AMES – Topics of interest to the nation’s egg industry will be discussed April 8 at a forum hosted by Iowa State University’s Egg Industry Center.

“The goal of the forum is to update or increase people’s awareness on the latest developments and priority issues concerning the U.S. egg industry, covering the topics of laying-hen welfare, food safety, controlling feed costs, economics and air quality,” said Hongwei Xin, center director and professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State.

Registration information is available at http://www.ans.iastate.edu/EIC

The meeting will begin at 8:15 a.m. in the Embassy Suites on the River in Des Moines with opening remarks by Wendy Wintersteen, endowed dean of College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey.

The breakout sessions include:

• “Egg Production and the Social Concern for the Well-being of Laying Hens” by Janice Swanson, professor and director of animal welfare at Michigan State University.

• “Antibiotics Risks in Egg Production” by Paula Fedorka-Cray, research leader and microbiologist, for the Bacterial Epidemiology and Antimicrobial Resistance Research Unit, of Athens, Ga.

• “Limiting Feed Costs for Egg Production” by Steve Leeson, professor and chairman of the animal and poultry science department for the University of Guelph, Canada.

• “Economic Issues of the Egg Production Industry” by Don Bell, professor and poultry specialist emeritus for the University of California-Riverside.

• Keynote speech: “The Economic Recession/Recovery, It’s a Chicken and Egg Thing” by John Lawrence, professor of economics, Iowa State University.

• “Air Emissions Research Relative to Egg Production” by Hongwei Xin, professor and director of Egg Industry Center.

• Panel question-and-answer session involving all the speakers.