American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) reports that Dr Douglas Korver, Ph.D., was recognized for his professional achievements by the Poultry Science Association this week. Dr Korver is an assistant professor of agricultural, food and nutritional science at the University of Alberta in Canada.

The Poultry Nutrition Research Award was presented to Dr Korver during a ceremony in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on 23 July. The award is sponsored by the American Feed Industry Association, as part of its continuing awards program that dates to 1948.

Dr Korver, a native of Lethbridge, Alberta, received degrees from the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Delaware. During his time at the latter institution, he investigated the role of dietary fat stability on feed quality and broiler chicken performance. He earned his doctoral degree at the University of California, Davis, where he focused on the interaction of nutrition and inflammation, as modulated by omega-3 fatty acids.

In 1996, Dr Korver returned to the University of Saskatchewan to take up a post-doctoral research fellowship. His initial work had a strong applied research focus, and relevance of his research to the poultry industry remains important to him.

In recent years, Dr Korver has collaborated with other researchers at the University of Alberta to develop the indicator amino acid oxidation method for determining amino acid requirements of poultry. He currently uses this technique to assess changes in protein synthesis during the inflammatory response in broiler chickens.

Dr Korver’s other main area of research addresses avian bone metabolism. His research group has validated the use of quantitative computed tomography to measure distribution of bone mineral among various bone types in poultry. Assessing bone mineral density in live birds allows for a more efficient use of experimental birds than traditional methods. It also allows bone mineralization in individual birds to be followed through the various stages of production.

In addition, Dr Korver won several teaching awards, and he shared the 2004 World’s Poultry Science Association Education Award as a member of the Alberta Poultry Research Centre.

He is the author or co-author of 30 peer-reviewed papers, six book chapters and 52 abstracts. He has presented more than 60 talks around the world.