JSR Services (Blairgowrie) Ltd supply the first pullets into the new avian science research center at SAC.
Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) has now relocated its poultry research unit from Ayrshire to Midlothian. The new facility has been built on the Easter Bush Estate, which is already home to most of the College’s animal and veterinary scientists. JSR Services were selected to supply the first birds due to their attention to detail in the rearing process and their reputation for providing quality pullets. The SRUC needed to have the best quality of birds they could get so observations and trials have the best chance to produce the right results. 
The unit provides research for government and private sectors as well as providing a focus for SRUC’s avian-related nutrition, welfare and disease research. Just like the old facility the new unit will be staffed and managed by SRUC employees; it will provide state of the art growing and production facilities, enabling poultry research across the production chain to be undertaken in commercially relevant facilities to the highest standards of welfare.
Professor Geoff Simm, Vice Principal Research at SRUC, says: “Bringing SRUC’s poultry staff together with SRUC’s animal scientists, while co-locating the poultry facilities alongside the complementary resources and expertise at the Roslin Institute and the wider Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, will create a world leading center for poultry research.”
The new facility will enhance SRUC’s ability to meet the needs of industry and a growing market, and will be co-funded by CIEL, one of the UK Government’s proposed Agri-tech Innovation Centers. This funding has been key to enabling the relocation to happen.
