Peter Ferket

Interim Department Head, William Neal Reynolds Professor — Nutrition and Biotechnology

Director, Animal Food and Nutrition Consortium

Faculty/EHRA

Scott Hall 234E

919.515.5409

Area(s) of Expertise

Dr. Ferket’s research interests complement his Extension activities: applied nutrition research of commercial meat-type poultry and utilization of agricultural co-products as feed ingredients for poultry. Most of his research is done with turkeys, broilers and some fish species (tilapia and striped bass) in the following areas: 1) nutritional factors that affect immune function, skeletal development, enteric development, growth characteristics and meat quality; 2) the use of supplemental enzymes to improve feed digestibility and gut health; 3) the study of in ovo and neonatal nutrition on development and epigenetic responses; 4) the evaluation of alternatives to anti-coccidials and antibiotics in feeding programs; 5) the effect of feed manufacturing on nutrient utilization and gut health; and 6) the effect of nutrition and feed formulation on the microbial ecosystem of the gut.

Extension Responsibilities

My extension program deals with issues related to nutrition and feeding practices of commercial poultry, with an emphasis on meat-type turkeys and broilers. Educational nutrition programs include the Carolina Poultry Nutrition Conference, the Poultry Nutritionist Workshop, the Feed Technology School, and feed science workshops, the poultry production workshop, and various short courses, workshops, and seminars about poultry nutrition and feed formulation held periodically throughout the state and abroad. Topics include feed formulation, feed manufacturing technology, quality and nutritional value of ingredients, efficacy of feed additives (coccidiostats, antibiotics, probiotics, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, etc.), and nutritional factors that affect enteric development, health and meat quality. A considerable effort is focused on in ovo and early nutrition, the evaluation of supplemental enzymes to improve nutritional value of feed, the evaluation of feed additives that improve enteric health, and the utilization of animal and plant processing co-products as added-value feed ingredients.

Publications

The Effect of Housing Environment on Commercial Brown Egg Layer Production, USDA Grade and USDA Size Distribution, ANIMALS (2023)
Breeders fed diets supplemented with conventional free or lipid microencapsulated premix forms of trace minerals at standard or high levels, Poultry Science (2022)
ASAS-NANP SYMPOSIUM: Mathematical modeling in animal nutrition: training the future generation in data and predictive analytics for sustainable development. A Summary, Journal of Animal Science (2021)
An ecological approach to manage gut health in turkeys, PEAK 2021 (2021)
Comparative efficacy of spray-dried plasma and bacitracin methylene disalicylate in reducing cecal colonization by Salmonella Enteritidis in broiler chickens, Poultry Science (2021)
Effect of methionine chelated Zn and Mn and corn particle size on Large White male turkey live performance and carcass yields, POULTRY SCIENCE (2021)
The animal health and nutrition consortium: a collaborative model to fund pre-competitive research and career development, Symposium on Gut Health in Production of Food Animals. 10/31-11/3/2021, St. Louis Missouri (2021)
Chicken embryo development: metabolic and morphological basis for in ovo feeding technology, POULTRY SCIENCE (2020)
Comparative Effects of Spray-Dried Plasma and Bacitracin Methylene Disalicylate on Intestinal Development in Broiler Chicks, International Journal of Poultry Science (2020)
Effect of Dietary Organic Acids and Humic Substance Supplementation on Performance, Immune Response and Gut Morphology of Broiler Chickens, JOURNAL OF APPLIED POULTRY RESEARCH (2020)

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Education

B.S., Agriculture, Animal Science Major, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada (1981)
M.S., Poultry Nutrition, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada (1983)
Ph.D., Animal Nutrition, Meat Science Minor, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (1987)