For the first time, the 20th International Pigs Veterinary Society (IPVS) congress took place in an African country. The congress was hosted by pig veterinarians of South Africa at the International Convention Centre in Durban. From June 22nd -25th 2008, more than 1700 people from all over the world participated in the congress program dealing with the scientific and commercial aspects of pig veterinary.
The subject matter of the scientific keynote lectures included:
- Global epidemiology
- Future role of vets
- Genetics
- Food safety
- Diagnostics
- Classical and African swine fever
- Contact structure and diseases
Other program components were the poster presentations and commercial partner seminars. Inęs Rodrigues (Product Champion, BIOMIN) presented an interesting poster about the ‘Impact of fusariotoxins on performance, blood biochemistry, immune response and histopathology of swine’. Verity Ann Sattler, working in a national project, funded by BIOMIN, was given the opportunity to talk about the difficult processes of bacterial strain selection and evaluation for a multistrain feed additive for piglets and could also present her work about the molecular exploration of the gut microflora.
Within the IPVS social program, visitors and accompanying persons were offered a great variety of tours giving an amazing impression of Durban’s golden beaches of the warm Indian Ocean, outstanding wildlife game reserves and the cultural and geographical attractions of the Zulu Kingdom. The venue of the 21st IPVS congress in 2010 will be Vancouver, Canada. |
