ONLINE DISCUSSION FORUM (ODF)–ON TRENDS IN POULTRY HEALTH, SEASON-1 ORGANISED BY CPDO&TI IN ASSOCIATION WITH INFAH, ON 12TH AUGUST, 2021
Central Poultry Development Organization & Training Institute under Government of India, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, a premier Institute located at Hessarghatta, Bengaluru organized a one day online Discussion forum – on TRENDS IN POULTRY HEALTH, SEASON-1 ORGANISED BY CPDO&TI in association with Indian Federation of Animal Health Companies, on 12TH August, 2021.
Poultry sector in India is a techno-commercial sector with contribution of nearly 1.5 lakh crores to the GNP with about 6 million people being employed directly or indirectly. Poultry Farming Practices in India are one of the best in the world. The Science adopted in Genetics, Nutrition, Management and Disease prevention are one among the best in class matching Global Standards. Presently it is estimated that 4.5 billion broiler population, 250 – 300 million layers and about 3.5 to 4.0 crore broiler breeders are being reared in India. The health specialists have achieved huge task in disease prevention and health management in the country. However, poultry health is a dynamic, ever evolving entity among poultry farming. It is always required to get abreast with the latest knowledge and tips for poultry health management. Hence, this discussion forum is envisaged to outline the present trends in poultry health. Since poultry health is a vast subject, it has been envisaged to conduct in series wise as Season-1, followed by many.
This event was organized in association with Indian Federation of Animal Health Companies (INFAH) under the leadership of Mr. Vijay Teng, President and Dr. Vijay Makhija, General Secretary along with poultry expert members of INFAH.
The Online Discussion Forum started sharp at 10.30 am on 12th August, 2021 by opening remarks from Dr. Mahesh P.S., Joint Commissioner & Director, CPDO&TI. He briefed about the legacy of CPDO&TI being an organization built over six decades (1960). Dr. Mahesh quoted Hon’ble Prime Ministe’rs speech on 11th of August, 2021at Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) annual meet in which it was emphasized that Modern India is lead by Unicorns in all the sectors including food sector in India. About 60 unicorns are being established so far since 2011 the first unicorn (valuation of 1 billion dollar) was born in Bangalore. The motivation for poultry sector is, 22 unicorns are established since Jan. 2021 uptil August. Dr. Mahesh mentioned that startups like Licious, Fresh to Home may soon join the bandwagon before Dec. 2021 itself.
Further he elaborated that digitalization, consumerism, focus on safe food and health would create more demand for protein foods like eggs and chicken in India with a priority preference for safe and certified traceable products. Hence he advised to adopt latest technologies like Block Chain, Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining to capture a pie in the digital India.
Dr.Vijay Makhija, General Secretary, INFAH, made a presentation from Mumbai, Maharashtra digitally about activities of the Organisation which is formed in 2012. At present, it has 52 members representing more than 85 percent of Animal Health Market in India. He mentioned about INFAH’s moto being “Healthy Animals, Healthier India”. INFAH has focused approach via sub committees on various aspects of health issues related to scientific research in veterinary field. This organization has set out guidelines and working in liaison with government in various committees. This event is organized by members of Biologicals & Biosecurity sub-committee.
Mr. Vijay Teng, President, INFAH in his inaugural address through online from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, appreciated the efforts of CPDO&TI organization under Government of India for conducting such innovative programmes through digital gateway. He elaborated on changing preferences in food habits with more focus on protein foods like egg and chicken recipes. He acknowledged government addressing the industry needs for import of GM soya to mitigate the deadlock in shortfall and sky racketing prices of soya. He mentioned that INFAH has career link for the young veterinarians through which they can seek their career prospects and employment opportunities. He assured to extend full cooperation and support to CPDO&TI for conducting many more seasons under Poultry Health series.
Dr. Mahindra Chaudhari, Poultry Expert joined from Pathankot, Punjab spoke on the topic “21 days of critical care”. In his presentation he elaborated in detail about role of hatchery management with a primary focus on efficient incubation and setter management as a key factor for the foundation of healthy chick which becomes a broiler/layer/breeder. He scientifically narrated various parameters of evaluation of quality of chicks by both quantitative (physical features) and qualitative (body wt., yolk wt., chick length, moisture loss, chick yield, data recorded) in addition to bacterial, fungal and viral analysis. Chick quality plays a critical role in determining the health, growth, nutritional efficiency and financial returns of the farm. His detailed presentation can be viewed through CPDO&TI youtube channel: CPDO&TI TRAINING.
Dr. Jayanth Deshpande, Poultry Expert presented online from Bangalore, Karnataka about the topic “Biosecuring the Farm”. In his address he narrated simple practical elements of biosecurity to create a barrier for disease entry to the farm. He categorized these features into three elements namely, Physical Barriers, Biological (vaccine) barriers and Pharmacological barriers. He pictorically explained simple foot dip, shower system, management of rodents etc for effective implementation of biosecurity. He advised farmers with a novel idea of covering the whole poultry house with a simple chicken mesh to prevent rodent, flying birds etc to reduce reinfection of mycoplasma in the units. Clean farms are highly essential for disease control for broilers, breeders, layers. In his final remark, he advised to segregate the farm into four sections namely, dirty, semi-clean, clean and ultra-clean. Further suggested to follow a adequate SOPs to maintain the same. Proper diagnosis, effective vaccination and disinfection coupled with effective physical biosecurtiy is the need of the hour for disease prevention.
Dr. M.R. Reddy, Principal Scientist, Directorate of Poultry Research joined online from Hyderabad, Telangana State. He addressed on the topic “Reading Serology”, Dr. Reddy with his experience of more than 30 year of research elaborated about role of Diagnostics in general and monitoring antibodies through Serology in particular. In his presentation he showed detailed analysis of lab reports with pictorial histograms (Bar charts of antibody titer). The method of understanding of lab reports was convincingly explained in terms of reading, tier groups, geometric mean, arithmetic mean, standard deviation and variance for concluding the reports. The importance of distribution of titers either standard bell curve, left skewed, right skewed and multiple peaks was explained in detail for predicting disease challenge, protection status of birds for various diseases including forecasting of vaccination schedule.
This session was followed by Question and Answers for the speakers conducted by Dr. Vijay Makhija. The details can be accessed through Youtube / Facebook link of CPDO&TI and LinkedIn of INFAH.
The final session of the day was Panel Discussion with three eminent experts namely, Dr. Sanjay Gavkare, Mr. Milind Limaye and Dr. D.K. Dey. The first panelist, Dr. Sanjay Gavkare answered queries by Dr. Mahesh P.S. about present status of Research & Development in poultry sector. In his remarks he illustrated various achievements of Indian Poultry Research in Biologicals, Vaccines and Diagnostics to meet the international standards. He emphasized strengthening collaboration between the government and poultry sector.
The second panelist Mr. Milind Limaye appreciated the help of the government in strengthening the system for disease control and management. However, he requested more joint tie-ups with Institutes like HSADL, RDDLs, CARI etc to take up joint research for solving field oriented problems. Concludingly the third panelist, .
Dr. D.K. Dey, narrated about biological subcommittee of INFAH and its contributions in formulating guidelines for better poultry health management. In his remarks, he advised more interaction of youth, general public about “Real Science” behind innovations in Research in solving problems associated with poultry health.
Dr. Mahesh P.S., Joint Commissioner & Director, CPDO&TI mentioned that Team CPDO&TI would conduct many such programmes in the coming months. The programme was conducted live on zoom, youtube channel of CPDO&TI along with recordings posted on facebook: cpdoti.bangalore, on youtube: CPDO&TI TRAINING and LinkedIn of INFAH. All are requested to download “Latest App of CPDO&TI” from Google Playstore by typing “CPDO&TI” for Android Version.
Sri. S.M. Anwar Basha, Senior faculty of CPDO&TI executed the job of Admin of conducting Discussion Forum very effectively and proposed vote of thanks for the delegates. The other team members of CPDO&TI worked hard in making this programme successful. Team CPDO&TI thank all the viewers participated through Zoom and Youtube. It is also acknowledged that Print Media extends great support by wide coverage of all online events of CPDO&TI across the country.
