$10 M Gift For Poultry Research At NC State

An NC State researcher says a 10-million-dollar gift will mean a stable future for the poultry science program.

North Carolina is one of the nation's leaders in poultry production. Clinton-based Prestage Farms' endowment has given NC State's School of Poultry Science new life.

Mike Williams says, "The concept of poultry science is often hard to sell to new students coming into a program."

Interim program head Mike Williams says the gift will help recruit new students. The university will also seek to hire a distinguished professor to lead its lab work. Williams says that post will oversee important experiments

Williams continues, "All focusing on either food production or in some cases using poultry as a model for research relative to human health."

NC State says the poultry science major is currently one of the smallest at the university, with about 75 students.