{"id":231380,"date":"2025-06-04T07:32:53","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T11:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=231380"},"modified":"2025-06-04T07:32:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T11:32:53","slug":"researchers-and-industry-flock-to-uconn-to-talk-poultry-innovations-and-impacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/06\/researchers-and-industry-flock-to-uconn-to-talk-poultry-innovations-and-impacts\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers and Industry Flock to UConn to Talk Poultry Innovations and Impacts"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

UConn\u2019s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR) welcomed fellow researchers and poultry industry representatives from across the US and the world to the Storrs campus to continue their interdependent work on the Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) Poultry Project.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) awarded Kumar Venkitanarayanan, CAHNR senior associate dean of research and graduate education and professor of animal science, <\/span>a $10 million grant in 2020 to lead the initiative<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Group\r\n
The group of attendees came from around the world to join the meeting of the Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) Poultry Project (Jason Sheldon\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cThis group has made considerable progress on each component of our project \u2013 bird health, human health, and the environmental impact of the poultry industry,\u201d says Venkitanarayanan. \u201cThis has been a collective effort, and being able to meet to continue discussing and sharing ideas keeps our work moving forward.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

At the two-day meeting, held at the Innovation Partnership Building, the multi-institutional group and its project teams discussed their <\/span>on-going efforts<\/span><\/a> to enhance broiler sustainability without antibiotics and ensure safe approaches to improve chicken, human, and environmental health. The meeting comes as the grant enters its final year and the group begins assessing the scope and breadth of the innovations and impacts made over the last five years.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\"Woman\r\n
Indu Upadhyaya, associate extension food safety education speaks at a meeting of the Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) Poultry Project (Jason Sheldon\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\"People\r\n
Lively discussion at a meeting of the Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) Poultry Project (Jason Sheldon\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The group has made a number of technological advancements to lower heat stress, improve bird welfare, generate energy from poultry litter, and reduce disease, including a <\/span>UConn-patented probiotic spray method<\/span><\/a> that improves the hatchability and the health of chicks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Additionally, the project has also developed classes and outreach programs to train producers and the next generation of poultry farmers, including <\/span>a class right here at UConn<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Their efforts to ensure the long-term viability, safety, and public trust in antibiotic-restricted poultry farming took a global perspective at the meeting. International speakers discussed poultry production practices around the world, including Mexico, Southeastern Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Africa.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The meeting also featured an industry panel Q&A and a poster session.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cWe approach our work from a One Health perspective, acknowledging the connection between the health of people, animals, and our environment,\u201d says Venkitanarayanan. \u201cThis work is critically important for our society and CAHNR is a unique leader in this type of interdisciplinary research.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Other institutions involved in this project are Appalachian State University, University of Arkansas, University of Georgia, Auburn University, Kansas State University, University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina State University, Pennsylvania State University, Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of Arkansas, Maryland, and Mississippi.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This research is supported by USDA NIFA award number 2020-69012-31823.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This work relates to CAHNR\u2019s Strategic Vision area focused on\u00a0<\/em>Ensuring a Vibrant and Sustainable Agricultural Industry and Food Supply.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Follow\u00a0<\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on social media<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An international team of researchers met with poultry sector stakeholders in Storrs to discuss the latest developments in safety and sustainability of antibiotic-restricted poultry production <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":231387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2298,2224,2304,2076,2364],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2153],"class_list":["post-231380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal-science","category-cahnr","category-extension","category-research","category-technology-commercialization"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 08:50:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231380"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231446,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231380\/revisions\/231446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/231387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231380"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=231380"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=231380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}