Two new technical experts, Jessica Reple and Dr. James Bishop, have joined the UK and Ireland Elanco poultry team, with a vision of promoting the importance of gut health to producers, vets and nutritionists.
Jessica Reple has been at Elanco for 8 years and is the monogastric technical manager in Brazil. She joins the UK team on a secondment with the aim of sharing extensive experience of broiler production in Brazil, the main exporter and third largest producer of chicken meat in the world.
“In my new role, I’m looking forward to providing useful insight and advice to promote a better understanding of gut health and how that translates to improved bird performance. The gut is the main organ of the immune system and is connected to all other bird systems. In addition to performance, promoting intestinal health is critical to ensuring animal welfare, sustainability and human health.
“Containing an extensive database, Elanco’s HTSi tool has the capability to radically advance broiler health and efficiency through benchmarking across the regions, prediction based on historical data and statistical analysis. It’s great to see producers seeing the benefits of this on farm. HTSi is an additional resource that helps producers make the most profitable decision for their own business,” she adds.
Dr. James Bishop, veterinary technical consultant at Elanco, says that he is really pleased to be returning to his agricultural roots, having spent his career so far in the veterinary industry.
“I find the poultry sector particularly interesting, as it’s such an entrepreneurial sector which is always looking for ways to progress and improve.”
Health and welfare are key drivers for successful broiler production, and he hopes to use his experience to build stronger relationships with vets to promote the importance of gut health and provide advice which can be transfer through to farm level.
“I’m a strong believer that improving gut health on the ground will help to improve farm performance and profitability. HTSi is a valuable resource that we can use out on farm to help achieve this, giving vets, nutritionists and producers a live snapshot of what’s happening on their farm and how it can be improved,” explains Dr. Bishop.
He adds that producers that have used this insight to make changes are seeing improvements in ADG, FCR and EPEF, all of which can help improve efficiency and ultimately the bottom line.
The Elanco Poultry team are on hand to help producers maximize bird health and welfare. For more information contact the team at [email protected].
