What is Bristol University's Poultry Unit?
The Bristol Poultry Research Farm offers many possibilities for small-scale trials aimed at improving bird health, welfare and productivity. Expertise is matched by the facility’s flexibility in configuration to accommodate a broad scope of studies. The state-of-the art poultry facility offers specialist, industry-focused research for both laying hens and broilers.
This facility bridges the gap between commercial systems and small experimental units, combining industry standard housing with state-of-the-art poultry monitoring, at flock and individual level.
It features eight individually controlled experimental rooms, housing up to 300 birds in each. There are also two isolated hatching facilities, available for research into both laying hen and broiler health, welfare and behaviour. Home Office compliant suites of four rooms, for 20 adult hens per room, are also available.
Active research areas include:
- Layers
- Attitudes to welfare and welfare assessment tools
- Feather loss and beak trimming alternatives
- Housing design
- Keel bone fractures
- Nutrition
- Farmer-led innovation
- Broilers
- Consumer and breeder attitudes to welfare
- Welfare assessment tools
- Humane stunning and slaughter techniques
- Campylobacter and Salmonella zoonoses
- Nutrition
- Emissions
Impact:
- Improved efficiency & productivity alongside enhanced welfare for both egg and meat production.
- Novel monitoring systems for bird productivity and welfare.
Supporting the ‘Grand Challenges’ facing livestock food production:
- Health & Welfare Management
- Resource Efficiency & Precision Nutrition
- Food Safety, Quality & Integrity
In collaboration with:
This Capability is based at the University of Bristol’s Veterinary School. The School’s research is focused in the areas of Animal Welfare & Behaviour, Comparative & Clinical Research, and Infection & Immunity, complemented by quantitative expertise in Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Mathematical Ecology. Research ranges from fundamental to applied and is relevant to over-arching issues such as Food Security and One Health, concepts that the School’s research embraces through collaborations with scientists from other schools within the Faculties of Medical and Veterinary Sciences, Medicine and Dentistry, and Science and other regional institutes and organisations.
