News Stories - Page 22

Poultry is playing an increasingly important role in feeding the planet’s growing population, which is expected to reach about 9 billion by 2050.

Samuel Pardue, a noted poultry science researcher and administrator at North Carolina State University, has been named dean and director of the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Todd Applegate, associate head of the Department of Animal Sciences at Indiana’s Purdue University, has been tapped to lead the University of Georgia’s Department of Poultry Science. He will take the helm starting on Jan. 8.

Winning national championships is becoming routine for the Tift County 4-H Poultry Judging Team.

The current highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 outbreak in the United States is a concern for the commercial poultry industry, not the general population, says a University of Georgia poultry expert. Humans won’t be infected with avian influenza by eating chicken or other poultry products. Nearly all previous cases of human infections with other avian influenza viruses involved close, direct contact with infected poultry, but little to no direct transmission from person to person. While the HPAI H5 virus has caused some severe devastation for the U.S. commercial poultry industry, there have been no reports of infections in humans, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers the risk to people from this virus to be low.

The growing poultry industry in Georgia has farmers searching for alternative bedding options for their birds. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension poultry scientist Claudia Dunkley recommends that growers use giant miscanthus grass as bedding in their poultry houses.