Recruiting the next generation of poultry professionals

Communicating the Utility of the Microbiome and Bioinformatics to Small Flock Poultry Producers

The use of “omics” has become widespread across poultry production, from breeding to management to bird health to food safety and everywhere in between.  While the conventional poultry industry has become more exposed to the power and utility of “omic” technologies, smaller poultry flock producers typically do not have this same level of experience. Because smaller, nonconventional poultry production is a growing portion of the overall poultry market, it is important that they also have educational access to these research tools and the resultant data. While small flock producers are dedicated and knowledgeable farmers, their knowledge of these newer technologies may be limited at best, and it is the task of academic researchers to communicate the importance of these “omic” tools and how the omic data can improve a variety of different aspects of their operations. This review discusses ways to effectively communicate complex microbiota and microbial genome sequence data to small flock producers and transforming this data into meaningful and applicable information that they can utilize to inform beneficial management decisions.