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Turkey industry research award given
The 2006 US National Turkey Federation Research Award
has been given to Sandra Velleman, a professor of animal sciences with Ohio
State University's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC).
The award, given every other year, recognizes Velleman's outstanding record
of turkey-related research. A poultry expert with a primary interest in muscle
development, Velleman is senior author or co-author of 23 full-length
peer-reviewed papers on turkeys and has eight turkey gene sequences published in
the
GenBank
of the
National Institutes of
Health.
"Sandy is a superb fundamental scientist who has been very successful in
her scholarly endeavors," said Jim Kinder, chairman of the Department of Animal
Sciences within
Ohio State's
College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
"The
National Turkey
Federation Award is an honor that exemplifies the manner in which Sandy's
contributions are valued by the turkey industry," Kinder said.
Among many other accomplishments, Velleman has established the parameters
for the extracellular matrix (ECM) spacing and muscle fiber size in a commercial
turkey sire line and the experimental F and RBC2 turkey lines at both the
embryonic and post-hatch stages of growth.
During these and other studies, her research has demonstrated that, 16
weeks after hatching, breast muscle morphology was strongly influenced by
maternal inheritance and there was muscle damage in growth-selected lines. This
finding is expected to have a tremendous impact on the selection of dam lines
for the production of commercial turkeys.
"This award indicates the value of my research to the turkey industry,"
Velleman said. "To have the turkey industry place such a high value on …my
research…is of high significance to me."
OARDC is
the research arm of Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.
Editor WorldPoultry
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