Camila Rodrigues de Freitas
Agricultural, Food, and Nutritional Science, College of Natural and Applied Sciences
Why Are Breeder Hens Put on a Diet?
Introduce yourself…
I am Camila, a 1st-year Msc. student at the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science. In my home country, Brazil, I pursued a bachelor's in Veterinary Medicine and an Msc. in Animal Reproduction. In my free time (rare because I am a grad student hehe), you can find me reading, gardening, hiking, cooking or making my friends laugh.
What are you researching and what do you hope comes out of your research?
Our research aims to investigate the effect of different maternal body weight curves and different feeding systems (conventional and a modern Precision Feed System developed here at the University of Alberta) on the offspring's performance. Our research will help to understand how we can increase the weight of the broiler breeders based on the best bodyweight curve and its effect on the broilers.
How did presenting a Three Minute Thesis (3MT) help explain your research to the public?
The 3MT challenged me to communicate my research in a non-technical language. It made me reinforce the idea that to demystify the several myths related to agriculture, we need to share our scientific results more informally and attractively, making scientific knowledge more accessible to everyone.
What inspires you to do research?
First of all, because I love chickens! I was born and raised on a farm, which made me passionate about agriculture. Also, in Brazil, I worked as a poultry veterinarian, which makes me 100% sure that I want to keep working with poultry.
What are three key words important to your 3MT?
Broiler breeders, broilers and nutrition
How does your research impact local, provincial, or global communities at large?
Our research will allow the poultry industry to start charting a new sustainable path for breeder production, associating feed efficiency while reducing natural resource utilization and increasing animal welfare. It will benefit from the farmers until the final chicken-meat consumers.
If you had to dedicate your research to anyone from the past, present, or future, who would it be and why?
To the funniest supervisor ever, Dr. Martin Zuidhof, for his substantial scientific contribution to poultry nutrition. He encourages me professionally and personally and makes me think-outside-of-the box.
3MT Image Description: Weight of broiler chickens over 50 years.