Turkish Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Mr. Mehdi Eker, was in attendance at the new hatchery’s inauguration ceremony, where he was joined by Sake Yalcin and Garo Yalcin, Chairman and Member of the Board respectively of Refarm, Pas Reform’s Turkish distributor. Also attending were Prof. Dr. Rüveyde Akbay, President of the World’s Poultry Science Association (WPSA) Turkish Branch and Poultry Research Institute Manager, Cengizhan Mızrak, who together with Minister Eker, applauded the coming of age of pure-line breeding in Turkey.
Construction began on the new hatchery and pure-line back up unit in April last year. Built on an 11,000 sq.m. greenfield site, the new complex incorporates 2,400 sq.m. of closed area with 8,600 sq.m. in the open. The hatchery building houses a 300,000 capacity egg store, egg handling room, 480,000 egg capacity setter room equipped with Pas Reform’s SmartSet™ Setters, a 230,000 chick capacity hatcher room fitted with SmartHatch™ hatchers and a chick handling area. In total, the new facility can produce 80,000 day old layer chicks per week.
Established in 1930, Ankara Poultry Research Institute provides a variety of services, including the supply of Grand Parent stock, for both private sector and government facilities, in support of growth in Turkey’s poultry sector.
As a result of its breeding studies programme, The Institute developed three new layer lines, the ATABEY (white), ATAK (brown) and ATAK-s (brown) in 2004, since when Ankara has become a supplier of stock eggs and chicks for Turkey, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The pure lines developed by the Institute are also used in 65 per cent of organic egg production, because of their high vitality yields.
According to the Poultry Research Institute, the new hatchery now has the capacity to meet domestic demand for 500,000 layer parent stock per annum.