Poultry Science Association

Education is one of the founding pillars of the World's Poultry Science Association (WPSA). The Association regards most of its activities as contributing to education. The Journal, now in its 62nd volume, presents review articles on a diverse array of subjects concerned with poultry science. In addition, the Journal contains details of upcoming educational courses at a variety of institutions around the globe.World Congresses, Regional Conferences, Symposia and Workshops provide educational opportunities at a variety of academic levels. WPSA provides scholarship opportunities for young scientists to attend these events and also contributes to faculty support through its Speakers' Bureau Programme.The Association also cooperates with the Dutch organization, Agromisa. Together they are producing poultry management manuals for use in developing countries.The International Network for Family Poultry Development operates in developing countries to improve poultry management at the village level, thereby raising the nutritional status, as well as economic activity, among some of the world's most vulnerable and poor people.From this, it can be seen that the WPSA operates at every level of poultry keeping, to improve the competence of those involved. These activities are supported by both the world and branch organizations.

1. The concentrations of growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), reverse-triiodothyronine (rT3), triglycerides (Tri), free fatty acids (FFA) and glucose (Glu) were determined at 2, 4 and 6 weeks of age in blood plasma of male and female chickens of broiler lines selected for body weight (GL) or food conversion (FC). 2. Plasma concentrations measured in the same animal over a 24 h or a 2 week interval were not significantly correlated with each other. For different traits measured in the same plasma sample only the correlation between T4 and rT3 differed significantly from zero. 3. All traits were dependent on age. Line and sex effects were significant (P less than 0.05) for GH, T4, Tri, FFA and Glu. Additionally, line significantly influenced the plasma T3/T4 ratio and sex influenced plasma rT3. Interactions between line, sex and/or age were seldom significant. 4. Within line and sex, GH (at 6 weeks of age) and T3 (at 4 weeks of age) were negatively, and IGF-I and Tri (both at 6 weeks of age) positively correlated with the amount of abdominal fat at 6 weeks of age. No significant correlation between body weight at 2, 4 or 6 weeks of age and any of the plasma traits was found.