APSS 2025 Planning Well Underway



With only around 160 days until APSS 2025, organisation of the 36th annual symposium is going extremely well. We have confirmed 11 world-class invited speakers to join us in Sydney next February, presenting on a diverse range of industry-related topics.

Free-Ranging Flock

Bird Flu: Must-Knows For Backyard Chicken Keepers (And Breeders)



Exhortations to prevent contact with wild birds to avoid avian influenza can be a source of anxiety for chicken keepers. It’s near-impossible to exclude all birds from even an enclosed run and locking up chickens comes with its own risks – overcrowding, stress and exposure to higher manure loads, to name a few.

University of Sydney Logo with Poultry Research Foundation.

A New Era for the Poultry Research Foundation



We have recently been given the green light to officially become a Research Centre within the University. The transition changes PRF from a Foundation deemed a fundraising body under Australian Consumer Law to a university research entity aligned with the poultry and allied industries. As a result, PRF will retain its name as well as the Industry Council as an advisory body.

Portrait of Carria Xie holding a chick.

PhD Scholar – Carria Xie



Carria Xie is a first-year PhD candidate, using novel strategies to investigate how energy and amino acid levels affect broiler chicken performance in male and female birds.

Portrait of Dr Ken Bruerton

Dr Ken Bruerton – Winner of the Australian Poultry Award 2023



Dr Ken Bruerton was the winner of the prestigious Australian Poultry Award this year and I thought I would have a chat with Ken to congratulate him and hear his story. For our readers who do not know him, Ken is an animal nutritionist and runs his own business, the Queensland-based, Protea Park Nutrition Services.