Poultry Saver

Venkateshwara Hatcheries (VH) Private Limited, a flagship company of the VH Group was founded in 1971 by Dr BV Rao. It was the first Indian company to embark on a process of developing the poultry industry on scientific lines. It pioneered the concept of parent franchisee operations, popularized cage farming, and introduced the concept of inactivated vaccines and combination vaccines, and more importantly, use of specific pathogen free (SPF) eggs in vaccine production. The SPF eggs form a vital ingredient in the manufacture of poultry vaccines of international standards.

The VH Group is the largest fully integrated poultry group in Asia by offering total support for poultry development under one roof. The Group has diverse stakes in breeding of poultry, poultry equipment, hatcheries, egg and chicken processing, animal health products, production of SPF eggs and poultry feed.

Besides poultry vaccines and medicines, the group produces a range of feed additives, animal health products and poultry feeds.

The VH group has eight zonal laboratories located in regional poultry pockets, which provide disease-monitoring and diagnostic services free to all farmers irrespective of the breed they patronize.

Ventri Biologicals, the vaccine division of the Venkateshwara Hatcheries, was set up in late 1970's when the Indian poultry industry was facing severe challenges due to unavailability of quality vaccines for several disease conditions. The division became operational in 1980, with the production of vaccines for Marek's disease and Newcastles's disease. The plant was built in collaboration with Tri Bio Laboratories Inc. of the US, world leaders in vaccine technology and research. It is also among the few laboratories of the world, which produces Marek's HVT vaccine on a large scale. The vaccine plant is acknowledged as one of the most modern plants and is capable of meeting the demands of the projected growth of the Indian poultry industry.

Backed by extensive, modern research and development facilities, Ventri Biologicals in close association with the Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center is engaged in the development of new generation vaccines to combat emerging bacterial and viral diseases.

The division produces vaccines conforming to British Pharmacopeia and other international standards. It produces live and inactivated viral vaccines using complex cell culture and egg adapted technology with highly immunogenic vaccine virus strains in sterile atmosphere, using Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) eggs. For bacterial inactivated vaccines it has adopted the advanced programmed biofermentation technology. Ventri Biologicals provides a wide range of 32 poultry vaccines, some of which have been introduced for the first time in the country.

The biotech business of Venkateshwara Hatcheries, including vaccines and diagnostics, notched up sales of Rs 88 crore in 2003-04.