At her own request, Sanna Steenfeldt has decided to retire as poultry coordinator in Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University. Since 2010, Sanna Steenfeldt has managed the role as poultry coordinator together with her many years of research in poultry. Here, her main focus has been on nutrition and physiology, feedstuffs’ nutritional value, feeding strategies and alternative feed
– including the use of roughage in the organic egg production. The research has often been interdisciplinary through collaboration with FOOD and AGRO Ecology and in EU projects. However, she now believes that it is time for a “change of guard”:

“The role as poultry coordinator has been very exciting and challenging, and it has been a great pleasure to collaborate with the poultry group through the years. I believe that we have solved many tasks and challenges on the way. At the same time, the role as animal species’ coordinator has provided me with great insight in what has been going on within the areas of other livestock animals, which has also been an incredibly useful part of the work. I am very pleased with assigning the role to Anja as she is very dedicated and knowledgeable in many fields. She is very experienced within poultry research and public sector consultancy, and I am sure that she will accomplish the job in the best possible way and ensure a continuously good collaboration within the poultry group.

Head of Department Klaus Lønne Ingvartsen has followed Sanna Steenfeldt through all the years and expresses great satisfaction with Sanna’s job as coordinator: “I would like to thank Sanna for her engaging effort through many years of ensuring coordination of the poultry research. At the same time, I am pleased that Anja has accepted to take on the assignment. I look forward to seeing how she will build on the collaboration in the poultry area – not least in the light of green transition.”

In 2007, the new poultry coordinator, senior researcher Anja Brinch Riber, was employed as researcher in the department, and she has been a senior researcher since 2017. Anja holds an age-long experience within poultry research in which emphasis has been on prevention of unwanted behaviour in poultry, housing conditions, environmental enrichment and not least welfare assessment in connection with surveillance and development of methods for this.

“Sanna has done a huge job for poultry research in the department through many years, including in her job as poultry coordinator. The group of poultry researchers is small but scientifically widely covered. This means that we do not necessarily have that much overlap on a day-to-day basis, which is why information and coordination are important factors for gaining the greatest possible synergy and use of resources. Basically, there is also a big interest in each other’s work and a good collegial spirit among the staff working with poultry in the department, so I look very much forward to managing the role as poultry coordinator”, says Anja Brinch Riber.