About the Department

The Department of Animal Science at Penn State has one of the oldest and best programs in the country.

Penn State Animal Science is a national leader for animal science teaching, research, and extension programs. Our small-school atmosphere facilitates a warm, welcoming, intellectually stimulating, and professional environment.

We’re industry focused and connected. We boast state-of-the-art facilities and world-class faculty with years of working experience in their fields. The best faculty in their respective disciplines are recruited from around the globe to push students to excel and move the needle on critical research. Our facilities are best in class and uniquely close to the heart of the Penn State experience. Barns, research plots, and laboratories are just steps away, including the new Animal, Veterinary, and Biomedical Sciences Building.

Student success drives the department. Our undergraduate programs offer students hands-on science with real-world applications, excellent internship experiences, robust scholarship opportunities, and high job placement.

Our graduate programs offer master of science and doctoral degrees. Graduate students receive in-depth training in core science and management disciplines, conduct groundbreaking research, and teach classes.

Student success and cutting-edge, well-funded research are the lead departmental drivers. Students are encouraged to participate in meaningful research from the first semester of their freshman year.

Current Animal Science research areas include animal products and human health, dairy, deer, equine, livestock, meat science and muscle biology, nutrient management and environmental stewardship, poultry, quality and safety of animal foods, and reproductive biology and fertility.

Meet our faculty, staff, and students, and see why we are one of the premier animal science hubs in the country.

Latest News

March 28, 2024

Vaccine protects cattle from bovine tuberculosis, may eliminate disease

Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is a livestock disease that results in large economic losses to animal agriculture worldwide. The disease can also transmit to humans and cause severe illness and death. Researchers from Penn State, Addis Ababa University and the University of Cambridge have now demonstrated that a vaccine for TB currently used in humans significantly reduces infectiousness of vaccinated livestock, improving prospects for elimination and control. The study published today (March 28) in the journal Science.   

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March 26, 2024

Loy named 2024 Penn State Animal Science Distinguished Alumnus

The Department of Animal Science in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has named Daniel Loy, of Ames, Iowa, its 2024 Animal Science Distinguished Alumnus.

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February 12, 2024

Dairy cows fed botanicals-supplemented diets use energy more efficiently

Supplementing the feed of high-producing dairy cows with the botanical extract capsicum oleoresin, obtained from chili peppers, or a combination of that extract and clove oil resulted in the animals using feed energy more efficiently and emitting less methane from their largest stomach, according to a new study conducted by Penn State researchers.

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January 18, 2024

Donors create international travel endowment to honor lifelong friend, ag alumna

In honor and memory of their dear friend, a Penn State alumna who died in 2022 at the age of 90, Helen and Steve Schreiner have created the Dr. Marion P. Cullen International Travel Endowment in Animal Science in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

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Department of Animal Science

Address

109 AVBS Building
University Park, PA 16802