Broiler performance can be affected by many environmental stressors, including air temperature and quality, social interactions, litter moisture and quality, and pathogens. These stressors lead to decreased feed intake and subsequent growth as well as physiological responses that can further reduce performance and disease resistance - commonly referred to as the “fight or flight” response. One hallmark of stress response is an elevation in circulating levels of corticosterone (CORT). A negative side-effect of elevated CORT is diminished feed intake and immune responses to environmental pathogens common in poultry houses that can lead to disease states. This consequence of environmental stress is potentially exacerbated by the absence of antibiotics in antibiotic-restricted poultry production. Therefore, this objective is aimed at approaches to alleviate potential environmental stressors, develop automated and quantitative non-invasive methods to assess stress levels, and to communicate the approaches and methods developed to the poultry industry.

As our publications related to this goal are produced, we will include them on this page.

Commentary on “Understanding bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO) in poultry: Highlights from proteomic analyses and imaging techniques”

Elizabeth S. Greene, Hans Adriaensen, Frederic Elleboudt, Joëlle Dupont, and Sami Dridi

Effect of heat stress on the hypothalamic expression of water channel- and noncoding RNA biogenesis-related genes in modern broilers and their ancestor red jungle fowl

Elizabeth S. Greene, Travis W. Tabler, Sara K. Orlowski, and Sami Dridi

Effects of heat stress on cyto(chemo)kine and inflammasome gene expression and mechanical properties in isolated red and white blood cells from 4 commercial broiler lines and their ancestor jungle fowl

Elizabeth S. Greene, Elizabeth Adeogun, Sara K. Orlowski, Karthik Nayani, and Sami Dridi