World’s Poultry Science Association

The World’s Poultry Science Association is a long established and unique organization that strives to advance knowledge and understanding of all aspects of poultry science and the poultry industry. Its major role is to encourage, and help facilitate, liaison among research scientists and educators, and between those in research and education and those working in the many diverse sectors of the industry.

The origin of the World’s Poultry Science Association goes back to the early years of the 20th century with the foundation of the International Association of Poultry Instructors on July 18, 1912. Although the main impetus for the establishment of such an organization came from the UK and the USA, the 19 participants attending this first meeting represented 14 nations – Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark,France, Germany, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, the UK and the USA. At thismeeting Edward Brown (UK) was named President and Raymond Pearl (USA) the Secretary. Part of the text of the Presidential inaugural speech was reproduced in 1945 (World’s Poultry Science Journal 1: 6-8).Among the subsequent landmarks in its history, the following summary illustrates some of the ways in which the Association has responded to the many changes in poultry production, poultry education and poultry science that have taken place throughout the twentieth century. Much of the information comes from a detailed account by Dr A.W.Jasper (Association President 1974 – 78) in a paper published in 1978 (World’s Poultry Science Journal34: 9-21).

Due to the hostilities of the First World War, plans for an international gathering of poultrymen in 1916 were abandoned. Thus it was not until the First World’s Poultry Congress held in the Hague, the Netherlands in 1921, that the organization started to become really active. The delegate list for this event shows 384 names representing 23 countries. The spirit of international….