Cairo Poultry hosts training school

A recent round of the Arbor Acres training school was hosted by Cairo Poultry Company and organized by Misr. Poultry Grandparents, the local Arbor Acres distributor for over 30 years. Among the 35 trainees were farm managers, engineers, nutritionists, hatchery specialists and 15 company owners.
The primary objective of the Arbor Acres curriculum is to educate and update trainees to ensure that they are aware of the most current practices when managing Arbor Acres birds. This is important due to the changing needs of the birds because of constantly improving selection, which offers better performance.
Speakers at the event included specialists from the Arbor Acres team, professors from the University of Cairo and CPC personnel. Teaching topics covered recent disease challenges and prevention with a major focus on biosecurity, bird physiology and behavior, and modern lighting advice. The school also featured the modern art of male management, prevention of floor eggs and maintaining chick quality throughout the production chain. There were presentations such as an in-depth nutritional overview and needs of the modern Arbor Acres bird. Trainees said that live case studies—on chick brooding, hatchery trouble shooting and disease identification—were extremely useful.
Dr. Khaled Mostafa, general manager of the grandparent division at CPC, said: "We believe that our long term relationship with Arbor Acres ensures that we can work together to achieve our joint goal of educating the new generations who are in management positions today. They are the future of the poultry industry in Egypt and we are committed to ensuring that they, along with their teams, are up to date with the latest in the poultry industry.”
Puzant Dakessian, International Commercial Manager Arbor Acres, Aviagen, said: "The entire event was put together with meticulous attention to detail, from the venue to the selection of speakers and subjects, including the popular live case studies. This local school is now at an international level. Fifty years ago Arbor Acres pioneered the introduction of production courses, and these events show our continued commitment to education."

Wadi and Ross seminar for parent stock farmers in Egypt

A one-day road show designed to help Wadi parent stock farmers improve the technical and production performance of the Ross 308 flocks in their care was well attended with over 45 people from the surrounding area. 
Mansoura is located in the Nile Delta region about 120 km northeast of Cairo and was selected by Wadi Poultry Grandparents, the local Ross distributor as a suitable site in one of the famous poultry regions and focal areas of Egypt for a road show. The seminar successfully laid the foundation for full cooperation and collaboration with Wadi Group and Ross through transfer of knowledge and management practices to local customer technical and production teams and farmers.
Wadi Poultry Grandparents has invested in customer support and has built an experienced technical service team, which includes Dr. Alaa Mustafa, Eng. Osama Ibrahim and Dr. Mahmoud. 
“We would like to continue this mission in the future to convey the most recent technologies of this industry to customers in Egypt,” added Dr. Alaa Mustafa, Sales and Technical Manager for Wadi Poultry Grandparents.
International and local speakers were well qualified to speak directly to the assembled farmers and assist them in getting the production improvements being presented and discussed. The main subjects of the seminar were focused on management of broiler breeder, nutrition, bio-security and breeder health update.

Egypt poultry industry suffers high feed prices, transportation restrictions

Many Egypt poultry producers are switching from chicken to turkey and egg production in the wake of high feed prices and transportation restrictions that prohibit them from shipping poultry from one governorate to another, according to reports.
The transportation restrictions, meant to prevent the spread of avian flu, have led to a shortage of slaughterhouses and uneven productivity across the country. High feed costs have made it difficult to sustain chicken production. Turkeys, which require less feed and are imported already vaccinated, and egg production are now more profitable, according to farmers. “Another problem is the severe shortage of slaughterhouses," said Ahmed Nassar, executive manager of the Chicken Stock Exchange in el-Qaliubia Governorate. "Meanwhile, chicken breeding is limited to the summer season, because bird flu is more dangerous in winter, while the prices of fodder and vaccines have skyrocketed." The best solution, said Nassar, is to allow chickens to be transported among governorates under strict medical supervision. Currently, Egypt is producing 850 million chickens annually.

Egypt reports latest human avian influenza death

Egypt has recorded another human death due to avian influenza (H5N1), bringing the current total to 150 confirmed cases and 52 fatalities, according to the World Health Organization.
A 27-year-old man from Qena governorate, Deshna district, developed symptoms on June 5 and was hospitalized. Despite treatment, he died on June 14. Investigations into the source of infection suggest that the man had exposure to poultry suspected as being infected with H5N1.

Egyptian H5N1 exhibits differences; raises concerns

Avian influenza H5N1 cases in Egypt differ from those recorded in Asia and Indonesia when compared to cumulative data for countries worldwide other than Egypt, Nigeria, and Turkey, as reported in PROmed.
As of April 2009, fatality rate from human H5N1 cases in Egypt was 34% (23 of 67), versus an average of 66% among WHO-confirmed cases from all countries other than Egypt (234 of 354) according to an analysis by J. P. Dudley, Science Applications International Corp., Modeling and Analysis Division, Rockville, Md., U.S.
Reported results indicated that a median age of 8 years for human H5N1 cases in Egypt between March 2006 and March 2009, versus a median age of 18 years for WHO-confirmed human cases globally between November 2003 and November 2006. Cases were reported most frequently among children younger than 10 years.

Females exhibit highest mortality
Females account for 90% of human mortality from H5N1 in Egypt, with confirmed mortality only reported among individuals older than 9 years. Although the sex ratio of cases in most countries is approximately 1:1, females outnumber males among confirmed cases in Egypt by a factor of nearly 2:1.
The average case fatality rate from H5N1 among children aged 0-9 years from all countries other than Egypt and Turkey is 59% with no confirmed fatalities among 33 children in this age group reported from Egypt.

Increased concern
The report said the existence of undetected fatal or non-fatal atypical or asymptomatic human H5N1 infections may be the cause of the existing anomalies with regard to age and sex in Egypt.
Clinically mild illness from highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus infection has been reported from children in most countries, but the early detection and treatment of possible cases may be a factor in the overall lower case fatality rate reported for the cases in Egypt.
Although there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the disease in Egypt, there is increasing concern that undetected H5N1 cases may be occurring based on evidence of family clusters.
H5N1 clusters involving highly probable human-to-human transmission have been documented in China, Thailand, Viet Nam, Indonesia, and Pakistan.