The principle city of eastern Slovakia is also – with a population of 235.000 - the second largest city in Slovakia, located near Hungarian, Ukrainian and Polish borders. Hence the economic and cultural centre of eastern Slovakia, Košice hosted for the second time The International Scientific Conference on Probiotics and Prebiotics (IPC2010), held from 15th to 17th of June in the downtown Hotel Doubletree by Hilton organized for the 4th time by The Faculty of Medicine at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

As there is growing interest in the use of probiotics and prebiotics in animals, for the first time in the course of the worldwide acknowledged IPC separate Animal Health sessions took place (15th to 16th of June). The scientific program focused on current advances in the research, production and use of probiotics and prebiotics with particular focus on their role in maintaining health and preventing diseases in swine, poultry and aquaculture. Prof. Brian Austin from University of Stirling, Scotland and Elisabeth Mayer from BIOMIN, Austria moderated through the last session of the 2nd day. The first was also invited as a keynote speaker with the topic “The use of probiotics in aquaculture” and the second presented “The effect of dietary incorporation of a multi-strain probiotic on growth performance and health status in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus Mykiss)”. At the end of each day participants were particularly invited to visit the posters, which were accessible for viewing during the entire conference. On behalf of BIOMIN, Michaela Mohnl presented a poster on the “Effect of different inclusion levels of a multi-species probiotic on the performance of broilers”, Gertrude Wegl showed the “Use of quantitative PCR to study the effects of a yeast derivative on immune related gene expression in broiler chicken” and Verity Ann Sattler the “Detection of a Lactobacillus reuteri strain-specific DNA sequence by Genome Hybridization”.

As introductory pre-conference events symposia in the research of “Bacteriocins” or “Bacillus subtilis” or “GIT models” took place on June, 14th. Also, a post-conference workshop was held on the “Health Claim Approval of Probiotic Food in the European Union” on June, 18th.

On Wednesday, a social program was planned with salsa-dancing, sight-seeing and a conference dinner in the Archeologicky Komplex, a former fortification dating back to the 13th century with dim and cool stone passageways tunneling under the popular pedestrian plaza of Kosice.