Iowa State University (ISU) dedicated the new Robert T. Hamilton Poultry Teaching and Research Farm south of Ames, Iowa, on March 5, 2020, only for the pandemic to hit and make research extremely challenging due to restrictions.
The new facility includes dedicated spaces for teaching and research and a welcome area where visitors can see first-hand examples of Iowa egg production systems and learn about egg production.
Richard Gates, Ph.D., director of the Egg Industry Center (EIC) at ISU said: "It is important to note that this story is much bigger than ISU and our new research farm. For example, each land-grant institution is responsible to its state board of regents or similar body. Each of these governing bodies had to accommodate state recommendations and could have put forth different requirements for their institutions and/or accepted different plans for moving forward from their universities. And further, we're with the EIC specifically, which is a national center but subject to ISU administrative rules," Gates explained.
On-site protocols
All staff and visitors to the Hamilton Poultry Research and Teaching facility must take their temperature before entry, to catch anyone with a fever. "Visitors also must sign in so we can conduct contact tracing if necessary," said Gates.
He explained that staff was protected by requiring face coverings and social distancing, rotating work schedules and separation of duties like ensuring limited interaction for those needing access to the same research rooms on the farm.
On-farm tours and public access to the visitor observation area were suspended and enhanced biosecurity practices were put into place.
Research halted despite on-campus classes
"The local COVID infection situation and timeline is an important consideration when looking at the differences between research protocols and education/classroom protocols," said Gates, "When COVID hit in March, the entire country, across almost all sectors, saw diminished capacity to perform — it was a significant lockdown event. At that time, many universities, including ISU, moved all classes online and suspended in-person classes for the spring semester. In ISU's case, this continued through the summer class sessions as well. Face-to-face classes resumed in August for the fall semester. However, research would have been scheduled to occur during that entire time."
To concentrate on everyone's safety at ISU, essential vs. non-essential employee functions on campus was conducted. "This included an assessment of all research. Non-essential research functions were halted for a time. This affected each project differently, but most were stopped completely early in the lockdown phases," Gates said.
Availability of moveable office equipment made for an additional challenge, especially in the field of research. "Not all research can be done in a remote environment. For example, animal observations or measurements require being on-farm and may entail multiple people working closely together," said Gates.
He further explained that student labor, both undergraduate and graduate students, is critical to research. "Many students went home since they didn't need to be on campus, severely hampering our usual workforce. International graduate students that were accepted into our graduate programs were effectively blocked from international travel. This has further delayed research progress," Gates said.
COVID-19 drew attention to research safety measures that took place outside of the farm, lab spaces and other areas where data is studied, and research personnel interaction was affected.
"While virtual meetings, face coverings and social distancing were an immediate given, other measures included limited staffing and rotating schedules within common spaces or when using highly specialized and expensive analysis equipment had to be planned and implemented. This had the potential to stop or prolong data analysis," explained Gates.
It is noteworthy that supply chains were disrupted due to the pandemic. "That meant that in some cases critical research supplies and equipment deliveries were delayed. In some cases, the disruption meant not gathering data that was anticipated, or modifying the research plan deliverables to make up for lost data," he said.
As effective safety measures were implemented, research resumed.
What did this mean for the projects that were already in progress?
"ISU granted permission to complete any on-going research with animals that could be done while keeping people safe. But, because the new facility had just opened and birds first placed in early March, there was little on-going at that time," Gates said.
There were cases where data that needed to be captured at a certain point and did not get gathered. In some instances, projects could not start due to supply chain disturbances, and graduate student onboarding interruptions.
"For EIC-funded projects occurring across the country, EIC let each principle investigator along with their institution make the decisions they thought were best for their situation," said Gates.
Iowa State's maintained its commitment to animal care despite the challenges associated with the pandemic. "During this time, animal care was prioritized as critical, just as was human safety. ISU is confident that the birds didn't notice a difference in their level of care," he said.
Continuation of research
Even under normal circumstances, research timelines typically require some level of flexibility. Gates explained that, "federally funded projects generally carry provisions for a one year, no-cost extension without much difficulty. Last year USDA and other funding agencies announced further extensions as needed, demonstrating a commitment to keep the work funded even if delayed. Specific extension timeframes would be different based on the funding source. EIC granted extensions for up to one year and extended some of the research timelines we initiated for newly funded projects. Some of the reasons for these include the need for travel to farm sites, for example, to collect data, or to test new technologies."
Extensions mean the industry will wait a bit longer on certain information, however, Gates explained that normally this is not detrimental to the results of the research.
"One significant challenge is that if a staff person or graduate student is funded on a project, but the project couldn't proceed, the original budget only includes dollars to keep someone employed full time for the original timeframe needed to meet the objectives. In that case, it creates a situation where the principle investigator's must come up with additional funding from somewhere else to cover that person's salary. This is now becoming a challenge," he said.
ISU has continued to prioritize the health and safety of its students, faculty and staff, as well as its flocks, as conditions have safely allowed research to proceed, ISU has done so.
"We [EIC, Animal Science, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering] are conducting research at the Hamilton poultry facility now. Much of this is related to starting up the new facility and making it work the way we want. Currently, there is one externally funded research project on hen nutrition, and two more will start-up in the near future," Gates concluded.
View our continuing coverage of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.
