LEXINGTON, Ky. (August 8, 2024) – Anthony “Tony” Pescatore, extension professor at the University of Kentucky and vice chair of the Department of Animal and Food Sciences, is the first recipient of the James H. Denton Distinguished Service Award. Pescatore was recently honored in Louisville at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Poultry Science Association (PSA). The PSA is a leading global professional association dedicated to poultry science.

Pescatore was honored for his decades of significant and ongoing contributions to the success and advancement of PSA, as well as his years of involvement in the poultry science industry and efforts to expand the UK’s Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE). This award was recently established and named after poultry science services pioneer James H. Denton, who was Pescatore’s mentor during his doctoral studies at Texas A&M University.

Pescatore was the first to receive this PSA award for his achievements, and to be named after his most influential mentor in front of his peers was truly a memorable occasion.

“It is an honor to be the first winner of this new service award,” said Pescatore. “The fact that the award is named after one of my mentors and is presented in front of my friends and colleagues makes it even more special. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Pescatore’s story with PSA

Since his first presentation as a student member at the PSA meeting in 1977, Pescatore has served in numerous capacities within the Poultry Science Association. He was elected second vice president of the PSA in 2001 and served as president in 2004. Pescatore has served on the PSA Foundation Board of Trustees three times.

In 1996, Pescatore was elected to the PSA Board of Directors and has been a Parliamentarian at the Business Session for over a decade. Over the course of his career, he has written or co-authored over 220 abstracts presented at PSA conferences.

He was elected program chair in 2000. He was also program chair for the PSA/American Society of Animal Science/American Dairy Science Association/American Meat Science Association joint meeting in 2001.

Pescatore is a member of the Poultry Science Association and received the Pfizer Extension Award in 1993 and the Phibro Extension Award in 2015. He serves on the Board of Directors of the PSA Foundation and the World Poultry Science Association-USA branch.

For more information on PSA, visit https://www.poultryscience.org.

Decades of commitment to the poultry industry

Pescatore has been with the University of Kentucky and the UK Cooperative Extension Service for more than three decades, providing program support in management, biosecurity, environmental issues and animal welfare. His specific research interests include environmental nutrition, poultry management and alternative production systems.

Pescatore has co-authored more than 100 scientific articles, supplementary publications and conference proceedings. During his tenure at UK, Pescatore worked with local and state government to attract poultry operations to Kentucky, helping to grow the industry from $25 million to $1.2 billion.

In the UK, Pescatore received the MD Whiteker Award for Excellence in Extension Programming in 2014. He has twice served as President of the Federation of Animal Science Societies.

Pescatore will soon retire as a faculty member, Extension Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at UK’s Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. During his tenure, Pescatore was part of a regional group working to reduce farmer stress, led programs to train veterinarians to care for backyard chicken flocks, helped poultry farmers access affordable energy, taught basics of safe poultry manure handling, provided expertise on protecting poultry flocks from avian influenza outbreaks, and more.

Today, Pescatore emphasizes the importance of service and why the poultry industry is so important to feeding Kentucky and beyond.

“As educators, we all have a service component and our goal is to provide meaningful service to others,” Pescatore said. “My goal was to make the poultry industry sustainable, efficient and profitable while respecting our environment. Poultry is the most efficient animal for producing protein and we have to feed many people in the world.”

To learn more about the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Martin-Gatton CAFE, visit https://afs.ca.uky.edu.