{"id":7039,"date":"2023-08-03T14:38:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T18:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=7039"},"modified":"2024-11-18T11:17:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T16:17:52","slug":"purdue-animal-sciences-faculty-members-receive-usda-grants-for-animal-welfare-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/Q3\/purdue-animal-sciences-faculty-members-receive-usda-grants-for-animal-welfare-research","title":{"rendered":"Purdue animal sciences faculty members receive USDA grants for animal welfare research"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —<\/p> \n

Faculty members in Purdue University\u2019s Department of Animal Sciences<\/a> have received $1.4 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a>\u2019s National Institute of Food and Agriculture<\/a> for research on safeguarding animal welfare. Both projects pertain to poultry production, a major contributor to the U.S. and Indiana economies. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Marisa Erasmus<\/a>, associate professor of animal sciences, received a four-year, $793,000 grant<\/a> to devise methods for improving laying-hen welfare against a parasite called the northern fowl mite. Gregory Fraley<\/a>, the Terry and Sandra Tucker Endowed Chair of Poultry Science, has received a four-year, $647,000 grant<\/a> to investigate how to improve poultry welfare through a better understanding of the visual system in ducks. Their grants are among 13 awards totaling $7.5 million<\/a> allocated to 11 universities and the USDA Agricultural Research Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the major health issues for laying hens is external parasites, but hens do not all respond to parasites in the same way,\u201d Erasmus said. \u201cEven though they look very similar, chickens have individual responses, and some are more susceptible to parasites than others.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erasmus is collaborating on her project with Luiz Brito<\/a>, associate professor of animal sciences<\/a> at Purdue, and Purdue alumna Amy Murillo<\/a>, assistant professor of entomology at the University of California, Riverside. The team also is working closely with Hy-Line International, the world leader in egg-laying hen breeding, to address the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIndiana is a huge poultry state. We\u2019re uniquely situated here to work closely with our poultry collaborators and industry stakeholders,\u201d Erasmus said. \u201cWe\u2019ll tackle the problem from different angles and hopefully provide some guidance as to what the industry can do to reduce the impacts of these external parasites.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The northern fowl mite is the most economically costly to the nation\u2019s egg industry, causing decreased welfare and lost production in millions of laying hens. Current methods to fight this scourge are limited, however.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A team led by Purdue University\u2019s Marisa Erasmus has a grant from the USDA\u2019s National\nInstitute of Food and Agriculture to improve the health and welfare of laying hens. The team\nwill focus on identifying genetic traits that could protect the hens from mite infestations.\n(Photo provided by Marisa Erasmus, Purdue University)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The considerable individual variation among laying hens potentially offers genetic or genomic solutions to the problem. The Purdue-UC Riverside team is combining its expertise in animal behavior, genetics and genomics, and entomology to holistically understand how individual hens differ in their ability to resist mite infestations. Can chickens be bred, for example, to have certain traits that will make them more resistant to external parasites?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect of the research is the industry changeover from housing egg-laying chickens in cages to cage-free housing systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cControlling pests in cage-free systems is more complicated and challenging than cages,\u201d Erasmus observed. \u201cThese types of parasites are resistant to some insecticides. And we\u2019re limited as to insecticides that can be used while making a product that\u2019s going to be food for human consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fraley is collaborating on his project with Darrin Karcher<\/a>, associate professor of animal sciences<\/a>, and Esteban Fernandez-Juricic<\/a>, professor of biological sciences<\/a>. Indiana is the largest duck-producing state in the nation, which is the world\u2019s third-largest duck producer. Poor welfare and unwanted behaviors can lead to productivity losses that cost the duck industry millions of dollars a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fraley\u2019s team is working with two industry partners, Maple Leaf Farms and Culver Duck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose two companies are the two largest duck producers in the United States,\u201d Fraley said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been absolutely fantastic partners, and they\u2019re very interested in what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All poultry species are seasonal breeders, meaning that they need long days to grow and lay eggs. \u201cOther than that, very little consideration has ever been given to the lighting,\u201d Fraley said. \u201cMost of the lighting systems are designed for the benefit of the people that work with the animals, not really taking into consideration how it may affect the animals\u2019 perception of their environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mammals, including humans, have three different types of color receptors and a grayscale receptor in their eyes. Bird eyes, meanwhile, have four or perhaps five different types of color receptors. They also have a double cone, a type of color receptor of unknown function. Scientists do know, however, that birds can see ultraviolet colors and probably some infrared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is absolutely nothing in our human experience that can prepare us to understand how a bird visualizes its environment,\u201d Fraley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ducks, like chickens, often lay their eggs outside of their nest boxes, where they become covered in excrement and have to be thrown away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe the lighting is such that they can\u2019t really see their nest boxes if they\u2019re far enough away. We don\u2019t know what the problems are, but we\u2019re trying to eliminate these unwanted behaviors that literally cost the poultry industry millions of dollars a year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Writer:<\/strong>\u00a0Steve Koppes
Media contact:<\/strong>\u00a0Maureen Manier,\u00a0mmanier@purdue.edu<\/a>
Sources:<\/strong>\u00a0Marisa Erasmus,\u00a0merasmus@purdue.edu<\/a>; Greg Fraley,\u00a0gfraley@purdue.edu<\/a>.
Agricultural Communications:<\/strong>\u00a0765-494-8415;
Maureen Manier, Department Head,\u00a0mmanier@purdue.edu<\/a>
Agriculture News Page<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

\n
\n

Note to journalists:<\/p>\n

\n Photos, including images of Erasmus and Fraley, are available on\u00a0Google Drive<\/a>. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Faculty members in Purdue University\u2019s Department of Animal Sciences have received $1.4 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Institute of Food and Agriculture for research on safeguarding animal welfare. Both projects pertain to poultry production, a major<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"department":[6],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[66],"coauthors":[53],"class_list":["post-7039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-excellence","department-agriculture","source-purdue-news","purdue_today_topic-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7039"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11168,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7039\/revisions\/11168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7039"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=7039"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=7039"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=7039"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}