Poultry News & Events

By Abby Neu Schuft, Extension Educator NPIP Biosecurity Plan Audits The count-down has begun for producers to complete their first NPIP Biosecurity Plan Audit. Each eligible producer needs to have their first audit complete by September 2020. There are many poultry industry members that still need to complete this process. There are also several who will complete their second audit this fall. I would like to once again extend the invitation to you all that I am available to help you write your biosecurity plan and prepare for your first and subsequent NPIP audit. We can meet face-to-face, online or by phone. I understand putting pen to paper can be over-whelming, but I’m here to help. Please call (320) 235-0726 ext. 2019 or email ( neux0012@umn.edu ) and I’ll help you get started! Biosecurity education and training opportunities Many of you are familiar with or at least aware of the Biosecurity Entry Education Trailer (BEET) at the U. This educational tool has become so

Summarized by Dr. Tim Johnson The University of Minnesota has recently published an article in mBio that is the culmination of a 6-year collaborative effort to identify and develop custom, tailored probiotics for commercial turkeys. The project was led by Dr. Tim Johnson, but was truly a collaborative effort involving other UMN researchers from the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine (Drs. Carol Cardona and Kent Reed), Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (Dr. Sally Noll), and Biological Sciences (Drs. Dan Knights and Tonya Ward). This project started when Johnson and Noll profiled bacterial populations of high-performing turkeys, and identified several species of bacteria that were strongly correlated with turkey performance. From that work, Johnson’s lab cultured more than 1,000 strains of these target bacteria. They then used a top-down approach that involved whole genome sequencing and live bird experiments to find strains with the greatest potential as probiotics in tur