The National Chicken Council Broiler Research Award recognizes distinctive research work that has a strong economic impact on the broiler industry, primarily on the economic influence the work has had or will have on the industry. It is an annual award.
This year’s recipient is Dr. Moussa S. Diarra with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Dr. Diarra completed his Master in Animal Sciences (1992) and Ph.D. in Microbiology-Immunology (1995) at the Laval University (QC). Presently, he is a Research Scientist at the Guelph Research and Development Centre (GRDC, Guelph, ON) of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and an Adjunct Professor at the Universities of Guelph (Pathobiology and Food Science) and Manitoba (Animal Science).
His research is focused on antimicrobial use (AMU), antimicrobial resistance (AMR), bacterial pathogenesis and the interactions between pathogens and their hosts as well as on the discovery and devolvement of novel alternatives to antibiotics for livestock and poultry.
He is the leader of the poultry node of the Federal Genomic Research and Development Initiative on AMR and an Organic Science Cluster project on organic broiler production. Dr. Diarra received several research grants and co-authored three patents, over 100 peer-reviewed papers and 270 conferences and reports. He received the 2018-GRDC Award of Excellence in Achievements; the 3rd place of the 2019 John N. Sofos Most-cited JFP Research Publication Award and the 2021-AAFC Gold Harvest Award. He is a member of the Working Group on the control of Salmonella and Campylobacter in Poultry, the Scientific Committee of a Research chair on alternatives to antibiotics in poultry hold by the Laval University and served a member of the AMU /AMR Working Group of the Poultry Sustainability Round Table of AAFC (2016-2020). He participated in the Expert Working Group on Pandemic Prevention of Justice Institute of BC (2014-2015). He served as the Western Director and Membership Chair of the Canadian Society of Animal Science (2005-2007) and supervised numerous research technicians, postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students.
