| Type | Not For Profit Cooperative Research Centre |
|---|---|
| Industry | Poultry farming |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Armidale, New South Wales, Australia |
| Website | Poultry CRC |
The Poultry Cooperative Research Centre, or Poultry CRC, is a joint venture established and supported under the Australian Government's Cooperative Research Centres Program.
The Poultry CRC's major challenge is to help Australia achieve sustainable, ethical poultry production in the face of population growth and climate change.
In July 2008, the Poultry CRC won the World's Poultry Science Association (WPSA) Industry/Organisation Award at the World’s Poultry Congress in Brisbane in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the development of the poultry industry.
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The Poultry CRC is an unincorporated joint venture between seven Essential Participants and is governed by a skills-based board. It manages its research and development programs through a public company, Poultry CRC Ltd. The Poultry CRC is headquartered at the University of New Englandin Armidale, New South Wales, and has an extensive collaborative network comprising researchers, educators and support staff from its participating organisations. The original Poultry CRC was established on 1 July 2003, with the current CRC an extension to 2017.
Three integrated Programs address the major challenge of meeting increasing demand for ‘clean and green’ poultry products and maintaining food security in the face of climate change and population growth.
This requires innovative approaches to:
Program 1 - Health and Welfare - aims to maintain a sustainable, healthy and welfare conscious supply of poultry products despite newly emerging pathogens, increasing environmental concerns about production and changing consumer demands. For many diseases, current vaccines fail to offer complete protection. Changes in production, including reduced reliance on antibiotics and increased use of free-range systems, require a complete reconsideration of protection strategies. The CRC brings together the world’s best research and capability providers in diagnostics, animal health products and welfare to develop a holistic solution. This program of highly integrated projects builds on the success of the first CRC while adding key capabilities, such as vaccine delivery methods, mass sequencing of antigens, and therapeutics.
Program 2 – Nutrition and Environment - addresses resource utilisation and reduction of environmental impacts, including the emission of odours and greenhouse gases (GHG).
Program 3 – Safe and Quality Food Production - focuses on controlling food-borne illnesses related to poultry products (i.e., Campylobacter for chicken meat and Salmonella for eggs) and addresses major consumer dissatisfaction associated with inconsistency in egg quality.
Thirty-five postgraduates are being integrated within the three Programs' research projects, involving immediate and direct interaction with end-users. The CRC expects several to find direct employment with industry, some through its internships program.