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Environment
The CPRC initiated a research program dedicated to environmental issues
in the poultry industry. The aim of the program is to foster collaboration
among researchers in the field and to develop a network analogous to
the AviMicroNet. To that end, a Poultry Environmental Workshop was
held March 2004 in Edmonton, Alberta. The workshop included brief summaries
of the current environmental research at institutions across the country,
followed by round table discussions aimed at identifying priorities
to be pursued by the CPRC Environmental Research program.
The subject of the environment was approached from different perspectives:
Firstly, the impact that the poultry industry has, or may have, on the
human environment. This embraced such issues as manure utilization, release
of ammonia and greenhouse gases, and worker safety. Several presentations
dealt with the impact of the environment imposed on the bird itself,
and, in one case, environmental factors predisposing to a specific disease.
Copies of these presentations are available at the CPRC office.
Following the presentations, the group engaged in a discussion session.
As was the case for the first CPRC workshop, the goal of this discussion
was to identify priorities on which a research program could be based.
A request for Letters of Interest (LOIs) was sent out to researchers
across the country. The aim of this exercise was to better understand
the kinds of environmental research ongoing at our institutions and to
identify programs that are consistent with the research priorities of
the CPRC Member Agencies.
Four projects have been supported, which touch on a wide variety of areas.
These include the prevalence and effect of veterinary pharmaceutical
residues in the environment, the direct injection of poultry litter on
agricultural land, the environmental implications of phosphorus and calcium
flows in laying hens, and workplace exposure to environmental contaminants
in commercial poultry barns.
A Call for Letters of Intent in research related to the environment was made in April 2008.
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