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10Petersime has officially inaugurated its brand new Customer Centre as well as its extended and modernized production facilities. During the inauguration ceremony, conducted by Mr Michel De Clercq (left), the ribbon was cut by Mr Peter Frank, CEO of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Group (TBG) (centre) and by Mr Henk Heyerick, Mayor of Zulte (right). More >

Dear Partner, After two years’ worth of planning and construc- tion works, we are proud to announce that the factory expansion at our headquarters is now completely finished. On September 30th, we put the icing on the cake by officially opening our brand new Customer Centre in the presence of the Mayor of the local commune, the upper management of our shareholders and our major Belgian customers, suppliers, and scientific partners. The Customer Centre features state-of-the-art customer training and meeting facilities as well as a showroom displaying our core products in a hatchery-like set-up. With the site expansion, we have literally built on our strategy to supply the global hatchery market from our headquarters and factory in Zulte, Belgium. By doubling our supply capacity, we are now capable of meeting the growing demand for our products from one location, where over 270 people in different departments and disciplines are committed 24/7 to serving and servicing our customers to the expected standards. Petersime has been active for a very long time in North Africa. Our market leadership has been established by distributor Société Cidape, a company that is highly experienced in this region. In this issue of Petersime News, we high-light poultry production in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Meanwhile, Petersime’s incubationists have compared post-hatch performance and uni-formity of chicks incubated with BioStreamer™ incubators to those hatched in other incubators, keeping into account other influencing factors. The results are presented in this newsletter. Do enjoy reading this issue of Petersime News! Paul Degraeve Managing Director

New Petersime Customer Centre officially inaugurated

New Petersime Customer Centre officially inaugurated / 1Focus on North Africa / 4

Assessing chick uniformity / 6Newcomers / 8

The showroom in the Customer Centre, displaying BioStreamer™ setters (left) and hatchers (right)

The new Customer Centre holds excellent training and meeting facilities.

From the raised coffee room, adjacent to the showroom, visitors get a nice view of the complete setup, including a demo model of a HVAC unit and the top of the incubators.

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The inauguration event was attended by representatives of the government of Zulte, the upper management of our shareholders (FPS and TBG), and Petersime’s major Belgian customers, suppliers, and scientific partners. After the official cutting of the ribbon, the guests enjoyed a guided tour through the Customer Centre and theproduction facilities and a reception.

Petersime’s expansion project, aimed to double the production capacity, was launched in 2009. The new production and logistical facilities entered into service in May 2010.

Construction of the new Customer Centre started shortly after that. The state-of-the-art 840 m² two-storey building features a splendid show-room, a training centre, a meeting room, and a coffee room. On the first floor, the offices of the Service, Quotations and Project departments are located.

During his speech, Mr Michel De Clercq, Managing Director of Petersime nv, thanked all employees, suppliers and stakeholders for their commitment.

By investing in our production facilities, we can guarantee Petersime’s continuous growth and market leadership. Moreover, with the Customer Centre, we have everything we need to train our existing customers and to inform potential customers of our products and services in the best possible way,

“

”says Michel De Clercq, Managing Director

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The official inauguration event was followed by an

open house day, during which employees had the

opportunity to show the company to friends and

family while enjoying drinks and music.

10Petersime NEWS

says Michel De Clercq, Managing Director

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Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia are key countries for the hatchery market. Population and meat consumption in these countries are on the rise. Moreover, poultry meat enjoys a privileged position, since pork meat is absent, cattle are hard to breed, and mutton is far more expensive than poultry meat or eggs. These countries have a strong turkey industry as well, with consumption increasing significantly during Ramadan.

Algeria Nearly every Algerian industrial hatchery, private or public, runs on Petersime equipment. Examples are Seravic, Messani, Avibel, and Zizi. The two major Algerian broiler producers, Hubbard and Arbor Acres, have built grandparent breeding centres. Hubbard’s 2,000 m² hatchery is equipped with Petersime incuba-tors and produces about 1.5 million breeders a year.

Algeria’s turkey market is estimated at 10 million poults a year, with the share of importations on the decrease. Petersime has equipped three major Algerian turkey hatcheries: Grands Couvoirs de Tizi Ouzou, Coq Hodhna and A.V. Khider.

In addition, there is an increasing demand for dedicated HVAC equip-ment. Petersime, with its extensive expertise in this field, is ready to respond to this trend. The first Peter-sime turnkey hatchery project was ordered by the Marhaz hatchery.

North Africa represents an important market for Petersime. We have been able to become the market leader in the French speaking part of this sales area thanks to our distributor Société Cidape.

Focus on North Africa

Morocco

Algeria

Tunisia

5 10Petersime NEWS

Morocco Morocco’s poultry industry is more concentrated: there are fewer com- panies but they are more integrated. A strict hygiene charter has been implemented.

The country’s major poultry groups own hatcheries as well as large feed producing factories. The fam-ily-run company Mohemmane, for instance, owns two feed producing factories that produce 1.2 million tonnes yearly, and two hatcheries. These are equipped with Petersime Conventional 576 incubators with Vision controllers and produce 1.5 million day-old chicks a week.

Likewise, the Ouakkaha group pro-duces about 1 million day-old

chicks a week, and exports eggs and chicks to sub-saharan Africa.

Finally, Moroccan turkey produc-tion has increased dramatically. Agroatlas, Couvdinde, and Maroc Dinde, Morocco’s specialised turkey hatcheries, are all equipped with Petersime Conventional 384 incu-bators with Vision controllers.

Tunisia A major Tunisian poultry player is the Poulina Group, founded by Mr and Mrs Ben Ayed in 1966. The group owns hatcheries, equipped with Petersime incubators, as well as feed producing factories, slaugh-terhouses and poultry equipment production units.

Poulina also started the country’s turkey production. Since 2008, Tunisia is self-sufficient in the pro-duction of poults.

Until recently, Tunisia had a quota system, which has been abandon-ed after the fall of the old regime. This allows for the poultry industry to further develop.

At the moment, Petersime is sup-plying Petersime Conventional 576 incubators with Vision controllers to the public company Sotavi. Furthermore, sales agreements have been reached with private companies such as Chahia, Taissir, and Sopa.

Employee at Ouakkaha hatchery, proudly presenting some top-quality day-old chicks (Photograph: G. Le Boucher)

Setter room of the Ouakkaha hatchery, producing 1 million day-old chicks a week(Photograph: G. Le Boucher)

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Société Cidape SA Petersime has been active for many decades in the French speaking North African countries via its French distributor Société Cidape, owned by Mr Christophe Vinchon.

Cidape benefits from its thorough knowledge of the local markets and the expertise of its technicians. Moreover, Cidape owns an extended warehouse, thereby ensuring swift response to customer service re-quests.

Cidape started in Algeria in 1966. Recently Mr Christophe Boucault, who has lived in Algeria for sev-eral years, joined the company. In Morocco, Petersime has been represented by Cidape’s agent, Mr Jean Marino, for over 30 years. Mr Marino has his own spare parts warehouse. His technician, Mr. Mourir Souita, is also actively involved with Petersime installa-tions in Tunisia.

Mr Christophe Vinchon, owner of Société Cidape

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Assessing chick uniformity by Roger Banwell, Senior Incubationist

1 Critical factors prior to incubation

Development of the avian embryo begins immediately after fertilization in the infundibulum and oviduct and subsequently in the shell gland, where the egg white, membranes, and shell are deposited over 24-26 hours.

There is considerable variability in em-bryonic development at oviposition (egg laying) due to the genetic strain, the age of the hen, and the position of an egg in the sequence. Even the body temperature of the hen (40 – 41.5 °C) may affect the speed of early embryonic development.

When it comes to assessing the uni-formity of embryonic development and growth achieved in your incuba-tors, critical factors such as farm egg collection times and transportation conditions all play a role.

During storage, cell death occurs. The total number of living cells (60,000 to 80,000) is reduced, and sometimes even halved. In such extreme cases, a partial degree of development can continue at so-called sub-threshold temperatures. Both the egg storage conditions and the uniformity of these conditions have a significant effect.

Embryonic development and growth in the incubator depend primarily on energy transfer in the form of heat. The rate of heat transfer is governed by am-bient conditions (air temperature and humidity) along with air movement. In a large-scale commercial incubator, air movement plays a significant role as the large egg mass/air space ratio dictates the need for the surrounding air to be agitated in order to create relatively uni-form conditions throughout the entire egg mass.

Because of these variables, along with the tremendous range in egg sizes and

weights produced from the same flock sources, simply measuring air tempera-ture or average chick weights cannot be considered a reliable indicator of uniformity generated throughout the incubation equipment.

2 Set-up of the study

In the following study, the eggs were preselected and the rate of embryonic development and growth was used as an accurate indicator of incubator uniformity.

In order to negate the effect of the “critical factors prior to incubation” as much as possible, eggs were taken from the same flock type, age and farm. They were all stored no longer than three days. The average egg weight was recorded and only eggs within ±1.5% of the average were selected for the test. A sample size of 1,125 eggs per compara-tive incubator (2 x 1,125 = 2,250 in total) were evenly distributed with reference to air distribution source in both the horizontal (front, middle and rear) and vertical (upper, middle and lower) posi-tions. This creates a three-dimensional im-age of the final chick/egg weight ratio generated throughout the incubation equipment.

3 Study findings

Two different incubators were used with alternative airflow mixing systems: a Petersime BioStreamer™ and another incubator. The final data were analysed and presented in a format that shows the percentage of chicks within a devia-tion of 3%, 5%, 7%, 10% or over 10% of the average chick/egg weight ratio.

Chick uniformity is the most important criterion for pre - dicting post-hatch performance. It is defined by many factors related to genetics, environment, handling procedures and, last but not least, the incubation equipment. This article presents the results of a study on the influence of incubators on chick uniformity.

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Trial 1

The first trial was conducted with a young (32 week+) flock strain. The BioStreamer™ achieved 85.84% of the day-old chicks within 5% of the average chick/egg weight ratio, whereas the comparison incubator achieved 74.00%: an improve-ment of 11.84%.

Trial 2

The second trial was conducted with a different flock strain at a higher age (44 week+). This trial recorded the Bio-Streamer™ achieving 91.00% within 5% of the average chick/egg weight ratio, with the comparison incubator achieving 86.00%: an improvement of 5%.

Post-hatch performance

The table below shows an overall and consistent benefit in uniformity in terms of increased bird weight and reduced mortality and feed conversion ratios (FCR’s).

The gains achieved concern the entire batch, including the chicks that deviated more than 5% from the average chick/egg weight ratio.

Post-hatch data: summary

Trial series Final bird weight Mortality FCR

Trial 1 +7 g -0.70% -0.02

Trial 2 +29 g -1.40% -0.03

Benefits through improved uniformity

It is difficult to assess the potential for greater gains through increased numbers of grade A birds and subse-quent increased numbers of premium priced birds, as this depends entirely on the specific business models of the individual hatcheries.

The degree of gain achieved through improved uniformity is difficult to put in absolute currency value. However, it is clear that the question is not “is there added value” but rather “how much” .

10Petersime NEWS

Deviation from average chick weight (%)

Comparison incubator BioStreamerTM

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%3% 5% 7% 10% >10%

48,0

0%

58,6

7%

26,0

0%

27,1

7%

13,0

0%

11,1

7%

9,33

%

2,33

%

3,67

%

0,67

%

Deviation from average chick weight (%)

Comparison incubator BioStreamerTM

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%3% 5% 7% 10% >10%

64,5

% 70,7

%

21,5

%

20,3

%

8,5%

7,0%

4,0%

1,7%

1,5%

0,3%

Newcomers

Lindsy ClaeysSupport Shipping and Prevention

Hugo De RuyckSales and Marketing Manager

Tania Van CaneghemCustomer Service

Jo CinjaereMaintenance, Process and Manufacturing Engineer

Petersime’s team is constantly growing. In the past few months, we have had the pleasure of welcoming a number of new team members. Here’s a brief presentation of our new faces.

This newsletter is published as a service to our customers and associates in the hatchery industry. Readers are advised to seek independent expert advice and confirmation of any opinion/suggestion they wish to apply to their own particular situations. Petersime takes no responsi bility for the consequences of

any advice given herein. Reader inquiries with regard to the content of this newsletter are welcome and may be sent to Petersime, Zulte (Belgium).

Petersime nv - Centrumstraat 125 - 9870 Zulte (Olsene) - BelgiumT +32 (0)9 388 96 11 - F +32 (0)9 388 84 58 - info@petersime.com - www.petersime.com

Marc LangoucheCustomer Service

Francis De BruyneSales Planner / Business Forecaster

Tiago HenriquesCAD Drawer

Filip De SmetArea Sales Manager

Pieter DumoulinProduction Manager