Abigail Fanous

Author: Abigail Fanous | Major: Biology | Semester: Fall 2022

My name is Abigail Fanous and I am a part of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and I am majoring in biology. I completed this research in Fall 2022 under Dr. Alrubaye from the department of poultry science. After college I plan to get a masters degree in public health and pursue a career in epidemiology.

My research project was over the evaluation of DSM feed additives on nitrogen utilization and digestibility in broiler chickens over 42 days. From this we essentially evaluated what feed additives and at what concentration increased the feed to mass conversion in broiler chickens. This is important because we need to find a sustainable and cost efficient way to increase the productivity of the poultry industry in order to feed our growing population. For this experiment we had 9 different treatments containing varying amounts of feed additives and each of these treatments had 10 pens and 20 chicks per pen equaling a total of 90 pens and 1,800 chicks at the start of the experiment. The feeding schedule consisted of 3 different phases; phase one was the starter diet which was supplied from days 0-14, phase two was the grower diet supplied from days 15 to 28, and phase three was the finished diet supplied from days 29 to 42. Before filling the feeders, the mass of the feed bag was weighed and recorded. The feeders were filled as needed in order to reduce feed waste. We also measured the amount of feed left over after each feeding phase by weighing the remainder of the feed. The birds per pen were weighed four different times during the experiment to observe the feed to mass conversion. They were first weighed by pen on day 0 to ensure all starting groups weights were within 2% of the overall mean chick weight. The birds were weighed per pen three more times on days 15, 29, and 43 to record their average body weight. We were unable to draw any significant conclusions from this trial.

I became a part of this project because I was already working with Dr. Alrubaye on another project for my Honors thesis. By being a part of this project I was able to gain a deeper understanding of broiler chickens and the poultry industry which helped me with my thesis. There were many challenges I had to face while doing this research, but luckily we had a great team of other undergraduates and graduate students and we were able to solve any problem thrown at us. The most difficult aspect of this research was the time commitment and how tedious it was. Some weekends our team would be at the farm for 4-5 hours each day weighing chickens and feed bags. Without the rest of our amazing team, this aspect would be unbearable. Dr. Alrubaye has also helped me so much with this project as well as my thesis research, without his help I would not have been able to receive this grant. This past semester was my last and I have now graduated and am able to continue on my career path thanks to Dr. Alrubaye, the research team, and the Honors College.