Pfizer Poultry Health Partnership days in Vienna, Austria

Tarsicio Villalobos, Pfizer Global Tech Director at Pfizer Poultry Health updated the audience on the basics of embryology. He explained that embryo development depends on how it uses the nutrients and how the incubator is managed.

Jan-Kees van den Wijngaard, poultry veterinarian and consultant from the Netherlands addressed that bad delivery of good vaccines will not get us the results we want. Focus should be on proper vaccine storage, vaccine dosage, situation around vaccine delivery, vaccination timing and vaccine delivery method.

Jose Ignacio Sanchez from Pfizer Poultry Health highlighted the advantages of the Embrex Inovoject. Jose stressed that hatchery managers should feel confident with the in-ovo vaccination system to get the best results out of it. With the Embrex system it is possible to inject 3 vaccines at the same time.

Yves de la Fouchardiere from France talked about in-ovo Marek vaccination and the field experiences from the French cooperative Fermiers de LOUE. The hatchery switched to in-ovo vaccination in 2005.

Brice Robineau, poultry veterinarian at the Chene Vert Group in France shared his field experiences with in-ovo vaccination. He addressed that there are possibilities to also use in-ovo vaccination for fighting Gumburo disease.

Juan Carlos Abad, veterinarian from Cobb in Spain addressed that early immunization of breeder chicks is a key factor in controlling Marek disease.

The presentations were followed by lively discussions and Q and A sessions.

Willem Wijmenga, Pfizer Technical Assistant Director for Europe, Africa and the Middele East explained how Pfizer developed the Poulvac®IB QX vaccine.

German poultry veterinarian Hermann Block shared his field experiences with using IB QX. Block is veterinarian at the Meyer/Block/Thien practice, located in the area of Lower Saxony, where 50% of the German poultry production is located.

Gert Jan Boelm, veterinarian from the Dutch Animal Health Service explained that in December 2003, a new serotype of infectious bronchitis virus was found in the Netherlands and surrounding countries - the isolate named IB D388.

Gert Jan Boelm explained that early studies in SPF chickens showed that vaccination with a combination of Massachusetts, D274 and 793B was efficacious. However, the same vaccine combinations applied in commercial broilers with maternally derived antibodies to IBV were less effective.

In his presentation, Harm Geerlings from the Dutch Pfizer office in Weesp went through the development process of a new IB vaccine - an attenuated QX-like IB virus strain L1148.

Jocelyn Marguerie, a poultry veterinarian from France shared his experiences with QX vaccination against infectious bronchitis in chickens.

Fully updated, the international crowd went back home after 3 days of sharing experiences on in-ovo vaccination.

Hervé Le Galludec, Poultry Director Europe, Africa and Middle East at Pfizer Poultry Health opened the meeting and welcomed all the participants to Vienna.