Hen Houses

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has a robust research program that includes studies of poultry housing, especially as it relates to poultry health, human health, and the environment. Here are the ARS units performing research in poultry housing.

(Go here for a complete list of all ARS units working on poultry)

Livestock Behavior Research Unit

125 South Russell Street
West Lafayette IN 47907

The mission of the Livestock Behavior Research Unit is to develop scientific measures of animal well-being, through the study of animal behavior, stress physiology, immunology, neurophysiology, and cognition, that will allow an objective evaluation of animal agricultural practices. This method of study will allow the improvement of existing practices and invention of new practices that can enhance animal well-being and increase animal productivity. In addition, this unit will use and develop its knowledge of stress physiology and animal behavior to address concerns of pathogen contamination of livestock carcasses due to the stress of handling and transportation. The optimization of animal well-being will assist in improving animal health, increasing productivity and decreasing human exposure to dangerous pathogens.

Food Animal Environmental Systems Research Unit

230 Bennett Lane
Bowling Green KY 42104

Develop and evaluate management practices and treatment technologies that protect water quality, reduce air emissions, and control pathogens at animal production facilities, manure storage areas, and field application sites. Research will be problem solving and environmentally sound considering the unique problems associated with karst topography in the region. Solutions are expected to be effective, economically reasonable, and managerially realistic for the farmers and the livestock producers. It is also expected that the research results will reduce potential hazards to the public without undue economic hardship to the farmers/producers.

Poultry Production and Products Safety Research

University of Arkansas, O-303 POSC
Fayetteville AR 72701

The mission of this Management Unit is to investigate ways to reduce the impact of poultry production problems in turkeys and broilers, ensure a wholesome product for the consumer, and reduce the negative environmental impact of poultry production.

Poultry Research Unit

P. O. BOX 5367
Mississippi State MS 39762

The mission of the Poultry Research Unit is to improve poultry health and to improve poultry production efficiency. Disease, engineering, management, nutrition, and rearing environment research are conducted with a multi-disciplinary approach. Poultry health research is directed toward Mycoplasma infections with emphasis on identifying the infections, measuring the losses caused by the infections, and developing technologies to reduce the losses. Poultry production research strives toward reducing costs and improving efficiency which includes the major cost factor in poultry production – nutrition- and also acquiring and applying basic poultry house environmental data to developing systems for maintaining optimum poultry housing conditions. The staff includes an agricultural engineer, an immunologist, two molecular biologists, a research poultry physiologist, two research poultry scientists, and a veterinary medical officer.

National Animal Disease Center

P.O. BOX 70, 1920 Dayton Avenue
Ames IA 50010

It is the mission of NADC to conduct basic and applied research on selected diseases of economic importance to the U.S. livestock and poultry industries. The goals of the research mission are to produce knowledge and technology to reduce economic losses from infectious, genetic, and metabolic diseases to the livestock and poultry industries and the associated rural agricultural community, to reduce or eliminate pre-harvest contamination or infection of livestock and poultry with food-borne human pathogens, and to prevent suffering and death caused by diseases in agriculturally important livestock and poultry.