| Department
History
Animal
Sciences at the University of Kentucky has a long and interesting
history. It started as part of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment
Station (KAES) in the late 1800s. As the teaching program
in Agriculture grew after the A&M College was established,
the employees of the KAES developed courses in the Animal
Sciences dealing with meat animals, dairy, poultry, and horses.
Early courses related to Veterinary Science were taught under
one of the umbrellas of Animal Husbandry.
As research
and teaching programs evolved, Extension programs were developed
under the direction of T.R. Bryant. The Department has had
several types of organization. Originally the functions of
the KAES and College were officially separate, even though
the research group taught classes. This gradually changed,
and in 1912 the College and Experiment Station merged into
a joint teaching-research unit; most faculty had joint teaching-research
appointments. Extension faculty and staff were included later.
The name
of what is now the Department of Animal and Food Sciences
has been Animal Husbandry, Animal Industry Group with Animal
Husbandry, Dairy and Poultry Sections and separate Departments
of Animal Husbandry (later Animal Science), Dairy Science,
and Poultry Science. Veterinary Science or Animal Pathology
was split out along the way and became a separate department.
In 1966 Animal Science, Dairy Science, and Poultry Science
merged into the Department of Animal Sciences with a Chairman,
Vice Chairman (later Associate Chairman) and several subject
matter and commodity coordinators.
At the
time of the 1966 merger, a Food Science Section was formed,
and a short time later a curriculum option in Food Science
was established. This was upgraded to a degree program in
1977. In 1982 the Council on Higher Education approved Food
Science as a separate degree program to be administered by
the Department of Animal Sciences.
On January
1, 2005, the department name became the Department of Animal
and Food Sciences. |
