The University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore organised a stakeholders' meeting on "Academia-Industry Research Drive for Poultry Sector" at City Campus on Wednesday.
Vice-Chancellor Meritorious Professor Dr Talat Naseer Pasha presided over the meeting and sought suggestions and technical input from stakeholders for development of poultry sector. Representatives of poultry industry, Pakistan Poultry Association, stakeholders from public and private organizations including Khalil Sattar, Dr Abdul Kareem Bhatti, Ch Muhammad Furgham, Ch Muhammad Nusrat Tahir and a number of academicians, researchers and professionals were attended.
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Dr Talat Naseer Pasha said that the meeting was aimed to provide a platform to all the stakeholders to discuss important issues, major constraints and challenges facing poultry sector and to boost academia-industry partnership. He said that UVAS was focusing on problem-solving research, rural entrepreneurship and food safety.
Professor Pasha also gave a detailed presentation on the contribution of UVAS in poultry sector. He spoke about the poultry meat consumption, leading exporters of halal food, waste management, use of poultry farm litter, breeding and genetics, UVAS collaboration with national and international organizations. He also spoke about UVAS future plan on consumer awareness, disease control, market interventions, poultry processing and value edition, halal certification for export and improvement in rural poultry.
The Vice-Chancellor said that 1,520 research papers on poultry have been published by UVAS researchers since 2013 while UVAS Central Laboratory Complex was providing disease diagnostics, food, feed and adulteration analysis facilities. He said that UVAS is always ready to support poultry professionals and industrialists in uplift of poultry sector.
Dr Paul D Ebner, a professor of animal sciences from Purdue University, spoke about development and commercialization of antibiotic alternatives for poultry production in Pakistan.
An open discussion was held where all participants put forward various suggestions for development of poultry sector. They emphasized on starting a campaign through social and electronic media for consumer education, removing any ambiguity/concern about the use of steroids, hormones and antibiotics in poultry and its feed. They said that joint efforts are needed by academia and industry for development of poultry industry.
They suggested that it is direly needed to establish a committee for conducting market-based research, collecting data regarding per capita income and saving, demand and behaviour of consumer, marketing forecast and financial analysis. The participants said that serious working is required to solve disease and production issues for the profitability of poor farming community.
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