During the week 23th to 27th April, another HIPRA UNIVERSITY session, focusing on poultry and specifically on theoretical and practical aspects of avian coccidiosis, pneumovirus and Gumboro, was held at HIPRA headquarters in Amer (Girona, Spain).

The courses brought together leading professionals specialising in poultry production who came from several countries: Italy, Germany, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Spain, Peru, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala and The Dominican Republic.

The course on coccidiosis was given by Marc Pagès, Manager R&D Biologicals for Coccidiosis at HIPRA, and Martina Dardi, HIPRA’s Corporate Brand Manager for Coccidiosis.

Regarding the course on Pneumovirs and Gumboro, this was given by HIPRA’S Corporate Product Manager for Pneumovirus, Javier S. Corella and HIPRA’S Corporate Product Manager for Gumboro, Dario Zammerini, with the collaboration of Mar Biarnés, Technical Director of CESAC (Reference Laboratory for Poultry Diseases in Spain) and Laura Valls, Hipra Diagnos Coordinator.

This was the first time that HIPRA was able to gather together more than 40 professionals from 13 different countries around the world for a whole week for these 3 specific courses on the main diseases in poultry.

In the case of Coccidiosis, both sessions included practical aspects of the disease such as identifying lesions produced by different Eimeria species, their location in the digestive tract and the extent of injury caused.

The courses were completed with practical examples and auditing of the application of the live attenuated coccidiosis “coarse spray” vaccines and a demonstration of HIPRA's SMART VACCINATION service.

This innovative concept is composed by Hipraspray® (a specific device for the administration of EVALON® and HIPRACOX® vaccines against coccidiosis in Poultry) and the HIPRALINK® vaccination management tool. It all provides traceability services and allows flawless documentation of the vaccination process in the hatchery, ensuring that field technicians receive real-time information about the vaccination process.

As regards Avian Pneumovirus and Gumboro Disease, both courses started with general presentations about the pathogenesis, epidemiology, diagnosis and vaccination strategies, followed by theoretical and practical sessions on necropsy, in order to have a precise idea of the tissues affected by these diseases and how to take samples in order to obtain a clear differential diagnosis.

Sampling is a key point for a proper diagnosis of both diseases. The part of the session that was most appreciated, which was presented by our technical staff, involved field cases that participants had to solve on the basis of the interpretation of lab results.

Thanks to our database generated in our diagnostic center (Hipra Diagnos), we were able to provide cases from the field, the diagnostic technique used and how to solve them. The field cases practice really helped participants to: design new vaccination programmes, build monitoring strategies, and to understand and interpret ELISA and PCR results, in order to benefit from the investment in lab analysis.

The course is certified by the CPD Certification Service (an independent certifying body) and is part of the HIPRA UNIVERSITY continuing education programme, which offers tailor-made solutions to veterinarians on training subjects.

With these training activities, the opening of EimeriaPrevention.com, a new Blog totally focused on coccidiosis in Poultry, and the HIPRA website update which includes new technical information on Avian Pneumovirus and the Gumboro Disease product range, HIPRA strengthens its commitment to Prevention in Poultry Health.