Representatives with a broad range of expertise from veterinary specialists to heads of production attended the event at the Hotel Victoria in Minsk. In total, 12 Belarusian parent stock farms were represented.

The seminar was jointly coordinated with Belpticeprom, the exclusive distributor of Ross parent stock in Belarus. It was designed as a first opportunity for farmers in the country to establish a regular dialogue and to improve levels of technical support.

The event focussed on the fundamentals of poultry production, from hatchery practice and biosecurity to rearing periods and male management. Aviagen intends to repeat the seminar on an annual basis.

Tyark Osterndorff, Business Development Director for Aviagen's Central and Eastern European team, said: "Aviagen and Belpticeprom are leading the market in the provision of technical support to the Belarus poultry industry. Our seminar was a huge success and I have every confidence that further events will now take place so that we can continue to share experiences and offer advice and guidance to our Belarussian customers."

The event began with welcome speeches by Michail Petrashkevich, director of Belpticeprom, Yuri Fesin, a director of PPR Broiler's grandparent site and by Tyark Osterndorff of Aviagen.

The seminar then led into a series of discussions from specialists in four key areas. Kruno Bosilj spoke about rearing periods in parent stock; Timea Torma broached the subject of good hatchery practice; Barrie Fleming covered biosecurity; and Paul Shkarlat conducted an interactive session on the importance of male management.

Following those discussions, Petro Kuretchko was introduced as the technical manager for all parent stock in Belarus. Petro also conducted a discussion on light programmes.

Michail Petrashkevich added: "Belpticeprom and Aviagen are committed to developing excellent technical and training support to the poultry industry in Belarus and this superb seminar is one such example of we can work together to deliver practical advice to our customers. The future of the industry in Belarus is very bright."