My kids are headed back to school. This time, another one has flown the nest and is off to college. Last weekend we moved her into a house and this weekend we are making sure she finds her way around campus and finds the necessary tools she needs to do well in school — aka the library. Yes, I am old school. The library is still a critical resource for me, even though I have google at my fingertips.

Since we are all in that back-to-school mode, I thought I would list some amazing resources to find out about research related to poultry science. Google is our friend, but Google Scholar is an even better resource for science-based facts related to poultry meat quality, food safety, animal welfare, processing, and production. In addition to Google Scholar, here are a few resources to help answer questions related to poultry:

The Poultry Science Association (PSA) is a professional organization with almost 2,000 educators, scientists, extension specialists, industry researchers, among many other members of the scientific community. PSA’s goal is to advance the poultry industry by researching and publishing research in their official journal, Poultry Science. Subject areas include breeding, genetics, education, production, management, environment, health, behavior, welfare, immunology, molecular biology, metabolism, nutrition, physiology, reproduction, processing, and products. This journal is peer-reviewed, meaning that two independent expert scientists review and assess the scientific quality of all papers prior to publishing. Currently, Poultry Science is the highest-ranked scientific journal dedicated to publishing poultry research.

In addition, PSA has a second journal, The Journal of Applied Poultry Research, that publishes original research reports, field reports, and reviews on breeding, hatching, health and disease, layer management, meat bird processing and products, meat bird management, microbiology, food safety, nutrition, environment, sanitation, welfare, and economics. If you’re looking for science-based research, these are the two most well-known journals related to the field of poultry science.

Journal of Food Protection publishes research and review articles on all aspects of food safety, not just those related to poultry science. It is also a peer-reviewed journal, lending to its credibility internationally. JFP is currently the leading publication in the area of food microbiology and is considered the premier journal in food safety research. Since it covers many commodities, it is a great resource to learn about food safety interventions and pathogen reduction technologies across all proteins and other foods.

Chicken Check In is another great resource for information specifically aimed at educating consumers. It is produced by the National Chicken Council, which represents US chicken processors. The website details answers to many questions about chicken production, processors, poultry distributors and allied industries. This is a great website for general answers to many questions customers or consumers may have regarding US chicken.

There are many, many other resources available online for those interested in scientific research related to poultry science. When researching topics, the most important things to keep in mind are to make sure the information provided is science-based (research should be cited and you should check it out) and that the knowledge is coming from an expert in the area of study. Using these techniques can help all of us promote science in our industry and squash some of those nasty rumors.

Back to school (work) resource guides

Join for free* to continue reading.