Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Our project focuses on three, tightly interrelated research and extension objectives. Working on highly-diverse farms with integrated poultry, we propose to: (1) Detail chickens' feeding on pest and beneficial insects, and weeds, through molecular analysis of dietary-DNA remains in chicken feces, and how this is influenced by farming system and time of year, (2) Infer likely sources of chicken exposure to Salmonella and Campylobacter bacteria using whole-genome pathogen sequencing and landscape modeling, and (3) Quantify the birds' net impacts on arthropods, weeds, and soils, through on-farm chicken exclusion experiments. Our "Chicken Dinner" research and outreach effort will recruit grower citizen-scientists from across the southeastern U.S. to submit samples from their own pastured flocks for complete diet analysis, so they can learn exactly which pests and weeds their chickens are eating. Our ultimate goal is to provide growers with practical tools to maximize the benefits of pastured chickens, while minimizing any dangers, as part of whole-farm planning.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
Working in cooperation with our grower collaborators, we propose to: (1) Detail chickens' feeding on pest and beneficial insects, and weeds, through molecular analysis of dietary-DNA remains in chicken feces, (2) Track likely sources of chicken exposure to Salmonella and Campylobacter bacteria using whole-genome pathogen sequencing, and (3) Quantify the birds' net impacts on arthropods, weeds, and soil microbes, through on-farm chicken exclusion experiments. Our "Chicken Dinner" outreach effort will recruit grower citizen-scientists from across the southeastern U.S. to submit samples from their own pastured flocks for diet and pathogen analysis, so they can assess the ecosystem services (and disservices) their birds are providing. Our ultimate goal is to provide growers with practical tools to maximize the benefits of pastured chickens, while minimizing any dangers, as part of whole-farm planning.
Project Methods
The Chick-EES project seeks to provide the first steps toward several long-term research and outreach goals of our interdisciplinary project. First, we seek to provide southeastern growers with a detailed roadmap for specifically which pests and weeds pastured chickens are most likely to eat, depending on farming system and time of year. This may ultimately allow growers to deploy chickens prescriptively to control the weed and pest species that chickens find to be particular delicacies. Second, we will provide tools for growers to understand, predict, and mitigate routes through which potential foodborne pathogens reach their pastured flocks (e.g., nearby concentrated livestock, interactions with wildlife, or water sources) to reduce food safety risks. Third, we will assess, on real working farms, the net gains for natural pest and weed control, soil fertility and soil-microbe biodiversity, and counteracting risks to food safety, provided by pastured chickens. Fourth, we will develop a citizen-science network where a broad range of growers in the southeastern US further document pest and weed control by chickens across the region. The core goal of our project is to provide growers with a roadmap to capture the many ecosystem services pastured chicken rotations might contribute to mixed-vegetable production. We will apply a powerful combination of observational and experimental approaches in our experimental work, and all that we learn will be relayed to growers through a vigorous outreach program, focusing on citizen-scientist research participation, hands-on learning, and web, social media, and video components. Regular consultation with a grower advisory board, and pre- and post-project surveys, will be used to assess the success of our research and outreach effort in changing knowledge and beliefs about the ecosystem services that chicken integration might bring to mixed-vegetable farmers.