Contact: Sammy McDavid
Yvonne Vizzier Thaxton
A Mississippi State poultry scientist is the new president of the American Poultry Historical Society.
Yvonne Vizzier Thaxton, a professor in the university's poultry science department, is leading a national organization of nearly 300 members.
An independent body founded in 1952, APHS works to collect and preserve industry records, photographs, materials, and objects for archiving at the National Agricultural Library near Washington, D.C. It also selects individuals for the National Poultry Hall of Fame.
Thaxton is a former Huntsville, Ala., resident who holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Mississippi University for Women and a doctorate from Auburn University. She joined the MSU faculty in 1999 after three decades in the poultry industry.
While the United States is the world's largest producer and exporter of poultry meat, Thaxton said chickens are not native to this country. "They first appeared in early America as 'left over' provisions on ships from Europe," she added.
Thaxton said the U.S. industry came into being during the mid-20th century with the selling of birds that had passed their peak in egg production. "It was after World War II that the shift took place from backyard egg production to today's sophisticated operations," she explained. "The modern poultry industry uses birds that were developed by selective breeding to produce either meat or eggs for market."
She said federal statistics show nearly 35 billion--that's b i-l-l-i-o-n--pounds of broiler meat were produced last year, of which turkey meat made up more than 610 million pounds. In addition, about 70 billion eggs rolled out for worldwide sale.