Widowski gets chair in poultry welfare

Thursday, May 12, 2011

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

University of Guelph professor Tina Widowski is the new Egg Farmers of Canada (EFC) Chair in Poultry Welfare. Professor Widowski is based in the Ontario Agricultural College’s (OAC) Department of Animal and Poultry Science and she leads North America’s largest group of animal welfare scientists as Director of the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare.

In her new role, Prof. Widowski will collaborate with researchers on laying hen welfare and egg production, including enriched and aviary systems. EFC is confident this new seven-year partnership, which will be funded at $110,000 a year, will bring enormous benefits to both the University of Guelph and the Canadian egg industry. For the University, the Chair expands and complements the highly regarded research being done in food and animal welfare.

The agreement came into effect in March 2011 and runs through January 2017.

Professor Widowski was appointed to a faculty position in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science in 1990. As director of the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph, her research focuses on housing and management practices and their effect on the physiology, behavior and welfare of poultry and swine. The Campbell Centre is the first research centre of its kind in North America and second of its kind in the world. BF