Poultry Research

Research and Innovation

A Delmarva mainstay

Poultry is the mainstay of agriculture in the Delmarva region. UD's poultry research includes topics in the management of mortality and litter quality, disease prevention, ventilation and energy, poultry house construction, animal standards of care and overall best practices in poultry management.

3,500 jobs

the number of chicken industry jobs held in Delaware.

$3.3 billion

in total economic activity throughout Delaware due to poultry.

Poultry research diagnostics

Poultry Research | College of Agriculture & Natural Resources | University of Delaware

Charles C. Allen Jr. Biotechnology Laboratory

The lab is a world-class facility dedicated to poultry disease research and diagnostics. The lab is a biosafety level BSL-3, USDA-licensed laboratory, used to study highly virulent poultry pathogens in a safe working environment.

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Avian Biosciences Center

The Avian Biosciences Center at the University of Delaware is established to be a center of excellence for research, education, and outreach programs that will provide solutions to contemporary problems in the avian biosciences.

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Carvel Research & Education Center Group Photo

Lasher Laboratory

Lasher Laboratory serves as the front line in disease surveillance and management for the poultry industry. A $4 million, state-of-the-art renovation in 2016 provides necropsy, serology, and bacteriology testing, along with virus identification and monitoring using DNA (PCR) testing.

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Jones Hamilton Environmental Poultry Research House

The Jones Hamilton Environmental Poultry Research House is an example of private industry collaboration with UD and the State of Delaware to examine litter management and air quality for the poultry industry.

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UD researchers travel to Brazil to study heat stress in poultry

University of Delaware undergraduate student Blair Schneider spent time in Brazil earlier this year getting samples from chickens to help with research looking to see if there is something genetically that allows the Brazilian birds to better deal with heat stress than American broiler chickens.

The research is being led at UD by Carl Schmidt, professor and genome scientist in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and is part of a five-year, $4.7 million National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) climate change grant for a project.