About

Dr. Peter Ferket is the William Neal Reynolds Professor in the Prestage Department of Poultry Science at NC State University. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and his Ph.D. from Iowa State University. His research focuses on nutrition and metabolism programs aimed at enhancing productivity and health, as well as the formulation and manufacture of quality feeds. His extension program emphasizes the nutrition and feeding practices of commercial poultry and fish, with particular attention to meat-type turkeys and broilers. Dr. Ferket conducts applied nutrition research on factors affecting immune function, skeletal and enteric development, growth characteristics, and meat quality in poultry, especially turkeys and broilers, as well as some fish species like tilapia and striped bass. His work includes evaluating supplemental enzymes, feed additives, in ovo and neonatal nutrition, and the use of agricultural co-products as feed ingredients. He is actively involved in educational programs such as the Carolina Poultry Nutrition Conference, Poultry Nutritionist Workshop, Feed Technology School, and various short courses and seminars, both locally and internationally, to improve feed formulation, manufacturing technology, and gut health in poultry production.

Research topics

• Biology
• Ecology
• Food science
• Biochemistry
• Animal science
• Chemistry
• Mineralogy
• Environmental chemistry
• Cell biology

Selected publications

• Chicken embryo development: metabolic and morphological basis for in ovo feeding technology

  Poultry Science · 2020 · 126 citations

  • Biology
  • Biochemistry
  • Cell biology

  Broiler embryonic development depends on the nutrients that are available in the egg, which includes mostly water, lipids, and proteins. Carbohydrates represent less than 1%, and free glucose only 0.3%, of the total nutrients. Considering that energy requirements increase during incubation and metabolism is shifted toward the use of glycogen stores and gluconeogenesis from amino acids, extensive muscle protein degradation in the end of incubation can compromise chick development in the initial days after hatch. Significant prehatch changes occur in embryonic metabolism to parallel the rapid embryonic development. Oral consumption of the amniotic fluid begins around 17 d of incubation and promotes rapid development of the intestinal mucosa, which is characterized by morphological changes and increased expression and activity of enzymes and transporters. Furthermore, ingested substrates are stored as nutritional reserves to be used during hatching and in the first week after hatch. At hatch, this limited-nutrient store is directed to the functional development of the gastrointestinal tract to enable assimilation of exogenous nutrients. In ovo feeding is an alternative to deliver essential nutrients to chick embryos at this critical and challenging phase. The improved nutritional status and physiological changes triggered by in ovo feeding can resonate throughout the entire rearing period with significant health and economic gains. The present review addresses the main changes in metabolism and intestinal development throughout incubation, and also addresses scientific advances, limitations and future perspectives associated with the use of in ovo feeding that has been regarded as an important technology by the poultry industry.

  DOI

• Feeding high-oleic peanuts to meat-type broiler chickens enhances the fatty acid profile of the meat produced

  Poultry Science · 2020 · 31 citations

  • Food science
  • Animal science
  • Biology

  Early feeding trials using peanut meal prepared from normal-oleic peanuts helped to identify peanuts as a suitable alternative feed ingredient for poultry. Yet no studies to date have examined the use of high-oleic peanuts (HO-PN) as a feed ingredient for meat type chickens. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect of feeding whole unblanched HO-PN on the fatty acid profile of the meat produced from broilers. At hatch male chicks were randomly placed in raised wire cages, in 10 replicate pens per treatment with 10 chicks per pen, and fed with one of the 3 isocaloric, isonitrogenous diets ad libitum for 42 days: (1) conventional control of soybean meal + corn, (2) 10 to 12% HO-PN and corn diet, or (3) control diet spiked with ≈6.0% oleic acid oil. All body weights (BW) were collected, and broiler selection for processing was determined by individual BW within one-half a standard deviation of the experiment 42-D mean BW, with one bird selected per pen (10 replicate pens per treatment, 3 treatments, 10 birds selected per treatment, yielding a total sample size of 30 birds). Performance was determined weekly and breast samples were analyzed for fatty acid and amino acid profile. All data was analyzed using analysis of variance, with t-test mean comparisons at P < 0.05. BW were similar between broilers fed the HO-PN and control diet, while feed conversion ratio of broilers fed the HO-PN diet was significantly higher at weeks 2, 4, and 6 in comparison to the other treatments (P ≤ 0.03). Broilers fed with HO-PN diet had reduced carcass and pectoralis major weights in comparison to the other treatments. Chicken breast from broilers fed the HO-PN diet had significantly reduced saturated and trans fatty acid content in comparison to the controls (P ≤ 0.0002). Although additional studies must be conducted, this study suggests that feeding whole unblanched HO-PN to broiler chickens may serve as a means to enrich the meat produced with unsaturated fatty acids.

  DOI

• Feeding low dietary levels of organic trace minerals improves broiler performance and reduces excretion of minerals in litter

  British Poultry Science · 2020 · 38 citations

  • Chemistry
  • Animal science
  • Environmental chemistry

  . 3.77%, respectively; P < 0.05). 5. Oxidation status, measured by superoxide dismutase activity in breast muscle at 48 d of age, significantly increased with mineral inclusion levels (P < 0.001), irrespective of source. 6. It was concluded that the use of organic minerals, even at low levels in the diet, is beneficial for broiler performance and reduces the excretion of minerals in litter.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ramon D. Malheiros

  North Carolina State University

  17 shared

• Zehava Uni

  Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  15 shared

• J. Brake

  Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences

  13 shared

• J.L. Grimes

  North Carolina State University

  10 shared

• Teena Middleton

  Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center

  9 shared

• T. Veldkamp

  9 shared

• E.T. Moran

  Auburn University

  9 shared

• E. van Heugten

  North Carolina State University

  8 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Poultry Science

  North Carolina State University

  1990

• M.S., Poultry Science

  North Carolina State University

  1986

• B.S., Poultry Science

  North Carolina State University

  1984

Awards & honors

• William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor

Similar researchers at North Carolina State University

• Jonathan Lindseyh-101
• Edward Breitschwerdth-100
• José Alonsoh-94
• Rob Dunnh-94
• Frances S. Liglerh-92