The donation is scheduled for today at the Washington Court Hotel at the United Egg Producers Legislative meeting in Washington, DC. Dr Janice Swanson of Michigan State University, will be presented with the $25,000 cheque by Gary Cooper, Chairman of US Poultry & Egg Association and COO of Cooper Farms, a turkey, pork, egg and broiler producer based in Ohio.

Mr Cooper said: "We had a successful 2011 International Poultry Expo. In particular, we were well supported by the commercial egg industry. Due to that success, we are very quickly able to return those funds to support the industry."

The new MSU facility will provide housing and rooms to conduct research on hens in conventional cages, cage-free aviary and enriched colony stages. The facility will allow the researchers to measure performances and behavioral traits of hens using nests and perches at a variety of floor spacings per hen.

In addition to this donation, USPoultry's Research programme has recently funded a $72,600 project entitled, 'Enriched Colony Cages: Stocking Density on Laying Hen Well-Being', that will be conducted at Michigan State in the new facilities.

"We are pleased to accept this generous donation from USPoultry," stated Dr Swanson, Director of Animal Welfare, Department of Animal Science at Michigan State. "The importance of having an intensive research facility outfitted with conventional and alternative systems to enable the replication and validation of data cannot be understated," she added.