Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Poultry dropped from university name

What’s in a name?

Not poultry at the University of Guelph.

The Department of Animal and Poultry Science is now the Department of Animal Biosciences.

New department chair Prof. Jim Squires wants everyone to know researchers are not abandoning their emphasis on poultry studies, by any means. They remain committed to poultry, one of Canada’s most important protein sources, reports Owen Roberts, an on-campus journalist.

In 1971 the Department of Poultry Science and the Department of Animal Science were merged.

Roberts says “the smoothest way to accommodate the merger, and to recognize the significance of Guelph poultry research to the university and to the agricultural sector, was to simply merge the names.”

In recent years, welfare has come to dominate poultry research, such as alternatives to caging laying hens.


It’s a major change from the decades of focus on productivity via improvements in nutrition, genetics and health.