Chicken Challenge The Poultry CRC once again supported the “Chicken Challenge” between the University of New England (UNE) and the University of Queensland’s (UQ) Gatton campus. This year, UNE students travelled to Gatton. The overall winner of the “Chicken Challenge” for 2008 was UNE, with a winning margin of only 0.001 c/g gain, based on

A digitally revised version of the Anatomy of the Chicken learning resource developed in the 1960s can now be accessed through Poultry Hub. The Anatomy of the Chicken resource will provide basic information on chicken anatomy for secondary school students, undergraduate and postgraduate university students and industry personnel. Students taking Poultry Physiology at the University of New England (UNE) will be among

Australia’s poultry producers now have access to a growing suite of cost-effective rapid diagnostic tests for poultry diseases. Twenty tests are currently available through The University of Melbourne’s Asia Pacific Centre for Animal Health (APCAH), with several more in development. The tests are the result of a current Poultry CRC project aiming to provide fast and cost-effective world-class

Welcome to another edition of eChook. As many of you are aware, the next CRC selection round, for which we are preparing a rebid, has been delayed until the Government delivers its response to the Cutler Report (of which Mary O’Kane’s review of the CRC Program is a part). Now that the Minister has announced the Government’s plan for the

Poultry CRC Undergraduate Vacation Internship The first recipient of a Poultry CRC Undergraduate Vacation Internship, Danielle Handcock, has completed her research project with Associate Professor Geoff Hinch’s CRC funded project investigating ways of reducing cannibalistic behaviour in laying hens. Research Technician, Mandy Choice, supervised Danielle for this portion of her Internship. The remainder of Danielle’s

A Poultry CRC project being conducted at the University of New England (UNE) aims to make it easier for Australian poultry producers to reuse litter. The potential benefits include lower costs of production and a smaller ecological footprint for the industry. According to the Project Leader, UNE’s Steve Walkden-Brown, some producers don’t reuse litter in Australia is because they’re

Poultry experts at the recent World’s Poultry Congress (WPC) in Brisbane believe a combination of compounds will be required to effectively replace in-feed antibiotics, and a current Poultry CRC research project is lending support to that theory. CRC researchers at the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) are pursuing the CRC’s objective of reducing reliance on

Welcome to another edition of eChook. Since my last update, there has been no further news about when the guidelines for Round 11 CRCs will be released. However, the Poultry CRC has received 21 expressions of interests from various partners representing over 95% of the Australian poultry industry. This shows an overwhelming support by the industry in which

The two core poultry units offered at the University of New England (UNE), PLTY 300/500 and PLTY 301/501, will be going completely online from the second semester of 2008. The two units were created with funding from the Poultry CRC in 2005 and are very popular with the local industry as well as poultry producers overseas. Enrolment into the units had, however, been low

Vale Jack Houweling Mr. Jack Houweling, General Manager of Darwalla Milling and member of the Poultry CRC Education Committee, passed away earlier this month. Jack will be sadly missed by all his friends and colleagues in the poultry industry. I have known Jack for approximately 20 years and his consistent interest in, and support for,

The Poultry CRC, in conjunction with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (QDPI&F), will be conducting extension activities to help free range poultry producers optimise the liveability of free range layers. The activities are part of a strategy of transferring to industry research results from a project looking at mortality in free range layer

Welcome to another edition of eChook. The long-awaited National Innovation Review (The Cutler Report) was released on 13 September by Minister Kim Carr. The Cutler Report, entitled Venturous Australia, examines the Australian innovation system and recommends some major, but not necessarily fundamental, changes to the way Australia does R&D. From the perspectives of CRCs, the Cutler Report recommends the

The Australian poultry industries have taken a number of pro-active steps to improve bird welfare, not only because healthy, stress-free birds are more productive but also because farmers are concerned for the welfare of their flocks. One such step was to provide financial and in-kind support to the Australian Poultry CRC’s welfare program. The results of