Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Poultry became the world's most consumed meat in 2019. The overall goal of this project is to train undergraduate/underrepresent students to empower sustainable poultry production through academic research, industrial collaboration, and continuing education. Cal Poly locates about halfway between two cultural hubs of Southern and Northern California and fosters the teaching of undergraduate students with the motto of Learn-by-Dong. In this project for 5 years, 25 students will be trained to explore their career paths in academia, business, and government. Students will have a mentor/mentee relationship with 11 potential mentors that will continue beyond the life of this project.To achieve this goal, the specific objectives will be performed as below:1) Students will be recruited mainly from local community and junior colleges.2) Students will be trained in broiler feeding, algae growth, bird processing, microbial safety, and sensory evaluation. 3) Students will be connected with the poultry and food industries who look for trained and skilled persons. 5) Students will be equipped for future opportunities available in academia, industry, and government sectors. 4) Students will have an industry and USDA-AMS study tour.At the completion of this proposal, we will conduct an exit interview and will track students beyond the life of this project, maintain partnerships with community colleges, and expand the industry connection.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
60%
Developmental
20%
Goals / Objectives
The major goal of this project is to train undergraduate/underrepresent students to empower sustainable poultry production through academic research, industrial collaboration, and continuing education. To achieve the goal, five undergraduate students/year will be trained in a stepwise approach as bellow: 1) algae production, 2) chicken feeding, nutrition, and management, 3) broiler processing/fabrication, 4) microbial population and certification of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point), and 5) consumer sensory evaluation. In addition, students will have industry study tours for broiler farms, processing plants, equipment production/equipment distribution, and Innovative Feed Ingredient. At the end of training and education, students will be equipped for industrial jobs or advanced academic programs including masters' program with a HACCP certification.
Project Methods
For the 5-year project (20 weeks training/year), five targeted students per year will be recruited from local community colleges for three students and Cal Poly for two students. For efficient recruitment, the proposal purpose will be announced throughout agricultural colleges and departments at community colleges and Cal Poly. Selected students will be intensively trained for the four major areas: 1) Chicken Feeding, Nutrition, and Management; 2) Poultry processing with chilling method; 3) Microbial population and hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP), and 4) Consumer sensory evaluation. During the 12 weeks in summer, students will take classroom lectures for the introduction of poultry management, broiler processing, and food sfety/HACCP in the afternoon while they are feeding broiler chickens and checking feed intake and body weight gain in the morning. After summer, students will be continuously educated via on-line class to complete the courses including a HACCP certification. During the winter, students will have two industry study tours for two weeks. In California, students will have a one-week tour for poultry farms, processing plan, and poultry farm equipment distribution. In North Carolina, students will have another week's study tour for poultry processing equipment and high-performance enzyme feed additives. With the industry tours, students will understand meat industry operations from harvest to retail and/or food service, interact with key industry workers, and have opportunities to observe regulatory and facilitating roles in USDA-AMS. Results of this proposal will be analyzed using ANOVA, and relationships between the treatments and the biochemical and quality parameters will be analyzed using correlation analysis. Scholarly data and interpretation will be reported to scientific conferences or peer-reviewed journals.