Delegates from the poultry industry were invited to share the knowledge of one of the industry’s most respected figures, Professor Sally Solomon, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow.
The egg examination workshop hosted last week (15th June) by leading animal healthcare company Alltech was part of the company’s 30th birthday celebrations in 2010.
Professor Solomon has been involved in poultry research for over 30 years.
Currently she is Chairman for British Poultry Science and a member of the international board for the World’s Poultry Science Journal.
Professor Solomon specialises in egg and eggshell quality and has undertaken extensive research in the effects of diet and the environment on oviduct activity and shell quality.
For the workshop delegates were invited to bring in a sample of their own eggs for analysis as Professor Solomon discussed egg quality and how this could be improved.
Judd Culver, Poultry Technical Sales Manager for Alltech, commented: "Alltech decided to host the event to help explain the full story behind total replacement with our Sel-Plex® and Bioplex® Minerals. We decided that a workshop environment would be the most effective place to do this.
"Sel-Plex® and Bioplex® have been shown to have a positive impact on animals’ performance and health; we wanted to share this with our customers while at the same time offering them the chance to discuss their own egg quality issues with one of the industry’s leading experts.
"We knew Sally would be able to provide the perspective as to what total mineral replacement means from a physiological standpoint."
The workshop examined key issues such as the foundation for eggshell quality, the oviduct in chaos and addressing shell quality through nutrition.
Professor Solomon was also joined by Zöe Stevenson from Alltech’s European Solutions Deployment Team and Patrick Charlton, Alltech’s Regional Director.
They spoke about the extensive research carried out by Alltech in the area of redefining mineral nutrition as well as introducing the Q+ programme which guarantees quality, safety and performance of each batch Sel-Plex® and Bioplex® Minerals
Sally explained that "Both disease and stress can send the oviduct into a state of chaos. Under such circumstances shell formation is compromised and the egg is unfit for purpose.
"A turgid albumen is a necessary prerequisite for the deposition of the paired shell membranes which in turn will encourage and support the growth of the multi-layered shell.
"I hope that this workshop gave delegates an insight into how they can optimise egg quality and reiterated just how important animal health is in production, the environment and for the welfare of the birds."
The day was perceived to be of real benefit to the delegates, as Margaret Hardy from St David’s Poultry Team Ltd told us: "Sally Solomon was absolutely excellent. She was truly fantastic at explaining the intricacies as to the how the egg shell is formed and how stress and housing can have a huge effect on the production of an egg and in turn egg quality.
"Anything that stabilises the egg shell has to be hugely advantageous for production."
