Meat&Poultry - October 2011 - 48

UNIVERSITY ROUNDUP

a feed mill, a poultry health and isolation unit and commercial-style research farms for broilers and broiler breeders. “Both undergraduate and graduate students in Poultry Science are able to work in the pilot processing plant, where they gain experience in poultry processing and further processing,” Dr. Kidd says. The Center of Excellence for Poultry Science is housed in a 112,000-sq.ft. building, containing laboratories, classrooms, auditoriums, a test kitchen, sensory panel room and offices. There is also a Poultry Health Laboratory boasting the highest biosafety rating in the nation. Other facilities include a state-of-the-art feed mill, broiler breeder research farm and applied broiler research farm. The undergraduate recruitment specialist is Gary Davis. Dr. Slavik is the Poultry Science graduate student coordinator. Graduates include Blake Henson, owner and vice president of ClearView Enterprises, in Springdale, Ark., and Joyce Jong, sales and marketing manager for Jong’s Organic Fertilizer and Poultry Farm, in Ontario, Calif. Career opportunities exist in biosciences, distribution, environmental quality and safety, food safety, food technology, genetics, government agencies, grow out and breeder management, immunology, poultry product research and development, quality control/quality assurance, research, teaching and extension, sales and marketing and veterinary medicine.

Univ. of Georgia
The Poultry Science Department of the Univ. of Georgia, in Athens, Ga., plays a major role in poultry processing research in Georgia. Poultry Science is part of the university’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “The Univ. of Georgia Department of Poultry Science has a long history of successfully preparing students for careers in poultry processing,” says Michael Lacy, head of the department of poultry science.

ratory work on poultry meat quality characteristics, and study how these characteristics are maintained in marketing channels. There are numerous career alternatives for graduates interested in poultry processing or related careers. They can include becoming supervisors in processing plants, working for equipment manufacturers and for the fi rms supplying medicines, vaccines and san itat ion supplies. Others enter educat ion and com mun ication fields, such as extension and agriculproduction is Georgia’s largest agri- tural education. Graduate study in cultural industry and agriculture is nutrition, physiology, genetics, parasitology or management can lead Georgia’s biggest industry. Lacy says the UGA Poultry Sci- to careers in teaching or research. Students may select from a variety ence curriculum is a blend of basic science, agricultural business and of agribusiness courses in preparing hands-on poultry processing and for opportunities in the poultry industry and other areas of agriproduction courses. “Our business. For students interstudents are highly encourested in research, graduate aged to work with our scischool or veterinary medientists in their research cine, a variety of researchlabs and in the field on inbased courses are available. dustry projects,” he says. Graduate training at UGA “Most of our poultry sciPoultry Science includes ence majors participate products technology, miin industry internships, Lacy crobiology, molecular biolwhich include ‘real world’ ogy, physiology, genetics and nutrition. processing experiences.” UGA’s poultry science program has Lacy says UGA offers courses designed for students interested in poul- a large extension and outreach protry processing, including HACCP, gram, with the goal of providing edufood safety, food security, food engi- cational and service-related programs neering, quality control, government to processors, producers, and allied food regulation, packaging, product industry representatives via extension development, marketing, manage- poultry scientists and county agent personnel. Areas focused on include ment, animal welfare, etc. “Poultry science graduates are in poultry processing, poultry economdemand, and students typically receive ics, animal welfare, poultry microbiolmultiple job offers months before they ogy and food safety. Research programs are geared to graduate,” Lacy points out. Practical experiences offered to graduate degree training programs students in UGA’s Department of and provide information useful to the Poultry Science include opportuni- poultry industry in Georgia. For the ties to work with birds, as well as the processing industry, they include proproducts manufactured by poultry in- cessing technology – new processes dustry. Students must complete labo- and technologies for the processing of The university began offering specialized study in the poultry sciences even before creating the department of poultry science in 1912. In the years since, many students have received degrees in poultry science. The department is proud of the fact most graduates enter poultry professions after graduation. In fact, poultry

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