The Egg Industry Center at Iowa State University has awarded three new research grants totaling $212,918, bringing its total for egg research funding to more than $1 million since 2013.
The latest recipients of Egg Industry Center grants are:
Pennsylvania State University, for a $89,917 grant on research into the infectiveness, transmission and response to disinfectant treatment of three emerging strains of disease-causing avian reovirus, led by Huaguang Lu, clinical professor and avian virologist.
Mississippi State University, for a $85,605 study on the use of robots for the collection of floor eggs in open-housing systems and the effect of the robot’s presence on behavior of birds, led by Yang Zhao, assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering.
Iowa State University, for a $37,396 grant on research examining how different housing systems affect gastrointestinal bacterial communities and overall bird health, led by Dawn Koltes, adjunct assistant professor of animal science.
“The Egg Industry Center is proud to help the industry address important questions by investing over $1 million in research grants in the past five years,” said Hongwei Xin, director of the center and assistant dean for research with Iowa State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “We want to thank the industry visionaries who could foresee the benefits of a program like this and what it could provide to the industry; we look forward to sharing additional research results as more studies are completed.”
The Egg Industry Center grant program funds research to help answer industry challenges through scientifically based solutions. The center has funded 19 research projects at 10 universities since 2013. Completed research has helped to advance knowledge in virus transmission, genetic resistance, keel bone abnormalities, new market development and more.
Funded research in progress includes work on factors predisposing disease, enhanced building ventilation and air filtration systems, the effect of using ramps in aviary housing systems and a microbiome comparison of laying hens living in different housing systems.
For more information about partnering with the Egg Industry Center to support research funding, or to find more information on completed and on-going research, visit the center website’s www.eggindustrycenter.org.
