The Donald McQueen Shaver Poultry Complex (under renovation)
Built in 2004, the Donald McQueen Shaver Poultry Complex is currently undergoing renovation to remain state-of-the-art and support the sustainability-focused research projects that will help Canadian poultry farmers meet the demands of a rapidly changing industry.
For example, as the poultry industry moves towards raising chickens without antibiotic growth promoters, a more wholistic understanding of diets, the host and their microbiome is crucial for the development of alternatives to antibiotics. This is crucial as factors such as food safety, welfare of poultry, and emergence/re-emergence of poultry diseases are already affecting sustainable poultry production. Modernization of our poultry complex will help produce solutions to these issues, by supporting training in nutrition, immune response, and the microbiome using cutting-edge technologies such as next-generation sequencing, nanobiosensors and data-driven poultry management.
The ongoing work will also prepare the facility to accommodate research and training in the key area of gut health in poultry, giving students a competitive advantage in academia and the industry.