World leading Poultry Research Facilities

As part of CIEL, Bristol is developing a bespoke 326m2 poultry research unit with experimental hatchery facilities and an 8-room modular rearing/laying facility to enable experimental replication, and procedure rooms as necessary. The rooms will be equipped with state-of-the art monitoring equipment to assess bird activity and movement – a critical step in understanding behaviour and interactions with fixtures within a complex environment. In essence individual birds living within groups can be followed over their entire lifespan. The ability to track and locate birds, for example with RFID tags; to fit birds with 2-sensor 3D accelerometers to measure physical forces to which they are subjected during movement and to assess physiological and behavioural measures of stress non-invasively and remotely, provides a basis for many different strands of cutting-edge research. The facility will particularly lend itself to early-stage pilot studies ahead of commercial trials.