Poultry Feathers and Skin

HISTORY AND NATURAL HISTORY
1) Evolutionary development of the skin and feathers—Richard Prum

PHYSIOLOGICAL AND ANATOMICAL ASPECTS
2) Importance of skin and feathers to the bird—Theagarfen Lingham-Soliar
3) Skin morphology and feathers structure—Christoph Mülling
4) Embyronic development of the integument—Denis Headon

HEALTH AND WELFARE
5) Feather pecking in laying hens (why they do it and what are the welfare implications?) —Christine J. Nicol
6) Genetic solutions to reduce injurious pecking—Esther Ellen
7) Evidence-based management of injurious pecking—Thea van Niekerk
8) Contact and foot pad dermatitis (environmental, management and nutrition aspects) —Paul Hocking
9) The poultry integument in health and diseases (other veterinary issues) —Paul McMüllin
10) Use of skin and integument condition in welfare assessment—Siobhan Mullan

GENETICS
11) Genetics of feather colouration—Victor Olori
12) Genetic and breeding aspects of feather coverage, and their effects on performance in broilers—Avigdor Cahaner
13) Genetic basis of contact dermatitis in poultry—Dagmar Capell

NUTRITION & MANAGEMENT AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
14) Nutrition effects on feathering—Rick van Emous
15) Strengthening the inside: effect of nutrition on gut health and maintenance and its impact on the integument integrity—Sunday A. Adedokun
16) Management practices to prevent abnormal feather loss—Otto van Tuijl
17) Business opportunities with integuments—Steve Lister

Oluyinka A. Olukosi

Dr. Oluyinka A. Olukosi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Poultry Science, University of Georgia. He was previously a senior poultry researcher in the Animal and Veterinary Sciences group at Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) in the United Kingdom where his research comprises applied and basic nutrition research areas. Prior to his appointment at SRUC, he obtained B. Agric. (Hons) and M. Phil (Animal Science) from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria and Ph.D. (Animal Sciences) from Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana. His applied nutrition research is mainly in the areas of feedstuffs evaluation and strategies to enhance nutrient utilization in poultry and pigs. His basic nutrition research themes are in nutrient metabolism (especially minerals) and nutritional strategies to improve gut health. In the last 12 years, Dr. Olukosi has authored, or co-authored, more than 160 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference abstracts or proceedings papers. Dr. Olukosi is currently on the editorial board of Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture as well as serves as a regular reviewer for several international journals.

Ariane Helmbrecht

Dr. Ariane Helmbrecht studied agricultural science at the University of Bonn, Germany, and specialized for diploma and Ph.D. thesis on animal nutrition. While concentrating for the graduation on ruminant nutrition and especially nitrogen reduction in high yielding dairy cows, during an eight-year period at a German feed compounder the responsibility for poultry, rabbits, horses, small ruminants, fish and zoo-animals expanded her knowledge to all livestock animals and even more exotic ones. In 2009 she joined the animal nutrition research team of Evonik and concentrated for 7 years on amino acid nutrition of broilers, laying hens, turkeys, and ducks. Recently her field was again expanded to ruminant nutrition and added by the responsibility for market development and marketing. Part of Ariane's work is to transfer scientific findings into commercially applicable concepts and also to inform and train technical colleagues as well as nutritionists from livestock producing companies in these concepts. Due to her working with colleagues and customers in more than 120 countries, she has a good knowledge of different production systems and nutritional requirements.

Victor Olori

Dr Victor E. Olori completed a bachelor's degree (B. Agric) in general Agriculture and a Masters degree (MSc.) in Animal Science from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He worked briefly as a lecturer in Nigeria before proceeding for a Ph.D. in quantitative genetics in Edinburgh University. Upon completion of the PhD in 1997, Victor served as a postdoc at the University College Dublin before joining the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation where as a pioneer Geneticist, he helped with the setting up and operation of the genetic evaluation unit for dairy and beef cattle evaluation. He worked here until 2005 when he joined Aviagen as a systems' geneticist. He is currently a Senior Geneticist for Aviagen managing the genetic evaluation of all turkey and chicken pure lines in four breeding programs located across the UK and US. Victor's research interest is currently focussed on the genetic improvement of reproductive efficiency in chickens and turkeys. In the past he has worked with indigenous chickens of Nigeria, sheep breeding in Ireland, dairy and cattle breeding and now broiler chicken and turkey breeding with Aviagen.

Nick French

Dr Nick French is the Global Head of Technical Transfer for Aviagen Ltd., the world's largest primary breeder of chickens and turkeys. He manages two teams within Aviagen, one responsible for producing technical literature and the other team responsible for data analysis and modelling. Nick obtained his first degree at University of Bristol in Zoology and Psychology and his Ph.D. from the University of Bath, studying incubation in wild birds. In 1982 Nick joined British United Turkeys (now Aviagen Turkeys), firstly undertaking research on incubation and providing technical support to hatcheries, eventually becoming Technical Director. In 2009 Nick moved to Aviagen Chicken as an incubation expert before taking up his current position in 2012.

Sarah Lambton

Dr Sarah Lambton is a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. Her research is focussed on animal health and welfare, in particular that of laying hens. She completed her Ph.D .at the University of Bristol in 2008, investigating the risk factors for the development of injurious pecking in loose-housed laying hens. She has subsequently worked on several projects in the same field, investigating the management strategies which may be employed to reduce the risk of injurious pecking in laying hens. Recently she completed a project investigating the effect of cage furnishings on the laying behavior of hens in enriched cages. She has also a research interest in the behavior and welfare of sheep, having been involved with research investigating welfare during time spent in markets and travel to the slaughterhouse. Currently she leads a project investigating the effects of early life experience in lambs on behavior and welfare during later life. Sarah also worked for two years as a scientific epidemiologist at the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, now APHA, and continues to build on this area of expertise in her work at the University of Bristol.