Poultry Facilities

A number of poultry facilities located on Kirby and Laureldale include caged, barn and free-range systems used to study poultry health, behaviour and productivity.  The housing facilities are operated to perform research in both, free range egg and meat production to mimic and assess industry and commercial practice in these areas. The layer facilities include an open curtain shed with battery cages, a barn shed and 40 free-range layer pens while the broiler facilities include the Rob Cummings Poultry Innovation Centre at Kirby with four 20 x 40 m rooms with independent ventilation, lighting control and variable partitions along with other facilities with floor pens and battery cages. Some of these facilities are equipped with video monitoring that can be accessed remotely for monitoring and managing of the animals.  The Poultry Research Group provides skills and experience in planning, designing and performance of animal trials. State of the art research is performed by providing a chicken model of necrotic enteritis, housing 24 NET energy chambers, complex carbohydrate analysis and gas/odor analysis. By providing excellent contacts to the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, Australian Eggs, and all major companies involved in poultry production, the transfer of results obtained from these facilities are highly relevant to the industry and public.