This federal Project Grant award, provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310), aims to address the decline in fertility of parent turkey flocks - a critical issue impacting the turkey industry's ability to supply commercial poults (young turkeys) to growers. The $650,000 award, valid from January 15, 2025 to January 14, 2028, will fund two key experiments: 1) examining the changes...
This $650,000 Project Grant from the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) will fund research at the University of Maryland, College Park from June 2023 through May 2026. The grant will support three specific research aims. The first two aims will study the effects of in ovo administration of corticosterone hormone on production of major hormones regulating growth in chickens, and the impacts of embryonic...
This $650,000 Project Grant awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) (CFDA 10.310) supports research to improve the reproductive efficiency of poultry. The primary goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the formation and differentiation mechanisms of chicken embryonic stem cells into primordial germ cells and primordial germ cells into spermatogonial stem cells. This knowledge could lead to new approaches...
The University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. was awarded a $650,000 project grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The grant, which runs from August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2027, will fund research to identify key biological systems and processes associated with laying hens' utilization of calcium and phosphorus for eggshell and bone mineralization. The project aims to evaluate how these systems and processes change with the...
This USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Project Grant awarded to North Carolina State University (NC State) provides $300,000 to investigate the relationship between turkey nutrition and the underlying causes of injurious pecking behavior, a leading cause of mortality and economic losses in the U.S. turkey industry. The project aims to determine how diet affects the behavioral motivations and gut health of turkeys, and how those factors relate to the prevalence of injurious...
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded Purdue University a $1,000,000 project grant under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) competitive grants program to develop new approaches for designing cage-free egg production housing systems based on understanding hen perception and behavior. The five-year project beginning February 1, 2022 will collect data on hen physiology, behavior and welfare in two existing cage-free housing systems; develop models to...
This $650,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) will fund research on prevention and alleviation of cold stress in laying hens through development of an animal-friendly method. The funding is provided under NIFA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program (AFRI, CFDA No. 10.310), which supports fundamental and applied research, extension, and education addressing food and agricultural...
This three-year, $650,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) will fund research at The Ohio State University to improve poultry production efficiency. The University will pursue two objectives to test the hypothesis that retinoic acid (RA) has dual functions in poultry fat accretion. First, researchers will define the contribution of the retinol binding...
The University of Delaware will conduct research to characterize the reproductive microbiome of the layer hen under a $180,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The grant is awarded through NIFA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) competitive grants program, which provides funding for fundamental and applied research, extension, and education addressing food and agricultural sciences. Specifically,...
The Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded $510,000 under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) federal grant program to Purdue University. The three-year project grant will fund research investigating the impact of stressors like weaning and transport on young pig growth performance and gut function. The research will examine the role of thyroid hormones in fetal and perinatal development with a focus on the association with fetal growth...