The two-day seminar which took place near Minsk combined theoretical and practical training for the attendees as well as visits to two GP farms for the participants - GP farm and hatchery managers alongside veterinarians. The underlying theme of the event was ‘Back to Basics’.

Marcel Janssen, Regional Technical Manager for Eastern Europe and the CIS, talked about using the ’Back to Basics’ concept as a tool for solving various production issues. Quite a few seemingly simple applications of this principle created lively impromptu discussions among participants and stimulated an exchange of ideas.

Zoltan Marton, Veterinarian, focused on effective farm cleaning and disinfection procedures and practices while Goran Slunjski, Technical Service Manager, prepared two presentations on management factors and procedures that are crucial during the rearing and production periods to optimize GP production and achieve best output of high-quality parent stock chicks.

The second day of the event saw the attendees split in two groups to visit two GP farms for some hands-on training. This proved to be an extremely valuable experience as it allowed participants to see how management practices affect production in a real-live situation and showed them options to fine-tune these practices to achieve even better results. After the farm visit Zoltan talked about effective biosecurity programs and used the farm visit to illustrate his recommendations.

The students completed a test after the seminar and were presented with certificates of accomplishment on GP management training.

Yuri Fesin, Director of PPR Broiler, said: "These two days allowed our GP specialists, especially our younger managers, for some of them their first seminar, to really focus on the most important principles and methods of GP management which should help them to develop new skills and confidence working with Ross birds. We would like to thank Aviagen for this seminar that is another step on the way for us to realize the full genetic potential of our Ross birds."

Marcel Janssen added: “We are pleased with the results of this event as we saw real dedication and full attention of the students and great interest in the topics we presented. We particularly enjoyed it when the topics presented created lively discussions within the group.”