NEXT ANNUAL IAG-MEETING AND WORKSHOP 2025 – Fribourg/Switzerland

Dear IAG microscopists,

The board is pleased to invite you to the 2025 Annual Meeting and Practical Workshop which will take place on 20-22 May in Fribourg, Switzerland.

Please find attached all information on this Conference and the detail on how to register.
- Invitation letter and direct link for Members to register right here

Looking forward to your participation, I am sending all the best regards from Switzerland!

Geneviève Frick

NEW – EXCLUSIVE ONLY FOR MEMBERS!

IAG Proficiency and Ring Test – Reports of the last years are available!

Dear members of the IAG section Feed Microscopy!
Please find enclosed the link to the Reports of our IAG Proficiency and Ring Tests right here:
https://www.iag-micro.org/member/reports/

You will find there the reports of the following IAG Proficiency and Ring tests of the last years: Animal Proteins from 2008 up to now Composition from 2014 up to now Botanical Impurities Forbidden Materials – especially packaging materials

By the way: you will also find our publication “Survey among European and Canadian feed control units on monitoring packaging material residues in feed by microscopy analyses” in the italian Journal of Animal Science under following link – Enjoy the reading!

Next-Coming Newsletter 2025

Our next Newsletter will be written in the coming month!

If you are interested in publishing any interesting contribution, we kindly ask you to send it to one of the IAG Board members:
Genny Frick (genevieve.frick@agroscope.admin.ch)
Roland Weiss (roland.weiss@ages.at)
Jeroen Vancutsem (JEROEN.VANCUTSEM@favv-afsca.be)
Manuela Zadravec (zadravec@veinst.hr)
Lotte Houghs (HOU@fvst.dk)
Tommy Stojkovski (tommy.stojkovski@trouwnutrition.com)

Many thanks in advance!
In the name of the IAG-board

IAG New Year's best wishes

Dear colleagues,
It seems to me, that each year is going faster than the last one, and that time before X-mas and New Year is every year more packed with things to do!

Nevertheless, before we all are definitively looking forward to 2025, I would like to make a quick look back in 2024, according to our Association of Feed Microscopists.

At our Annual Meeting 2024 in Namur, I made the introduction on the past year remembering that we had 2 Proficiency Tests organised, that we presented a poster on Packaging Material at the Feed Conference in Milano, Poster that was followed by a publication. We, as a network, also offered a practical training on Microscopy and PCR for components of animal origin, and organised a practical workshop on botanical impurities and composition during the Annual Meeting. On our Website, you can find the program of our meeting and also all the presentations, allowing you to discover or remember how broad and fascinating our field is.

Annual Meeting 2024

As 2025 is starting, we have offers for 3 new PTs: on Animal Proteins, botanical Impurities and composition. Also our next meeting is in preparation and will be held on 20-22 May 2025 in Fribourg, Switzerland.

The tasks of the association – and especially the board – is to :
- make sure PTs are organised, analyses and presented
- seek for training possibilities
- follow changes in legislation
- develop and standardise methods
- follow changes in the technologies and quality criteria
- communicate through newsletter and the website
- concentrate on our specificity : a broad knowledge and overview on a very complex field

Our goal and sought achievement: make the practical life of our members easier !

This is why I am quite pleased to see that our board, which is composed of a good and balanced set of personalities, is as active as ever!

And this is a very good mirror of the whole network which manages to meet and collaborate in an informal, uncomplicated, easy and friendly way over Europe and farther.
Hopefully, together, we will managed to keep IAG Feed Microscopy on the right path for the next years.

This is how and why I am wishing you a very fruitful and challenging 2025!

With best regards,
Genny Frick, president IAG Feed Microcopy

IAG-Proficiency Test for Animal Proteins in feedingstuffs

On behalf of the board of the IAG Section Feed Microscopy we are pleased to announce the organisation of the 2025 proficiency test on animal proteins detection in feed by light microscopy.

Annual proficiency tests are important for all official control laboratories and private companies’ laboratories seeking for performance assessment of the detection of animal proteins in feedingstuffs in particular with regards to the ISO/CEN 17025 requirements.

In attachment you will find the official invitation letter including some practical information as well as the link to the online registration form to fill before 24th January 2025 the latest.
- Announcement IAGPT animal proteins 2025.pdf

For practical reasons, the number of participants will be limited to a maximum of 60, therefore if your laboratory is willing to join this proficiency test you are invited to react promptly to this opportunity.

We are looking forward to your future participation.
Yours Truly,
Pascal Veys

IAG-Proficiency Test on microscopic composition of mixed feed

On behalf of the board of the IAG Section Feed Microscopy we are pleased to announce the organisation of the 2025 PT on the* microscopic composition* of mixed feed, organised by the Lufa Nord-West (Oldenburg, Germany).

Attached to that message you find the invitation letter with some information about this PT and an application form.

- Invitation IAG PT2025 Composition of a mixed feed.pdf

If you would like to participate, please return the completed and signed application form to laura.draack@lufa-nord-west.de before January 13, 2025.

We are looking forward to your registrations!
Best regards,
Laura Draack

IAG-Proficiency Test for botanical impurities and prohibited materials

On behalf of the board of the IAG Section Feed Microscopy we are pleased to announce the organisation of the 2025 proficiency test on botanical impurities and prohibited materials detection in feed by light microscopy organized by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety GmbH (AGES).

Annual proficiency tests are important for all official control laboratories, national reference laboratories (NRL’s) and private companies’ laboratories seeking for performance assessment of the detection of botanical impurities in feedingstuffs to control the maximum levels as set in directive 2002/32/EC and prohibited materials according to regulation EG 767/2009 Annex III in particular with regards to the ISO/CEN 17025 requirements.

In attachment you will find the official invitation letter including some practical information as well as the link to the online registration form to fill before 11th of January 2025 the latest.

- Invitation letter
- AGES Ringtrials

We are looking forward to your participation!

NEWS FROM THE IAG BOARD

Sorry to inform you that Julia Dietz left the IAG board because of professional changes.
By this way IAG wishes you all the best for your new challenges – and will always keep you in mind.
Please find enclosed her “farewell” greetings:

Dear all,
I’m sure you had an interesting IAG meeting in Namur last week. It’s a pity that I couldn’t say goodbye to you in person.
Next week is my last week of work at SGS in Hamburg. It is with a heavy heart that I will leave Feed Microscopy and switch to Eurofins Agroscience Stade.
I would like to thank you all for the many years of great meetings and workshops, for the one or other challenging PT, for quick and uncomplicated support with problematic samples or questions, for our small inter-laboratory comparative studies, and simply for your very pleasant community!
I would be happy to hear from you, feel free to contact me when you are in Hamburg.
My email address: jule.dietz@gmail.com or via LinkedIn
All the best
Julia

• Lotte Hougs from the The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (Denmark) and
• Tommy Stojkovski from Masterlab/Nutreco (the Netherlands)

FOR MEMBERS ONLY!

NEW IAG-METHOD

Dear IAG-Member!

Please find enclosed the final and decided version of the new IAG-Method for forbidden material:

FOR MEMBERS ONLY!

ANNUAL IAG MEETING 2024

Dear members of the IAG section Feed Microscopy!

FIRST PRESENTATIONS OF THE ANNUAL IAG MEETING 2024 ARE AVAILABLE!
Please find enclosed the link to the first presentations of our annual IAG meeting in Namur right here:

The report of the meeting will be written and arriving by time!
Many thanks to the colleagues of the CRA-W for a great organization, a very interesting meeting and practical workshop, for the fruitful discussions as well as the wonderful social program and for the warm welcome.

FOR MEMBERS ONLY!

FEED SURVEY 2023/24

In order to find out how diverse the work in IAG members’ laboratories is, we offer you to answer the questions below about the feeds you have tested, in as much detail as possible.

If you had special cases in 2023/2024 or in the recent months, describe them or even bring them with you to the next IAG Annual Meeting and WORKSHOP so that we can discuss them there.
Finally, we would like this file for creating an interactive map especially for our registered members, to be a support for writing our next IAG-Newsletter and for supporting our round table of presentation which should help us to remember some of our / your specialties during the next meeting.
For those Members who already send the feed survey – many thanks. For all the others please be so kind and don’t forget!
Many thanks in advance!

IAG Newsletter 2024

Please find enclosed the link to the IAG Newsletter of 2024
Newsletter 2024 Section Feed Microscopy
Enjoy the reading!