CENTER OF EXCELLENCE FOR POULTRY SCIENCE

In 1989, the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees designated poultry science for development as a center of excellence in the state's university system. The Center of Excellence for Poultry Science became a reality with the formation of the Department of Poultry Science in 1992.

In addition to faculty members from the poultry science department, the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science has full-time faculty in a USDA/ARS Poultry Research group with multidisciplinary contributions from faculty in several University departments including agronomy, animal science, biological and agricultural engineering, biological sciences, entomology, food science, and industrial engineering, and from the School of Human and Environmental Sciences and from the UALR College of Pharmacy.

The poultry science department and the research group are housed in the John W. Tyson Building, a 112,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art laboratory and office complex opened in fall 1995 on Maple Street on the UA campus. Additional facilities include:

- an FDA-licensed feedmill;

- a processing plant used for teaching processing techniques and for ongoing food safety research projects;

- the Poultry Health Laboratory, which holds a P3 biosafety rating;

- a poultry research farm with hatchery, genetics unit, pullet rearing facility, battery brooder, caged layer house, poultry environmental physiology laboratory, and broiler, turkey and broiler breeder houses; and

- four commercial style broiler houses.

There are also plans for a poultry care research facility.

A major in poultry science provides the scientific and technical education to prepare students for positions of leadership and responsibility in the expanding fields of poultry processing, marketing and production, as well as in the specialized areas of breeding and genetics, nutrition, physiology, poultry health, poultry business management and food science. Students in poultry science can also meet all pre-veterinary and pre-medical requirements necessary for entry into those professional areas.