Broiler health, egg marketing examined at VIV MEA

Disease challenges and flock health along with making the most of social media for marketing eggs examined at WATT Global Media Middle East seminar.

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Dirgam Al Roussan, poultry technology application lead at Cargill Animal Nutrition Middle East and Africa, speaks at VIV MEA 2018. | Mark Clements
Dirgam Al Roussan, poultry technology application lead at Cargill Animal Nutrition Middle East and Africa, speaks at VIV MEA 2018. | Mark Clements

The cost of infections in broiler flocks and how to market eggs to the next generation were examined as part of WATT Global Media Poultry Trends MEA 2018, held in conjunction with VIV MEA.

Looking at disease issues in the Middle East, Dirgam Al Roussan, poultry technology application lead at Cargill Animal Nutrition Middle East and Africa, notes the issue of multiple infections in birds.

In one study alone, 2,724 samples taken from broiler flocks revealed that all were suffering from respiratory disease and that 40 percent were suffering from low pathogenic influenza along with an additional infection.

Flock mortality levels in the region are also an issue. While current mortality levels maybe off their five-year high of 14.3 percent in 2012, 2017 saw the level of mortality in the region’s flocks stand at 7.2 percent, up from the five year low of 5.8 percent.

Al Roussan also noted that where vaccination against Newcastle disease is concerned, response is not as good as it should be, and this poor response has been attributed to vaccines being manufactured using a genotype that is not circulating in the region.

Generation Z

Marketing eggs to the next generation was examined by Hamed Masoumi, vice president of business development at Iran’s Telavang Group.

He noted that while millennials have been the big news in marketing over the last five years, it was time to look at Generation Z - teens and young adults between the ages of 12 and 21. Eighty percent of Generation Z use social media on a daily basis and 25 percent post original video content, he said.

To capture this demographic, marketers need to tell a story to inspire change, utilize all social media and combine tangible experience with advertising. Facebook may dominate social media, but it is currently Instagram that is the hottest social medium, and marketers must go not only to established channels, but also to those that are growing.

He also noted that in the the United States, 92 percent of children already have a digital footprint.

Social media is “an opportunity to pay into the bank of goodwill – think of it as reputation advancement,” he said.

VIV MEA shows growth

VIV Middle East and Africa, running February 5-7, attracted over 2,600 visitors on its opening day. Now in its second year, the event saw and almost 50 percent increase in floor space compared to the last edition and exhibitor numbers increase by a third to stand at 368.

 

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