USPOULTRY and the USPOULTRY Foundation announce the completion of a funded research project by researchers at the University of Georgia that assessed dry hydrogen peroxide as a replacement for formaldehyde in commercial poultry hatcheries. The research was made possible in part by an endowing USPOULTRY Foundation gift from Fieldale Farms. The research is part of USPOULTRY's comprehensive research program encompassing all phases of poultry and egg production and processing. In total, more than $36 million has been invested in research by the association and foundation.

A summary of the completed project:

• Project #727: Utilizing Dry Hydrogen Peroxide as a Replacement for Formaldehyde in Commercial Poultry Hatcheries
• Brian J. Jordan, Ph.D., Department of Population Health and the Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.

Dr. Brian J. Jordan and colleagues with the University of Georgia recently completed a research project with the goal of comparing the efficacy of using dry hydrogen peroxide (DHP) in a commercial hatchery to the use of formaldehyde. The central hypothesis of this research was ­­­that using DHP in the egg room of the hatchery, the hatchery common spaces, and in the incubators and hatchers themselves, in a cumulative manner, would result in microbial control and hatchery and production performance equal to the use of formaldehyde fogging.