Well another new year and the journal is already completed for the March issue, and the June issue is almost filled as well. We often get asked by authors why we cannot publish papers straight away – which we can do to an extent, but only online in advance of the print issue, which still goes out in a quarterly fashion, and so we have to assign the papers according to the next issue available. This is something which will be discussed at our next board meeting as we strive to implement new ways to improve the publishing process for authors and maximise exposure for our sponsors. The year 2017 sees various important meetings for poultry scientists, including the 21st European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition – held at the start of May near Barcelona in Spain which is where the next board meeting will also take place. Just beforehand is the UK Spring Meeting in Chester in the UK, which is attended by scientists from various countries and is a useful place to catch up with well-known scientists as well as people in the commercial sphere. In June, France hosts the 10th European Symposium on Poultry Welfare, as well as the 10th European Symposium on Poultry Genetics. So all in all, a busy first half of the year, especially considering the numerous VIV and other commercial poultry events going on in between. Myself and the Board members try our best to get to most of these events and identify papers that we can invite from the various programs, however it is difficult to cover everything – so if any readers do see something new and exciting that is being presented that could form an innovative review paper, please do let me know.

If you are organising a WPSA related event and have suitable review papers or presenters who are covering a novel topic, please let me know. One of the main topics of discussion currently is the removal of antibiotic growth promoters in certain parts of the world (notable the USA and Australasia), following on from the stance taken in the late 1990’s in Europe. As such we have had a plethora of reviews on this topic in the last couple of months – so many that we have had to ask authors to focus specifically on one chosen area in depth as there is a huge body of work already available in this scientific field. So apologies if your paper has been returned to you with this request – it is something we have to keep a close eye on to maintain diversity and quality of the research knowledge from papers published in WPSJ.

The current issue covers various topics from alternative feed materials, welfare, disease, immunity and mineral nutrition. We are always happy to consider papers from students and on new topics, and please email me if you have a query regarding paper acceptance. I do try to catch up with various members at the events in 2017 – but until then, enjoy the latest issue of the WPSJ.

Dr Lucy Waldron

Editor