It’s the 100th anniversary of the chicken industry in Delaware.
In 1923, Cecile Steele, a Sussex farmer, ordered 50 chicks to raise for eggs, but received 500.
She grew those chickens for meat, and ended up making a significant profit.
“And so in 1923 she sold them for like 62 to 63 cents a pound. Which in today’s world would be almost $11 a pound. So she really showed that it was a good business to get into. And so it kind of started out here by mistake and then it grew as farmers heard about the money she had made more farmers started doing that. And really at that time chicken was not the go-to like we think of it as today. People really didn't start eating chickens on a more normal basis prior to World War II,” explained Georgie Cartanza, the University of Delaware’s Poultry Extension Agent.
She works statewide with poultry farmers, integrators and the public to share best management practices and build awareness and understanding of the industry’s impact on the community.
Sussex County alone has more chickens per square mile than any other place in the US, something many of the newcomers moving to Sussex County aren’t aware of.
Cartanza works to build transparency around chicken production in the state, helping approximately 3,500 chicken industry jobs continue to thrive in an increasingly residential county.
The University of Delaware has done poultry research since the industry began here. Cultivating a strong relationship between researchers and farmers on both the management, which Cartanza’s role supports, and health sides of the business.
Brian Ladman - a senior scientist in UD’s Dept. of Animal and Food Science- says one of their greatest contributions to the industry is in disease response.
“We had a large outbreak of something called highly pathogenic avian influenza, which is not really like the human flu one may think of. It is a respiratory virus by classification, but it really goes systemic, and it absolutely devastates the birds,” said Ladman. “It'll kill them typically within two days of infection, and it's devastating both to those who grow the birds and the birds themselves.”
Around 2021, Ladman and other researchers at the University helped to mitigate the spread, and train those in the industry on rapid response techniques.
“This is something that we're empowered by the US government to do as members of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network. We spent our time helping the state and the industry respond to that disaster, and keep them operating as normally as possible, and supplying diagnostic testing to prove that poultry was free of avian influenza,” Ladman explained.
They are continuing research to help refine responses moving forward, and even work beyond the state and nation through UD’s Emergency Poultry Disease Response Certificate Course, training members of the poultry industry from around the world on topics such as preparedness planning, biosecurity and rapid response techniques and technology.
