PHOTO: HANS PRINSEN
CONGRESS ▶▶▶
Welfare, sustainability and environment take centre stage at WPC 2022
The long-awaited World Poultry Congress was recently held in Paris. After two years delay due to the pandemic, scientists, researchers and commercial representatives of the leading institutions and companies gathered to exchange knowledge and ideas and, more importantly, meet face-to-face to discuss the hot topics in the poultry industry.
BY FABIAN BROCKÖTTER
Peter van Horne, economist at Wageningen University and newly-chosen secretary gener- al of the WPSA, focused on the global challeng- es for the eco- nomics of the poultry sector.
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uite overwhelming: that’s what can be said about the overall WPC 2022 experience. Organised by the French branch of the World’s Poultry Science Association, the event provided five days of ple-
nary and parallel sessions, side events and, of course, the all-important poster presentations. “It was a very challenging task to schedule all the entries for the scientific programme,” said Michèle Trixier-Boichard, chair of the 26th edition of the World Poultry Congress. She noted that the postponement of the event (twice) led to three sets of submissions for ab- stracts. “Really impressive. In the end we published not one but two books of abstracts, as the need to share scientific re- sults is huge. Luckily this important work continued during
the pandemic and authors had the time to finish their ab- stracts and submit them to us. I always promote submission as in our world, without publications you don’t exist.” In setting the framework for the congress which started after the previous edition in China in 2016, the main topics soon became clear. Together with Michel Duclos, chair of the scien- tific committee, and Christophe Bostvironnois, president of WPSA France, Michèle Tixier-Boichard wanted to highlight welfare in the broadest sense, sustainability and environ- ment. “We see that there is a lot of interaction between these themes and we need events like ours to bring the different disciplines together. The challenge to meet future needs is so complex that all stakeholders must be onboard.” One of the main questions the industry and society as a whole needs to answer is how to weigh the elements of planet, people and profit. Tixier-Boichard: “In the end this will be a question for politicians but we have the science to provide the right input. We need more welfare, we need to be more sustainable and we need to take care of our environment, but we also need to feed a growing world population. Moving forward, trade-offs will have to be made.” The chair of WPC 2022 believes that this is where further research has to be done. “I have seen many detailed and high quality presentations on the poultry industry’s impact on the environment. That said, we need science on adaptation and its effects as well, in the context of both nature and farm economics.”
Welfare economics If there was anyone at the WPC who knows about economics, it was Peter van Horne. The economist at Wageningen Univer- sity and newly-chosen secretary general of the WPSA focused on the global challenges for the economics of the poultry sector. Van Horne reported that global poultry meat and egg production had shown an impressive increase over the last 15 years, with a 65% and a 50% increase, respectively. Van Horne: “Projections for 2028 show a further increase in eggs and poultry meat by about 3.5% year-on-year. The outlook for 2028 shows a higher annual growth for poultry meat com- pared to pork and beef.” He continued: “For both layers (battery cages) and broilers (fast growing breeds) the most
32 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 6, 2022
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