Unplucked

You can be right on facts and still lose on trust. Communications strategist Hinda Mitchell joins Andy to talk about how poultry and livestock leaders can connect with people who do not live near a barn. They discuss the power of simple explanations and real images, how to respond when a crisis hits, and why answers land better when they come from people who do the work. Hinda lays out a proactive...

When eggs get expensive, everyone notices. To separate signal from noise, Andy welcomes Brian Earnest, lead protein industry analyst at CoBank, for a clear walk through supply, demand, and the structural changes that shape the retail shelf. They explain how highly pathogenic avian influenza cut laying capacity, why recovery is uneven, and how cage-free conversions changed the cost structure and th...

Good science is only useful when it reaches the people doing the work. Andy sits down with Dr. Tony Pescatore to explore how the land-grant system turns research into practical help for farmers, integrators, and educators. They revisit a career that spans printed bulletins, county meetings, and the early internet, and look at how today’s mix of short videos, podcasts, and searchable factsheets mee...

Career paths in poultry science rarely run straight. Andy talks with Dr. Marc de Beer, president of Aviagen North America, about how a grounding in nutrition became preparation for leading a global genetics business. They discuss curiosity as a career tool, the difference between lab certainty and field ambiguity, and how to make decisions when data are good but incomplete. Dr. de Beer shares the...

Precision nutrition is a mindset as much as it is a set of tools. PSA President Dr. Martin Zuidhof joins Andy to map how data, modeling, and feeder technology can reshape breeder and broiler programs. They explain how individual bird data unlocks new ways to control body weight, improve uniformity, and match nutrients to biological need rather than to averages. The conversation clarifies what prec...

Housing is not just a building choice. It is a biology choice, a management choice, and a market choice. Andy welcomes Dr. Inga Tiemann for a grounded comparison of European and North American approaches to welfare and production. They look closely at cages, aviaries, enriched systems, and mobile housing, and explain how genetics, behavior, and daily labor shape outcomes inside each environment. T...

How did a patchwork of backyard flocks become one of the most sophisticated protein systems on the planet. In this episode, Unplucked looks backward to see forward as host Andy Vance sits down with historian Dr. Margaret Derry to trace the arc of modern poultry. They unpack the early days of organized breeding, the rise of performance testing and record keeping, and the split between egg and meat...

The value of science depends on trust in the record. Andy interviews Olivia Nippe, a senior publishing ethics expert at Elsevier, about how journals and researchers are responding to image manipulation, paper mills, and the growing complexity of data. They examine authorship standards, peer review quality, and the detective work that editors and integrity teams do to protect readers and the public...

Hormones connect the brain to the barn. In this episode, Andy Vance and Dr. Tom Porter explore how endocrine signals shape growth, stress response, and reproduction, and why new single-cell tools are rewriting parts of the playbook. They discuss how the pituitary orchestrates development, how heat stress and management choices alter hormonal balance, and how better endocrine understanding can shar...

Great technical work stalls without great people skills. Andy talks with Dr. Jeff King about emotional intelligence as a practical toolkit for researchers, veterinarians, and production teams. They break down self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills into simple daily habits that reduce conflict, improve feedback, and make collaboration easier. Listeners learn how...

Modern genetics has changed how birds respond to pressure, from heat stress to pathogens. Andy sits down with Dr. Sue Lamont to trace the path from early QTL studies to today’s genome-wide tools and to explain why the chicken remains one of biology’s most useful research models. They connect specific genetic variants to immune traits, growth, and resilience, and they unpack how selection strategie...

Sustainability only works when it works for the bird, the people, and the bottom line. In this episode, Andy Vance talks with Dr. Katy Tarrant about building a practical definition of sustainability that producers can use every day. They outline a clear three-pillar approach that balances welfare, environmental stewardship, and economic reality, and they translate that framework into barn-level ch...

Turkeys share many of the same disease acronyms as broilers, yet the playbook on the ground is different. Andy talks with veterinarian Dr. Carrie Cremers about the unique biology and behavior of turkeys, how those traits shape biosecurity and daily care, and what the sector has learned from recent waves of highly pathogenic avian influenza. The conversation looks at traffic control when farms sit...

When a fast-moving virus meets fragmented policy, producers carry the risk. Andy convenes experts from the AAAP H5N1 task force to translate the current state of play into clear priorities. The discussion explains where surveillance is strong and where it misses, why cross-species consistency matters, and how movement testing, biosecurity, and communication can be aligned so that decisions in one...

Behind every barn-side practice is a paper trail of experiments, edits, and peer review. Andy talks with Dr. Paul Siegel about seven decades of change in poultry science and the journals that carry it. The conversation traces how ideas moved when correspondence was slow and conferences were smaller, then jumps to the digital age where collaboration spans continents and datasets dwarf what was once...

Male chick culling sits at the intersection of economics, ethics, and public perception. Andy sits down with embryologist Dr. Yuval Cinnamon to explain how sex is determined in chickens, why early identification has been so difficult, and what new biological and optical methods can do to change the story before hatch. Rather than a play-by-play, the discussion frames the problem producers need sol...

Automation is moving from trade-show novelty to everyday tool, and poultry is finally seeing the payoff. In this episode, Andy Vance talks with Georgia Tech’s Colin Usher about what practical robotics and sensing actually look like inside commercial houses, where floors are dusty, birds are curious, and decisions must be made in real time. The conversation focuses on systems that create value now,...

Avian influenza (H5N1) is making headlines again, threatening poultry farms across the globe and pushing egg prices higher. Over 166 million birds have been affected so far, with serious impacts on both the industry and public health. In this debut episode of Unplucked, host Andy Vance sits down with Dr. Craig Rowles, DVM, General Manager of Cage-Free Production at Versova Farms, to break down the...

Welcome to Unplucked, the official podcast of the Poultry Science Association.   Andy Vance, Executive Director of the Poultry Science Association, will go beyond the headlines, tackle tough questions, and dive into the scientific research shaping poultry production and processing. No jargon, no filter, just honest conversations with the experts.   Look for our debut episode of Unplucked coming on...