In this edition of SIG in the Spotlight, hear from Commercial Poultry Veterinarian (CPV) Group committee member and Australasian Veterinary Poultry Association (AVPA) President, Dr Angela Scott, who has been an active in the AVA since joining the profession in 2018.
Bringing together veterinarians from across Australia and New Zealand, the CPV Group provides members with opportunities to influence AVA policy, attend biannual scientific conferences, and connect with colleagues through the AVPA and beyond. Through these initiatives, the CPV continues to strengthen Australia’s poultry sector, promoting best practices in animal health, public health, and food safety.
What are the benefits of joining the SIG and how does it support veterinarians in their careers?
The main benefit poultry veterinarians earn from joining the CPV is having a say in AVA policy development and contributing directly to enquiries the AVA receives that relate to poultry health and welfare. Veterinarians that join the CPV are automatically eligible to become members of the Australasian Veterinary Poultry Association (AVPA), which holds biannual conferences that provide an invaluable networking opportunity amongst poultry veterinarians.
The AVPA is also a branch of the World Veterinary Poultry Association (WVPA) which hosts congresses every 2 years. These are incredibly well-run with cutting edge scientific presentations and are held in a range of locations across the world as well as provide amazing international networking opportunities. We are extremely excited to collaborate with the Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) to host the WVPA congress in Melbourne in 2029. This will give us a once in a lifetime opportunity to both showcase the Australian poultry industry and bring international experts in poultry veterinary science to Australia for an audience of up to 2,000 delegates.
What would you say to veterinarians who are considering joining this special interest group but may not yet specialise in poultry medicine?
Poultry medicine is essentially avian medicine with a herd mentality coupled with considerations for public health and food safety. I’d suggest attending one of our conferences to get a taste of the discussions and issues poultry veterinarians face.
The group holds a Scientific Conference every 2 years, alongside the AVPA. Could you share some key highlights from these conferences?
The AVPA/CPV conferences are known to host internationally renowned speakers, such as Dr David Swayne, to provide quality scientific content. The conference locations are widespread across Australia and include New Zealand given the AVPA is an Australasian association. Our attendees not only learn a thing or two about chickens, but get to experience the highlights of a number of cities (including regional towns) that they otherwise would not visit.
Poultry veterinarians play a critical role in disease prevention and food safety. Could you elaborate on how your members contribute to public health through their work?
Where to start! The success of the poultry industry has been disease prevention. Healthy birds will perform better – this means more eggs or meat depending on the bird type.
Disease prevention is achieved through strict biosecurity practices and vaccinations. Poultry veterinarians are pivotal in their role to design biosecurity practices and vaccination programs for operational staff to follow. Biosecurity practices are simple, yet effective tools that can be readily implemented on farm that the poultry veterinarian can audit against. Vaccination programs require in-depth understanding of the birds’ immune system and the diseases individual farms face and so must be tailor-made by the poultry veterinarian.
Healthy birds also means birds are less likely to contract or shed bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses – namely Campylobacter and Salmonella. Poultry veterinarians very much have a ‘One-Health’ viewpoint where they work to not only prevent diseases in the birds but also to minimise the risk of foodborne illnesses in humans.
Tell us a little about you – when did you join the SIG and how long have you been an AVA member?
I’ve been interested in poultry medicine since before graduation. I’ve also been an AVA member since I was a student as I believe it is very important for veterinarians to be given a strong, united, public-facing voice that can comment and provide input on a range of issues. Joining the CPV (and therefore AVPA) shortly after graduation gave me tremendous insight and connections to those in the poultry industry which inevitably accelerated my career and gave me the opportunity to become the president of the AVPA.