7 February 2024

2 minute read

By: Aviagen

The Aviagen® Global Technical Transfer (GTT) team is pleased to announce the release of its updated Parent Stock Handbooks for the Arbor Acres®, Indian River® and Ross® brands. Aviagen has designed these resources to offer the latest best-practice management advice, enabling poultry producers to achieve the highest level of health, welfare, and efficiency with their Parent Stock (PS) flocks.

Customers may download these interactive PDF documents here:

Arbor Acres^® Parent Stock Handbook

Indian River^® Parent Stock Handbook

Ross^® Parent Stock Handbook

The primary focus of the GTT team is to deliver practical benefits to customers, and these handbooks are designed with their success in mind.

Updated every four years, the handbooks undergo a rigorous review process led by a dedicated team of experts from various areas, including genetics, nutrition, veterinary science, hatchery and incubation, and ventilation. This comprehensive approach ensures that the information provided is both current and relevant to the industry's evolving needs.

Within these handbooks, customers will discover expert advice on critical topics that drive bird productivity and well-being, including rearing, management into lay, care of hatching eggs, environmental requirements, nutrition, and health and biosecurity. In this edition, the team has revised and expanded key management advice to include the most up-to-date information, reflecting an ongoing commitment to staying at the forefront of industry knowledge. This includes:

• Revised mating ratio advice
• An amended male fleshing guide and the addition of firmness testing
• A change to recommended CV% guidelines
• Additional information regarding mating-up and pin bone spacing
• Completely updated Care of Hatching Eggs and Ventilation sections

To enhance the user-experience several features have been included:

• A refreshed, engaging look and feel with user-friendly diagrams and illustrations
• A hyperlinked table of contents for easy navigation to specific sections
• Hyperlinks within the text for quick cross-referencing
• Direct links to documents containing supporting information on the Aviagen website
• Short management-based videos for enhanced understanding

Dr. Vanessa Kretzschmar-McCluskey, Head of the Global Technical Transfer team, expressed her excitement about offering these new resources to benefit customer operations, saying, "Our GTT team is delighted to present the new PS handbooks to our customers. Aviagen continually improves the genetic potential of our birds, and these newest documents are filled with advice to help them maximize this potential. We invite our customers to download and engage with the interactive documents. Our ongoing goal is to strengthen their success as they work tirelessly to feed their communities with an excellent, wholesome and sustainable protein source.”