New name for Animal & Poultry Science at University of Guelph

The Department of Animal and Poultry Science at the University of Guelph in Canada has been re-named the Department of Animal Biosciences.
Chair Jim Squires says the change reflects the department’s research and teaching in emerging fields such as genetics, animal welfare and bioproducts.
Rob Gordon, dean of the Ontario Agricultural College, adds: “The new name helps describe the department’s evolution from a livestock husbandry department in the 1870s to the highly dynamic and integrated department it is today.”
President Franco Vaccarino approved the name change and has notified the University Senate.
“After a long consultation period with our staff, students, faculty and alumni, I am so pleased to see the department re-named,” shares Jim Squires, chair of the Department of Animal Biosciences. “The new name captures the breadth and evolution of the department and it better reflects our research and teaching capacity.”
Squires says that many internal and external audiences don’t realize the department works in genetics, physiology, welfare and behaviour, animal models for health, animal metabolism, reproduction, nutrition, equine management, animal care and the social and environmental impacts of both livestock and companion animals.
He and the department’s staff, faculty and students feel the new name will better communicate the department’s mandate to others.
“Over the last 140 years the mandate of the department has increased beyond production to include disciplines including companion and non-traditional farm animals, bio-products, and animals in human health,” explains Rob Gordon, dean of the Ontario Agricultural College.
“The new name helps describe the department’s evolution from a livestock husbandry department in the 1870s to the highly dynamic and integrated department it is today.”