Poultry Science Industry Information

Innovative New Ideas

The Department of Poultry Science includes 23 faculty positions. Faculty members work in a number of different research and extension areas, including: nutrition, physiology, immunology, poultry management, toxicology, microbiology, food science, waste management, food safety, and poultry health. Research interests in the area of physiology include reproductive physiology, stress physiology, and photophysiology. Nutritional research includes all aspects of improving the bird's health and growth, while at the same time reducing the amount of nutrients excreted that have to be land-applied. It also includes research on trace element and their interactions, improved metabolism, gut transport of feed metabolites, the effects of feed additives, nutrient effects on body composition, carcass quality, and reproduction. Most recently, a new program has been started to study the impact that nutrition has on the genes controlling skeletal muscle development.

The immunology program has primarily been centered around developing a better understanding of humoral and cell-mediated immune response in poultry. Primary emphasis has been on the function and control of the avian macrophage system.

Microbiology programs in the Department of Poultry Science are primarily involved with studies on food and/or feed safety, poultry health, and waste management. Toxicology studies are headed out of the CALS Mycotoxin laboratory that is located in the Department. This college-wide program is centered around the development of improved assays for mycotoxins and their effects on animal health.

Biotechnology research in the Department has proceeded in several directions over the past few years. One area involves the development of methods for the manipulation of the avian germline though the isolation and manipulation of primordial germ cells. A second area of investigation centers around gaining an understanding of how nutrition affects the rate of skeletal muscle development. A third involves the isolation, sequencing and development of a microbial-based enzyme, keratinase, and the development of its potential for the conversion of animal by-products into more valuable feedstuffs.

A large amount of work is also being done in the area of poultry by-product management to reduce the potential environmental effects of the poultry industry. Studies involving alternative litter sources and litter management, feed-based enzymes for reducing the excretion of phosphorus and heavy metals, and the conversion of animal by-products into alternative energy sources, are under way. The offices for the NCSU Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center are located in Scott Hall, the home of the Department of Poultry Science.