A FUNCTIONAL GENOMIC AND DNA MICROARRAY APPROACH TO IDENTIFY KEY INNATE IMMUNITY GENES FOR A NOVEL SELECTION METHOD TO IDENTIFY CHICKENS....

The poultry industry suffers major economic losses from both mortality due to infectious diseases and potential contamination of food products due to transfer of microorganisms. As a result, breeder companies have a keen interest in identifying chickens capable of resisting infection by microorganisms. Our laboratory focuses on evaluating the innate immune system of commercial broilers in order to assess their capacity to protect against pathogenic invasion. The objective of this research is to employ a functional genomics approach to develop a novel selection method to identify poultry with increased resistance to diverse pathogens, including, but not limited to, Salmonella. Through this work, we will provide poultry breeders with a novel tool by which to rate potential lines of chickens and specific individuals within the line, and their ability to resist infections. These data will equip breeder companies with a means to objectively select individual broilers
to use as parental stock.