Dates

• Existence: 1947 - 1986

Biography

Edinburgh had established a reputation for poultry genetics research during the 1920s, chiefly through the interests of the director of the Institute of Animal Genetics, F.A.E. Crew. A keen poultry breeder since his youth, Crew published on aspects of intersexuality and reproductive physiology in the fowl, subjects which were also taken up by Alan Greenwood, who had arrived at the Institute as a doctoral student in 1923.

With Crew away on military service during the Second World War, Greenwood became Acting Director of the Institute as well as Head of the Poultry Section. In 1946, he was invited by the Agricultural Research Council to submit a programme of poultry research, as part of their investment in a number of research centres to improve Britain’s agricultural output. The ARC agreed to his proposals and in 1947 the Poultry Research Centre was created under Greenwood’s direction. The PRC's buildings were erected in 1949 on lands feued from the University of Edinburgh adjacent to the Institute of Animal Genetics, with an outstation to house larger experiments being built on the Bush Estate, south of Edinburgh. The PRC inherited as experimental material the inbred flock of Brown Leghorns which had since 1931 been maintained at the Institute of Animal Genetics without the introduction of fresh blood.

The remit of research in the PRC was wide, being concerned with scientific problems of interest to the agricultural industry as well as the science of genetics. Studies encompassed such areas as egg production, heredity, welfare, sexual characteristics and environmental factors in development and productivity. The Centre also housed a group of workers supported from the British Empire Cancer Campaign who used the Leghorn flock for research on cancer and allied conditions.

In 1971, the Outstation relocated to larger premises in Roslin, Midlothian, adjacent to the Dryden and Mountmarle farms, and the PRC itself relocated there in 1980. Six years later, part of the PRC integrated into the Edinburgh Research Station of the new Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics Research (IAPGR). The nutrition, biochemistry and pathology programmes of PRC were incorporated into the Institute of Grassland and Animal Production (IGAP) as the IGAP Poultry Department. This remained on the former PRC site and was incorporated into IAPGR in 1990.

PRC directors

Chronology:

1947-1962

A.W. Greenwood

1962-1978

T.C. Carter

1978-1986

D.W.F. Shannon

Found in 31 Collections and/or Records: