Courses

Mode of Study

Location

Course Description

Poultry Production Systems
This module will enable students to critically evaluate and analyse the poultry meat and poultry egg industry, in terms of its structure and sectors including intensive and non-intensive systems for meat and egg production. It will examine the global export and import markets for the major poultry meat and egg products and evaluate their quality assurance systems. It will examine the requirements for optimal performance within the various systems and investigate factors, which affect performance.

Poultry Nutrition and Growth
This module will examine the principles of nutrition from a poultry perspective. The importance of nutrients in the growth and production of poultry and how nutrients are processed in the avian body will be examined. The major anatomical and physiological systems in poultry will be studied. The role of nutrition in the health of poultry in different production environments, with particular regard to nutrient deficiencies, will be described. The partitioning of energy and nutrients into the growth and development of the whole body and different components of the body will also be examined, as will methods of describing different growth patterns

Management Skills
With the labour market constantly becoming more competitive there exists a real need for today's graduates to develop skills beyond academic knowledge in order to thrive. This module introduces various management skills which include communication, teamworking, leadership, time management, decision-making, empowerment and motivation. This module therefore aims to improve the student’s knowledge and ability to manage. A range of practical methods and approaches will be used to enable the students to better organise and motivate themselves and others

Incubation and Hatchery Practice
This subject will enable the student to develop knowledge and understanding of the science and technology that underpins the production of day-old stock. Students will develop an understanding of embryo-genesis in poultry and how this is exploited by the poultry sector to maximise the production of viable hatchlings. At the conclusion of the module students will be able to critically evaluate poultry hatchery practices, where appropriate, from an international prospective.

Housing and environmental issues for the poultry industry
Large scale poultry production seeks to manage the birds’ environment to optimise the competing demands of welfare, productivity, quality and environmental protection in an economically viable way. Recognising the options and impacts of housing alternatives, the relationship to environmental emissions, and the sustainability of systems are therefore essential skills for those engaged in the industry that this module addresses.

The approach will initially be one of directed study in order that the full range of issues is covered; but later in the module, students will be asked to do a case study on a real poultry enterprise with the coursework being centred on the completion of the IPPC application form for an intensive poultry enterprise. Even though some students may not be familiar with large scale poultry enterprises, the structured approach required to carry out the IPPC assessment process, and the wealth of information available in the relevant technical document will give a sound basis for understanding the range of housing and environmental issues involved.

Experimental design, data analysis and interpretation
This module aims to develop statistical skills to aid the technical, scientific and management decisions. It explores a range of statistical processes from the collection of data to the production of information charts, diagrams and tables and the analysis of data looking at differences, significance and trends.

Poultry Behaviour and Welfare
This module explains the general principles of poultry behaviour and welfare, and the behavioural and physiological indicators that are used to assess welfare in given circumstances

Poultry Health and Hygiene
Poultry health and hygiene considers the different causes of disease in poultry, and will provide an ability to critically evaluate appropriate methods of diagnosis, treatment and control of disease.

Advanced Poultry Nutrition
This examines theoretical and practical poultry nutrition. It links current nutritional theories, (eg amino acid balance and requirements or the anti-nutrient and toxic properties of feedstuffs) with methods of alleviation. These are integrated with classical nutrition-balance studies and proximate analyses, exposing students to all aspects of a nutritional study, from study design of studies to a report in the form of a scientific paper. It also involves a detailed study of nutrition with respect to bird growth and health and the environmental constraints imposed on the system.

MSc Project (taken following successful completion of taught modules) To provide an opportunity for in-depth individual research on a topic related to applied poultry science.