Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., has announced $141.5 million in federal funding for a new Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory Campus at the U.S. National Poultry Research Center in Athens.
The grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, will support the design and construction services for the new campus. The new facility will include modernized laboratories, biosafety environments and holding facilities.
“This new state-of-the-art center will allow our Georgia-based Southeast Poultry Research Lab to continue as the world leader in poultry health research, supporting Georgia jobs and protecting our food supply from threats like avian flu,” said Isakson, a co-founder of the Senate Chicken Caucus. “This facility is of national and international importance, and I am delighted with today’s news from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
The center's research program has three main objectives: the ensuring and improvement of food and feed safety; the ensuring and improvement of food and crop quality and production efficiency; and the practical exploitation of natural chemical and biochemical products. Program funding supports Agricultural Research Service objectives in plant sciences, animal sciences, and commodity conversion and delivery. The center’s research continues to emphasize high priority Agricultural Research Service food safety and utilization research programs.
