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Professor Rob Gous gous@ukzn.ac.za Professor Rob Gous of the School of Agricultural Sciences and Agribusiness, an A-rated researcher, continues to contribute to knowledge in the field of poultry science at UKZN. His research over the past 22 years has involved the development of simulation models that predict food intake and growth of broilers and pigs. Apart from providing answers to ‘what-if’ scenarios, these simulation models optimise the way in which broilers and pigs should be fed to maximise any one of a number of objective functions, such as margin per square metre per annum, breast meat yield or feed conversion efficiency. Currently, he is conducting research that will lead to more accurate prediction of food intake and reproductive activity in broiler breeders and laying hens. Being one of very few simulation modellers in poultry science, he has been invited to venues all over the world to present these models to poultry scientists and producers who use these models. Together with the late Dr Peter Lewis, a researcher from the United Kingdom, Gous published extensively on the research they conducted at UKZN over a period of 10 years on the lighting of broiler breeders. The lighting management of
these birds was previously based on what is appropriate for commercial laying pullets, and their research proved that such practices are inappropriate for broiler breeders, resulting in a paradigm shift in the way these birds are managed throughout the world. He has been a member of the world branch of the World’s Poultry Science Association for eight years, and is currently the senior Vice-President. As part of his engagement with community, Gous is a founder member of the KwaZulu-Natal Poultry Institute, whose purpose is to train prospective poultry managers by providing them with the skills needed to manage people, finances, poultry operations and even themselves. The Poultry Institute has impressive training facilities, including accommodation, lecture rooms, computers and a wide range of ongoing poultry operations, and these are housed on the University’s research and training farm, Ukulinga. This Institute has been, and continues to be, highly successful in training students and preparing them for life. Gous is now part of a team applying the same principles at Baynesfield for training prospective pig producers.
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Professor Gous has been a member of the world branch of the World’s Poultry Science Association for eight years, and is currently the senior Vice-President.
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University of KwaZulu-Natal RESEARCH REPORt 2011
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