CD's TOP THE TURKEY CHART

Posted 19 November 2002

A STUDENT PROJECT at Harper Adams University College, Shropshire, which proved even the humble turkey appreciates a good CD has won a prestigious award.

Joint winners were announced for the 2002 Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Award after Isobel Hanson, 22, from Port Pendennis, Falmouth, in Cornwall, and Juliet Christina Lay, 22, from Sutton Coldfield, in the West Midlands, entered their research project.

Miss Hanson, a graduate of the BSc (Hons) Animal Health degree at Harper Adams, and Miss Lay, a graduate of the BSc (Hons) Agriculture with Animal Science, worked together for an Animal Behaviour and Welfare module.

They investigated the effects of enriching the environment of growing turkey poults by hanging CD's inside the pen. They found that the introduction of such novel items had a temporary yet beneficial effect on displays of aggressive behaviour by the birds.

The RSPCA Award is an annual prize, contested amongst final year students who are undertaking a practical research project investigating aspects of farm animal welfare.

Judges said Miss Hanson and Miss Lay had produced a project that was: "well designed and researched and accompanied by a very good presentation and poster display." They received the award during a special ceremony held at Harper Adams during Graduation Day last September.

Isobel Hanson was also able to celebrate earlier this month, when she won a Certificate of Achievement in the Royal Agricultural Society of England's Eqvalan Thesis of the Year Award for 2002.

Miss Hanson's winning thesis on 'monitoring worm larval pasture burdens in fields grazed by donkeys' was supervised for Harper Adams University College by lecturer Carole Brizuela.

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Caption: Juliet Christina Lay (Left) and Isobel Kate Hanson (R) collect the 2002 RSPCA Award from the society's representative Mr David Coogan.