Eddy Decuypere

Belgium

Professor E. Decuypere obtained his master in zoology in 1969, his master in agronomy in 1972 and his PhD in agricultural sciences in 1979. Meanwhile, he was working from 1974-1977 in Rwanda as responsible for agricultural practice and applied research in a developmental project.

He did a post-doc (1979-1980) at Rutgers University (New Jersey, USA) and at Arizona State University (USA). From 1979 onwards he was a research fellow of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (NFWO), then research director at NFWO until 1988. From 1988 onwards, he was full senior professor and head of the laboratory of Physiology of Domestic Animals at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), and extraordinary professor at the University of Wageningen (Netherlands) and collaborator of the Wageningen Business School for post-university education, as well as guest professor at the Sao Paulo University (Brazil) from 1996-2004.

His main teaching duties are ‘physiology of farm animals’, ‘production and reproduction physiology’, ‘general animal husbandry’, ‘poultry production’ and ‘biotechnology in farm animals’. During his career, he published more than 850 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and many book chapters and review papers.

He supervised 45 PhD students and headed about 35 scientific projects (both national and international), mainly in the field of fundamental and applied poultry research. The main research themes were incubation and embryo development in the chicken, endocrinology, and energy metabolism in broilers, broiler breeder reproduction. Each of these themes linked fundamental as well as applied research topics, e.g., fundamental studies on epigenetics in the chick embryo as well as angiogenesis in the embryo as a model in relation to cancer research was linked, or emanated in research topics about better incubation conditions or tools for detecting fertility and predicting hatchability.

Fundamental studies on endocrinology of growth and reproduction and control of feed intake and energy metabolism were matched with studies on ascites in broilers, dwarfism in broiler breeders, improvement of lighting schedules, moulting in laying hens, understanding broiler breeder reproduction and paradox.

He received several awards for his scientific work, amongst them the T. Newman Memorial Award, The Gordon Memorial Award and lecture, Doctor Honoris Causa from the Veterinary University of Budapest, Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS fellow), the Belgian Francqui chair, the Farner medal for Avian Endocrinology.

He is also chairman of the Centre of Sciences and Ethics at the KU Leuven-university, vice-chairman of the Interfaculty Centre for Agricultural History and was former Vice-dean of the Faculty of Bio-engineering Sciences.

Henry Classen

Canada

Henry Classen completed a B.S.A. at the University of Saskatchewan (1971) and pursued graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts (M.S. 1974, Ph.D. 1977). In 1978, he returned to Saskatchewan as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science, became a tenured Professor in 1986, and served as Department Head from 2006-2011. In 2013, Dr Classen was named a Distinguished Professor and initiated a 5-year term as Senior Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Chair in Poultry Nutrition.

Dr Classen’s nutritional research has focused on feeding programs and the nutritional value, anti-nutritional factors and processing of feed ingredients. He was a leader in the use of exogenous enzymes in poultry diets and his work contributed to changes in processing of canola meal worldwide. He also has a keen interest in poultry management and its impact on bird welfare. He has investigated lighting programs for broiler chickens and turkeys, beak trimming in laying hens, broiler transportation, toe treatment in turkeys, and nutritional manipulation of bird behaviour. Practical solutions to industry problems have been Dr Classen’s forte and the driving force behind his symbiotic relationship with industry and the success of the industry-funded Poultry Extension service at the University of Saskatchewan.

Believing in service to the research and teaching community, Dr Classen has made indispensable contributions to several professional organizations, including the WPSA Canada Branch and the Poultry Science Association. He has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the fields of animal and avian production, environment, physiology and nutrition, and received recognition for his teaching excellence and academic paternity. Many of his graduate students have become leaders in the national and international poultry industries as well as academia. He has authored or co-authored over 160 papers in refereed journals, over 20 book chapters and review articles, and numerous industry reports. He has been invited to present his research findings at poultry meetings and scientific conferences around the world.

Changxin Wu

China

Professor Changxin Wu graduated from Beijing Agricultural University with a major in Animal Science in 1957, and has been a faculty member of the university (now called China Agricultural University) since then. He did his further study on animal genetics and breeding at Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh University, Scotland, U.K. (1979-1981). After returning to the home school, he was promoted to the rank of associate professor in 1983, and full professor in 1988. He was appointed as the head of the Department of Animal Science from 1983 to 1987, and the dean of the College of Animal Science and Technology from 1993 to 2004. He is now an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the highest honour in the scientific community in China.

Professor Wu became a member of WPSA in 1988 and was a key founder of WPSA China Branch, which is now one of the largest branches of WPSA. He served as the Secretary from 1990 to 1997 and the Chairman of the China branch from 1997 to 2004. He also served as a Committee member of the Asia-Pacific Federation of WPSA from 1988 to 2004. He attended the World’s Poultry Congress in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. He was a keynote speaker on “Genetic changes affecting poultry production in China” during WPC 2000 in Montreal, Canada. He organized a satellite conference on waterfowl in Beijing just after WPC 1988, Nagoya, Japan. Now, he is the chairman of the scientific committee of the 25th World’s Poultry Congress to be held in Beijing in 2016.

In the fields of poultry science, he advanced the theory and method of “synthetic line breeding system” in layers instead of the “closed flock breeding system” which was used for a long-time in layer breeding in China, and the performance of layers was improved by using the new method. The achievement was awarded the 2nd class prize by the Ministry of Agriculture of China in 1992. Recognizing the need for more efficient layers, he started to explore the use of the dwarf gene in layer breeding. After 8 years of research work, along with his colleagues, he successfully developed a pure line and commercial layer with the dwarf gene. The miniature layers have lower body weight and less feed intake, and the feed conversion rate is about 2:1. The achievement was awarded the 2nd class prize for the National Advances of Science and Technology by the Chinese Government in 1999. Now, the miniature layers have been popularized about 80 million each year all over the country. Now he is doing the research on the genetic mechanism of hypoxia adaptation in Tibet Chicken and published a copy of “Physiology and Genetics of Adaptability to Highland Hypoxia in Tibetan Chicken” in 2012.

He has also paid attention to the conservation and utilization of animal and poultry genetic resources. Molecular biotechnology, experimental animal simulation and geographical information systems were used in the conservation of animal and poultry genetic resources. Problems such as the effective population size, the length of the generation interval, the optimum sex ratio and allowable inbreeding level in a conserved population were solved properly. The achievement was awarded the 1st class prize by the Ministry of Agriculture of China in 1999 and the 2nd class prize by the State Council of China in 2001 as well. Regarding the utilization of Chinese native chicken breeds, he has done a lot of organization and extension work through the so-called “academician workstation” in his name. For instance, Wenshang stripe feather chicken in Shandong Province, Jingmen blue eggshell chicken in Hubei Province, Dongxiang blue eggshell chicken in Jiangxi Province, and Huiyang bearded chicken in Guangdong Province. The economic traits such as egg number, eggshell quality, and growth rate have been improved under his advice.

In education, he is an excellent teacher for undergraduate students as well as graduate students. He has given the course of Animal Genetics, Biostatistics, Animal Breeding and Population Genetics for undergraduate students and Quantitative Genetics, Comparative Animal Breeding, and Modern Progress on Animal Breeding for graduate students. Because of his excellent teaching and education, the State Council gave him an honour certificate of Excellent Contribution to the Development of China’s Higher Education in 1991. As the editor-in-chief, he compiled and published Animal Genetics in 2015 and Animal Biology in 2016. Up to now, more than 100 students have received PhD or master’s degrees under his guidance, among them 43 got Master’s degrees and 76 got PhD degrees including 1 member of the British Royal Society and 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering

Avigdor Cahaner

israel

Avigdor Cahaner obtained his PhD in Genetics and Breeding at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in 1977. In 1979, after 2 years as a Postdoctoral fellow at the Avian Sciences Dept. of the University of California at Davis, he started to work at the Faculty of Agriculture as a Lecturer and researcher in poultry genetics and breeding. Later, he was promoted to the ranks of Senior Lecturer (1987), Associate Professor (1992), and Full Professor (1997). Recently, he officially retired, but continues to do research and conduct teaching and training missions in various academic, public, and industry organizations in Israel and worldwide.

Since 1977, Professor Cahaner has conducted basic and applied research on broiler genetics and breeding, in collaboration with many scientists in the academic and commercial sectors in Israel and worldwide. His international projects, over the years, were conducted in developed as well as developing countries, e.g., USA, Germany, The Netherlands, Egypt, Turkey, Vietnam, India, Ecuador, Nigeria, and Ethiopia.

Professor Cahaner’s research has covered a wide range of topics related to poultry breeding and production, especially with respect to genetic improvement of broiler performance and welfare under suboptimal conditions and stress environments. He is especially known for his innovating research showing that fast-growing broilers can acquire heat tolerance by introduction of genes that reduce feather coverage (naked neck broilers) or totally eliminate the feathers (featherless broilers). Professor Cahaner’s research also includes the applications of genomic information—from “DNA fingerprints” in the 1980’s to SNPs and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in the 2000’s—in basic research and in practical breeding. His research yielded over 100 frequently-cited publications in peer-reviewed journals, and many invited presentations at international scientific meetings.

Professor Cahaner is deeply involved in WPSA affairs. He has been an active member of the Israeli Branch of WPSA since 1979, and currently, he is the Branch’s President. Since 1989, he has been the Israeli representative at the European Federation’s Working Group No. 3 (Poultry Genetics and Breeding), and an active member of the Scientific Committee of this Working Group for many years.

In 1996, Professor Cahaner was elected as Vice President of the world body of WPSA, and served in this post for 12 years, after being re-elected in 2000 and 2004. As Vice-President of WPSA, he was responsible mainly for relations with developing countries and the FAO, and for bringing INFPD (International Network for Family Poultry Development) into WPSA. Other WPSA-related activities of Professor Cahaner include membership in the Scientific Program Committee of the 22nd World Poultry Congress (Turkey, 2004) and the 25th World Poultry Congress (China, 2016), and chairing WPSA’s Nominations Advisory Committee (NAC).

Paul Hocking

United Kingdom

Dr. Paul Hocking joined the Poultry Research Centre (PRC) in Edinburgh in 1983 after working in the cattle breeding industry and short periods of teaching and research in both England and Canada. The PRC subsequently became the Roslin Institute and part of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh in 2008 when he was appointed Reader.

Dr. Hocking has conducted wide-ranging research in poultry science and has published over 185 refereed papers, 280 abstracts and conference papers, including 92 invited contributions, 9 book chapters, and edited 2 books. He has been an expert witness for the UK Government, the Farm Animal Welfare Council, and a member of 3 EFSA Working Groups. His research has had three main themes: the productivity and welfare of breeding birds, the development and implementation of DNA markers for breed improvement and the identification of trait genes, and the investigation of specific production problems in poultry. He has also contributed to research on the structure of the eye and the importance of vision in birds, and was a member of the team that identified the cell-autonomous (genetic) basis of sex determination in birds (Nature 464: 237-242).

Dr. Hocking was secretary/assistant treasurer of the WPSA-UK branch from 1996-2000, treasurer/assistant secretary 2000-2002, and president from 2002-2006. He was elected as a Vice President of the European Federation of WPSA branches (2006-2010) and has been on the WPSA International Speakers Bureau since its inception. He has been the UK representative of Working Group 3 for many years and organized the 7th European Genetics Symposium in 2009, chairman and WPSA representative on the Robert Fraser Gordon Trust, and was a section editor of British Poultry Science, member of the board, and company director before becoming joint chief editor in 2010. He was on the panel of referees for Poultry Science from 2008-2013 and is a member of the editorial board of Domestic Animal Endocrinology. Dr. Hocking presented the Gordon Memorial Lecture in 2013 on “Unexpected consequences of selection in broilers and turkeys: problems and solutions” (British Poultry Science 55: 1-12).

Dr. Hocking has supervised or co-supervised 11 PhD students (and collaborated with colleagues at other universities on a further 3 PhD projects), 7 MSc students, and a number of undergraduate projects. He has served as PhD examiner both locally and internationally and has taught animal breeding undergraduate courses and postgraduate seminars on poultry breeding and genetics.