Poultry Centre addition officially opened
Posted March 08, 1999
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 8, 1999
99-03-05-AG
Poultry Centre addition officially opened
The Department of Animal and Poultry Science has a new Poultry
Centre addition.
The new facilities were officially opened Friday, in conjunction with a
two-day conference in Saskatoon of the Saskatchewan Poultry
Industry.
The addition adjoins the Poultry Centre (at the corner of East Road
and Preston Avenue) that was opened as a teaching and research
facility in 1985. It houses a modern hatchery, a gnotobiotic animal
research facility, and a building for turkey research. The term
gnotobiotic refers to a known microbial exposure in a given area.
Professor Hank Classen says the hatchery?previously located in the
virtually unusable Poultry Science Building (1917 vintage)?
represents an essential component of the teaching program not only
in the School and College of Agriculture but also in the Western
College of Veterinary Medicine.
The gnotobiotic facility is built, Classen says, ?to support research
involving the microbial ecology of the digestive tract and how it
impacts on animal production.? It houses isolators capable of
providing a controlled microbial environment and the infrastructure
(hatchery, animal space) required for the production of both
conventional and gnotobiotic stock.
The facility for conducting turkey research?hitherto conducted in a
swine farrowing barn deserted when the Prairie Swine Centre was
opened?is attached to the Adult Cage barn and currently is housing
a rare bronze turkey breed that has been and will be a valuable
control for studies on growth and development, digestive tract
function, and reproductive physiology.
Funding for the $800,000+ facility was obtained from both the
University and the poultry industry.
For more information please contact:
Professor Hank Classen
Animal and Poultry Science
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-6600
