Cuba Program

AGRARIAN UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA (UNAH)

University President: Adianez Taboada – taboada@unah.edu.cu

University Vice President: Antihus Hernández Gómez – antihus@unah.edu.cu

University Vice President: Agropecuary – Pedro Pablo del Pozo – delpozo@unah.edu.cu

Office of International Relations

• Mabelin Armenteros Amaya (rel_int@unah.edu.cu) Institutional Contact*
• C. Pedro Pablo del Pozo Rodríguez (delpozo@unah.edu.cu) – Vice Rector
• Rosalía Gil (rosaliagil@unah.edu.cu) – Assistant
• Neyda García (neyda@unah.edu.cu) – Assistant

Agronomy – Vegetable Production & Protection

Nilda Perez Consuegra (gisela.barro@infomed.sld.cu)
Orestes Cruz (orestes@unah.edu.cu)
Carlos Gonzales (carlos@unah.edu.cu)
Ivan Castro Lizaso (ivanc@uhan.edu.cu)
Tania Perez (tania@unah.edu.cu)
Marlen Robaina (robaina@unah.edu.cu)
Heriberto Vargas (vargas@unah.edu.cu)

Animal Science

C. Pedro Pablo del Pozo Rodríguez, Vice Rector (delpozo@unah.edu.cu)
Pavel Herrera (pavel_herrera@unah.edu.cu)
Miguel Pérez

Turf grass Management

Arturo Martinez
Animal Science
Pavel Herrera (pavel_herrera@unah.edu.cu)
Miguel Pérez

Land Use/Modeling

Gustavo Alonso (gustavo@unah.edu.cu)
Orestes Cruz (orestes@unah.edu.cu)
Yanara Rodríguez López (yanita@unah.edu.cu)
Annia Garcia Pereira (annia@unah.edu.cu) – Dean of Technical Sciences
Tania Perez (tania@unah.edu.cu)
Ernesto Ramos (carbajales@unah.edu.cu)
Marlen Robaina (robaina@unah.edu.cu)
Heriberto Vargas (vargas@unah.edu.cu)

Veterinary

Dean of the College of Veterinary: Miguel Pérez Ruano – migperez@unah.edu.cu

CENSA

Director: Ondina Leon ondina@censa.edu.cu

Office of International Relations

Institutional Contacts*
Leopoldo Hidalgo Diaz (lhidalgo@censa.edu.cu)
Tania Rivas (tania@censa.edu.cu)

Vegetable Production & Protection
Maria de los Angeles Martines (maria@censa.edu.cu)
Benedicto Martinez (bmcoca@censa.edu.cu)
Yamila Martinez (yamila@censa.edu.cu)
Ileana Miranda (ileanam@censa.edu.cu)
Oriela Pino Perez (oriela@censa.edu.cu)
Belkis Peteira (bpeteira@censa.edu.cu)
Madelaine Quiñonez (mqperez@censa.edu.cu)
Mayra Rodriguez (mrguez@censa.edu.cu)
Moraima Suris (msuris@censa.edu.cu)

Turf grass Management
Leopolgo Hidalgo Diaz (lhidalgo@censa.edu.cu)
Madelaine Quiñonez (madeqp@censa.edu.cu)
Mayra G. Rodriguez (mrguez@censa.edu.cu)

Urban Pest Management
Oriela Pino Perez (oriela@censa.edu.cu)
Mayra G. Rodriguez (mrguez@censa.edu.cu)

Animal Science
Pastor Alonso (alfonso@censa.edu.cu)

Land Use/Modeling
Ileana Miranda (ileanam@censa.edu.cu)

CENSA

Cuba’s Experimental Ag Research Station Indio Hatuey

Director: Giraldo Jesús Martín Martín (giraldo@ihatuey.cu)

Institutional Contact*
Luis Hernandez (luis@ihatuey.cu)

Turf grass Management
Luis Hernandez (luis@ihatuey.cu)

Land Use/Modeling
Maybe Campo 

Institutional Contact*
Luis Gómez Jorrín, Director (director@isuelos.co.cu)

Director: Marlene Veitia (mveitia@inisav.cu)

Institutional Contacts*
Evangelina Roa Benítez – International Relations Office eroa@inisav.cu

Nematology
Emilio Fernández (efernandez@inisav.cu)

* Contact for more information about institution and to identify researchers in specific fields

CAPACITY BUILDING TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE POULTRY INDUSTRY IN CUBA

1. Name for organizations: 

Department of Poultry Science Department (PSD) 

National Poultry Technology Center (NPTC) 

Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849-5416 

2. Principle Investigators: 

Drs. Wilmer Pacheco and Joseph J. Giambrone are members of the PSD and James Donald is a member of the NPTC. Dr. Pacheco is an expert on feed ingredients, milling and other aspects of nutrition. Dr. Giambrone is an expert on Poultry Health and Management. Jim Donald is an engineer and an expert on poultry housing and ventilation. 

Co-principal Investigators from Cuban Institutes: Ing. Jesus Aguilar, Instiuto de Investigaciones Avicolas. 6402 Mousoleo el Cacahual y Gral. Maceo, Santiago de Las Vegas, La Habana, Cuba. 

3. Start and Approved Extension Dates of Project: 

5/1/2018, 06/31/2019 

4. Description of activities carried out so far: 

Drs. Giambrone, Pacheco, and Jim Donald were to attend a 1-day Cuban Agricultural fare to obtain first-hand knowledge of the state of Agriculture in Cuba in May. However, due to problems in obtaining Academic VISAs we were unable to attend. 

The second part of the project, which was completed on January 22 of 2019 was a two-day training seminar and workshop on egg layer nutrition, feed processing, ingredient testing, and detection, prevention, and control of economically important infectious diseases, and design and management of poultry housing and ventilation systems for maximum production and energy conservation. The agenda, photos of Host institution personal and attendees, parts of the seminar and workshop, and certificates, are attached. 

The workshop was conducted in a large Compound (Rancho Boyeros) designed for 

Agricultural fares and scientific meetings about a 30 minute drive from Havana. The compound was completely enclosed with a wall and gated entrance for security purposes. The compound included a number of various sized offices and meeting rooms, kitchens, dining areas, and sleeping quarters for attendees. This was important, because there were approximately 100 attendees from areas throughout the entire country, who would not have the funds to attend a 2-day meeting in Havana. There were also holding and showing facilities for livestock and other agricultural plant products and a rodeo style facility with a large capacity for seating. 

The seminar was followed by a half-day meeting on Saturday, January 26 with the main employees of the Instiuto de Investigaciones Avicolas in an office in the same compound. During this final meeting, we discussed the success of the meetings and they related areas of future needs of the industry and future collaboration to expedite achieving of their goals. At that time they conveyed to us the current state of poultry production in Cuba and increase in efficiency, egg quality, and egg production that they are anticipating with our help over the upcoming years. This group is the main research institute for poultry research in Cuba. It consists of Nutritionists, Geneticists, Veterinarians, Physiologist, Engineers, and Management experts. I have scanned their business card to Richard Fritz prior to the meeting in 2018.The research group has their own research farm, which is about 45 minute drive from Havana and they are situated close to CENSA, and regularly interact with them. Both are government agencies and do the bulk of the research on commercial poultry production in Cuba. In the past serval years Dr. Pastor Alfonso, who is my longtime colleague of mine at CENSA brought us to the Institute on several occasions for meetings with the Institute. Dr. Pastor is the leading researcher on Poultry Diseases within Cuba. He attended my presentations on Friday morning and helped with the translation and answer sessions, which were all in Spanish. 

Wilmer and I visited the Institute twice in past visits to Cuba for half-day meetings to discuss the major challenges facing the industry and how our cooperation could increase the efficiency of their country’s egg production. Their group recommended and planned this 2-data seminar. They chose the time, place, agenda, and did all the coordination at the Rancho Boyeros Agricultural fare facility. I complemented them on all aspects of this thorough and professionally carried out seminar. Anabel Cruz Alfonso their meeting coordinator and Dr. Pacheco along with the Invicta Travel agency where able to make things occur albeit it was a long 6 month process. Invicta arranged for our VISAs, hotel accommodations, and a single taxi driver during office hours for our 4 day visit in Cuba. 

We received our Academic VISAs in December of 2018, but decided to apply for 6 month extension and have the meeting during the end of January of this year. We arrived in our Hotel in Havana on Wednesday afternoon of January 23. Around 7 PM we, were picked up and taken to the place of the workshop and had a welcome reception with the members of the Institute and a few Government employees. Richard Fritz gave us the contact information for these additional employees and Anabel invited them to the seminar. This function took place in a meeting room in the Rancho Boyeros. 

All attendees were enthusiastic about the seminar and cooperation with the Institute for the benefit of their egg industry. During the reception, we discussed the activities that were planned over the next 3 days. 

On Thursday, the seminar started around 9 AM. There were 2-20 minute coffee breaks 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon with a 1 and a ½-hour lunch period. Attendees were researchers from private and government agencies as well managers of poultry farms from all over the country. For most of these individuals, this was their first technical seminar. For the first time we meet 3 researchers from a private research institute (Avis Investigations) in Havana. One was the director, another a Nutritionist, and the other a geneticist. They explained to us that that had 8 breeds of leghorns developed in Cuba (both white and brown layers). They are interested in the importation of more modern breeds, but so far the US and or Cuban governments has not allowed that to occur. They are optimistic that they can import some new breeds from Europe. 

The first day was devoted entirely to Dr. Pacheco’s lectures on the importance of good feed ingredients, feed processing, nutrition, and demonstrations of tests used to examine the feed ingredients and final feed particle size. He purchased the test materials from the contract funds, showed the group, how to perform the tests and then left them with the institute for their future use. His tests showed that their feed quality was not uniform and needed improved mixing. All his slides and presentations were in Spanish and the group was very engaged with his demonstrations and asked many questions. 

On the morning of Friday, January 27, I presented lectures on the detection, prevention, and control of viruses that produce tumors and common respiratory diseases, vaccination programs, and administrative techniques and equipment used in the US. I am sure that almost none of them had ever seen these types of vaccination schedules and equipment. All my slides were in Spanish and I did my best to make the presentations in Spanish the help from Drs. Pacheco and Alfonso. I also present 3-10 minute videos, produced by the University of Maryland on common biosecurity procedures used in the US. The videos we in English, but subtitles were in Spanish. I sent these slides and videos to Richard prior to the meeting. With funds from the contract, I bought textbooks on various aspects of my talks from the American Association of Avian Pathologists and presented them to the institute on Saturday. I also provided them pamphlets on Biosecurity in Spanish, which were made by the Alabama Poultry and Egg Association, as well as a number of DVD videos and CDs that I made over the years on Poultry Health and Management, which I have used in my classes in Auburn. 

On the same afternoon Jim Donald, gave a lengthy talk on the retro fitting of their present layer facilities for improved ventilation, insulation, plumbing, and electrical operations. This is important because their present houses our extremely primitive, with metal roofs, no insulation nor ventilation. The roofs are held up with wooden posts, and consist of one cage level with older cages, manual feeders and egg collection. They do use nipple drinkers and the fecal material is coned up under the cages and manually 

shoveled out every few months. The manure in pilled outside the houses and after some composting spread on fields. The isolated farms, barely visible from the main roads, usually consists of 2 small houses with a number of farm workers to add the bagged feed to the troughs and gather and store the eggs in a non-cooled environment and daily and shipped off to the market. A photo of one of their very best house is aattached. 

Jim then presented the proper selection sites and new placement of poultry housing, construction of new houses, which included the latest automated egg collection and feeding of poultry. This is important, because presently Big Dutchmen in Germany is building 2 modern 70,000 bird laying facilities on each of 2 farms in Cuba. Jim is a good friend of Tom Wallace International Owner of the company and will speak to him at the IPPE show in Atlanta about this venture. Depending on how these are built, managed, and if they can show an increase in number and quality of eggs produced this could be the start of a modern industry in Cuba. I have seen the quality of eggs sold in the grocery store and they are at best B quality and are of various shapes and sizes. I am told that the best quality of eggs are sold at restaurants especially at hotels occupied by tourists. 

A professional photographer filmed the entire 2-day seminar. Wilmer brought a large number of thumb drives with contract money to give to Anabel. The plain is for her to capture all information from the computer used during the seminar and distribute as many of them as possible to key attendees. 

On the morning of Saturday January 26, we had a 3-hour meeting with the planners of the seminar. We discussed present egg production figures and how we could examine ways to increase productivity and plans for future collaborations. Presently, Cuba produces 2 billion eggs/year. Approximately 60 % of the farms are owned by the government and 40% by private industry. Their cost of production is high and egg quality needs improving. They have a need of 1 billion more eggs/year. There hen house performance is about 240. This can only happen, with increased in feed quality, improved disease control, housing and management, and importation of new more modern breeds. 

Opportunities for future collaboration with Research Institute include an increase in egg production, pullets, evaluation of raw materials (quick tests), production of research feed (they don’t even have a mixer in the research institute) and the feed is produced in another feed mill, which can affect the identity of the different treatments. They have interest in molecular genetics, new technologies for incubation, equipment to evaluate egg quality. We committed to submit a couple of technical articles to be published in their internal scientific journal. They publish the magazine in June and December. 

We would like to attend and participate in the Institute’s annual meeting at the end of May. They would like us to provide training to other people who could not attend the present training. At this time, we could obtain more information from the institute on 

Cuba’s mortality and feed to egg ratio and status of the new 4 new poultry houses. It is rather hard to get exact performance figures. It may be that the government does not have them or does not want to revel them. We also spoke about the opportunity to meet one or two of our Cuban collaborators in Mexico to train them in aspects of feed manufacturing, house management, and diseases using these remaining funds. There is about $6,000 in unused funds from the original contract do help with that opportunity. 

WPR REQUEST FOR FUNDING

1. Requesting Organization:

Auburn University and National Poultry Technology Center

Department of Poultry Science

2. Federal Tax Identification number:63-6000724
3. Title of Project: Capacity Building to Improve the Efficiency ofthe Poultry Industry in Cuba.

4. Name for organization to be funded:

Department of Poultry Science and

National Poultry Technology Center

Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849-5416

5. Total Funds Requested ($ US):

$14,994

6. Start and Completion Dates of Project:

5/1/2018           11/31/2018

7. Description of how project relates to WPF Bylaws funding areas:

1. (i) by promoting economic development in economically distressed areas outside of the United States by providing technical, educational, and other assistance to foster the development of local poultry and egg industries,
2. (ii) by cooperating and partnering with other foundations, organizations, and government agencies by assisting them with projects that advance the charitable purposes of the corporation as determined by the Board of Directors.

8. Description of activities to be carried out under project:

Drs. Giambrone, Pacheco, and Jim Donald will attend a 1-day Cuban Agricultural fare to obtain first hand knowledge of the state of Agriculture in Cuba. This will be a onetime opportunity to visit with technical personnel and average farmers from a variety of agricultural production systems in Cuba and to obtain their opinions of the state of agriculture in Cuba.

This will be followed by a two-day training workshop on layer and broiler nutrition, feed processing, detection and control of economically important infectious diseases, and design and management of poultry housing and ventilation systems for maximum production and energy conservationwill be conducted (Agenda attached). The workshop will be conducted in Havana and there will to be representation of poultry technical personnel from most of the Cuban provinces. This meeting will allow the Cuban scientists from the Poultry Research Institute to network with participants and develop long-term collaborations with them. The meeting will consist of 11 presentations on aspects of poultry production as outline in the attached agenda..

Principal Investigators from Auburn University: Drs. Wilmer Pacheco, Joseph. J. Giambrone and James Donald. Dr. Pacheco is an expert on feed milling and other aspects of nutrition. Dr. Giambrone is an expert on Poultry Health and Management. Jim Donald is an engineer and an expert on poultry housing and ventilation.

Co-principal Investigators from Cuban Institutes: Ing. Jesus Aguilar, meber od cnesa and . 6402 Mousoleo el Cacahual y Gral. Maceo, Santiago de Las Vegas, La Habana, Cuba.

9. Long Term Strategy:

According to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, Inc., the exports of food products & agricultural commodities from the United States to Cuba were US$11,963,399.00 in 2017. Poultry products (frozen chicken leg quarter, meat, and legs) represented 68% of the exports to Cuba. The exports of soybeans represent 23% of the exports. In 2016, Drs. Giambrone and Pacheco visited Cuba with Auburn University funding to lecture to 50 poultry veterinarians from all over Cuba on the prevention and control of diseases of commercial and backyard chicken flocks, biosecurity and Dr. Pacheco  lectured on quality control of grains and finished feeds. We also helped them develop effective in-house composting methods to inactivate pathogens in litter, eggs, and chickens. The Centro of Nacional Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria  (CENSA) has been able to refine the composting techniques and now has the capability to transfer their compositing techniques to poultry producers should they have contagious infectious disease-causing organisms. In 2017, Drs. Giambrone and Pacheco again visited Cuba to transfer knowledge of the US Poultry Industry to members of CENSA and Instiuto de Investigaciones Avicolas. We also planned the Workshop for the following year with the Instiuto. The important agenda items, which were suggested to us by the Instiuto, are listed in this proposal. Dr. Giambrone’s’ trip was funded by the WPF and Dr. Pacheco by Auburn. Jim Donald also accompanied us to Cuba and his trip was funded by Auburn.

In 2017, the hurricane Irma last year affected 614 layer’s houses (Fig. 1) and the mortality was disposed using the techniques taught during our training in 2016. In addition, after Irma the majority of layer flocks reduced egg production due to the post-traumatic stress caused by the hurricane. Therefore, Cuban’s had to pay for some of the most expensive eggs in Latin America. In the coming years, Cuba has the goal to produce 10,000 tons of poultry meat and reactivate broiler production. Therefore, important aspects of broiler nutrition, building of more efficient poultry housing, and improved disease control are necessary and will be discussed during the training.

Fig. 1A total of 614 poultry houses were partially or totally demolished throughout the Island. 

10. Performance Measure(s) for Strategy:

Before the training, a 30 min pre-test will be conducted to evaluate the general knowledge. After the training, the acquired knowledge of the participants will be evaluated through a final quiz. These tests will be translated into Spanish and serve as a benchmark as to the effectiveness of the workshop. A short workshop evaluation will also be submitted to the participants.

Information about current productive parameters (egg production, egg weight, shell integrity, internal egg quality, layer mortality, etc) will be obtained during the visit.

During the fall, Dr. Pacheco will conduct a follow of visit to measure progress and to visit one or two feed mills in Cuba to assure that good quality control of ingredients, processes, and finished products are followed. In addition, Dr. Pacheco will obtain more information to evaluate the impact of the training on the improvement of productive parameters.

11. WPF Staff Comments: NA
12. Budget: NA

Rationale for budget:

1)    Three US. Sieves (#12, 30, and 50) as well as the pan and the cover will be bought to teach particle size analysis. Two bottles of Quantab strips will be purchased to teach the participants to evaluate mixing uniformity during the training; the rest of the strip will be donated to the research institute for future mixer testing.

• Travel to Cuba by Drs. Pacheco, Giambrone, and Donald for 5 days.
• Poultry Disease textbooks to use for teaching purposes and then given to members of the Instiuto de Investigaciones Avicolas.
• 26% indirect costs.

13. Exit Strategy:

After the completion of the training, we will continue our close collaboration with Cuban scientists from the research institute and plan collaboration for the 2019. Our close proximity to Cuba, a 2-hour relatively inexpensive flight from Atlanta to Havana; inexpensive lodging and meals and ease of obtaining academic VISAs makes trips to Cuba much less complicated than in the past.