Alltech appoints Asia-Pacific technical chief for mycotoxin team

Global animal health and nutrition company Alltech has appointed Dr Tugrul Durali as Asia-Pacific technical manager for its mycotoxin management team.

Based in Sydney, he will provide technical support to local and regional accounts, notably Alltech’s On-Farm programme.

Kentucky-based Alltech has a large operation in Dunboyne, Co Meath, which Irish-born founder and president Pearse Lyons chose as the location for its European Bioscience Centre.

Dr Durali started his professional career as an intern in 2001 at one of the biggest egg and poultry meat producers in Turkey focusing on aflatoxicosis in layer hens, then joined the Turkish Armed Forces where he graduated as a veterinarian lieutenant from the Army Veterinarian College.

He received training on turkey breeder health, management and artificial insemination from an Israeli company specialising in the poultry breeder field in the Middle East.

Dr Durali later worked as a poultry veterinarian at another company, focusing on gut health and mycotoxicosis on broiler and breeder productions, and then moved to Australia to join a poultry producer as a technical services manager.

His interests in improving poultry welfare with nutrition and particularly antibiotic free production led him to establish research trials. He played a key role setting up the company’s free range broiler production.

“It is my great pleasure to welcome Dr Durali,” said Nick Adams, global director, mycotoxin management team at Alltech. “The wide-spread presence of mycotoxins means great risk for producers; the increased demand on animal performance and productivity puts further pressure on them to find effective solutions against those hidden killers. With Dr Durali’s experience, the Asia-Pacific Mycotoxin Management Team is in a stronger position than ever to provide a practical and solutions-oriented approach to effectively managing mycotoxins.”