Editorial

Extract

It is interesting watching how papers and topics come and go with a journal, as this issue especially shows. We have many similar topics covered this time – which is unusual and something we try to avoid as much as possible. However, this time several papers ready to go were covering similar topics. Although all our papers have to be peer reviewed to be accepted into the journal in the first place, the reviewers of these latest publications all deemed them to have merit as reviews of that area of interest – so when we get topics in a bunch, they are published. Review topics can be an indicator of what’s important out there in the world of poultry science, and from this month’s list, probiotic reviews from Asian authors predominate. Does this mean that antibiotic alternatives are now gaining commercial importance in sectors that have previously had little or no legal controls? I’m sure commercial companies will find it an interesting development if so, as the poultry markets in those regions are substantial.

In September 2013 the WPSA Board is meeting at the Meat and Egg Conference in Bergamo, Italy, where we will also be meeting about the association’s role in family poultry production. We will be discussing how best to continue the publication of INFPD papers via the journal – as we now have increasing numbers of papers to process. In addition, we will look at how we can increase the speed of turnover of papers, as currently we are running about six months, or two issues, ahead of ourselves, due to limits of numbers of papers per issue. In my next editorial, we may have some new and exciting changes to report!

Otherwise, the world of poultry (especially in New Zealand) continues to change and grow, with increasing numbers of mouths to feed and novel human foods to generate, along with increasing awareness of biosecurity and environmental pressures. The recent Massey University Poultry Technical conference again showed how poultry was important, and showcased its research projects in terms of nutrition and related topics. One paper discussed designing environmentally-friendly, carbon zero intensive poultry farms – how the world changes – we could soon see (or not as the case may be) chicken sheds with gardens on their roofs.

Hope to see many of you at the Bergamo conference.

Dr Lucy Waldron

Editor