Honors College Research Defense
Author: Jaren Hernandez | Major: Biology | Semester: Spring 2022
Hi! My name is Jaren Hernandez an outgoing senior in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. I am a Biology, Pre-PA major completing research in the Poultry Science department under my mentor, Dr. Adnan Alrubaye. After graduation, I plan on taking gap year and working full time in a hospital to gain patient care knowledge and gain experience to help me within my next steps towards PA school.
Dr. Al was a professor that I had my sophomore year of college and someone who spoke so passionately about his research project. I knew that with a mentor like him, I would gain experience and knowledge to participate in his project. During my time researching under Dr. Al, we were faced with the challenge of lameness in the broiler chicken industry. In 2020 alone, lameness caused by Bacterial Chondronecrosis with Osteomyelitis affected roughly 17.3% of the poultry industry which caused thousands of dollars of economic loss. Bacterial Chondronecrosis with Osteomyelitis (BCO) is a bacterial infection that originates most commonly in the gastrointestinal system of the chicken. When placed under high stress situations, these chickens suffer greatly with a weakened immune system. This weakened immune system causes the harmful bacteria to leak from the gut to the blood stream making its way towards the bones and growth plates of the tibial and femoral head. When allowed to colonize, BCO will cause eventual lameness within the chickens. Our study aimed to identify certain feed additives that could improve gut health and thus prevent the bacteria from translocating into the bloodstream.
This project taught me accountability. For the first half of this project, we had the responsibility of the farm. This meant that we would go in every day to make sure that the chicks had enough food, water, and correct living conditions to be able to grow and mature. This part of the research is arguably be the most important because without this step we would not have a project. If there was ever a day that this wasn’t completed, we would suffer greatly. Chickens do not have days off, nor do they have holidays which means that we could not take off. The great thing about having a research group was the way that we were all so willing to help each other out and pick up slack where it was needed. Once farm work ended, it was great to apply real world problems into an actual lab setting. Necropsy and gene resequencing was completed to find out what particular bacterial species was causing lameness. Again, accountability was such a great factor that played into this research project. I had students alongside of me that I knew I could count on as well as hoping that they knew that they could count on me. My research mentor, Dr. Alrubaye, was also a great asset to have during this project. He was always the first to respond to any problems and the first willing to teach you how to do something. The environment that we worked in made research enjoyable and something to look forward to. Traits like this are what I am able to apply most towards my future career. Though I am not pursuing a career in research, I can take what I learned through hard work and dedication from my research. Applying yourself and working alongside a team makes any work that you are participating in worthwhile.