Mississippi State Professor Honored with NOVUS Poultry Award

CHESTERFIELD, MO (July 17, 2025) – Pratima Adhikari, Ph.D., DVM, is the latest recipient of the Novus Outstanding Teaching Award. She received the honor during the Poultry Science Association (PSA) Annual Meeting on July 17 in North Carolina.

NOVUS, the leader in intelligent nutrition, is a longtime sponsor of the award, which recognizes a PSA member who demonstrates outstanding success in the classroom as well as a dedication to professional improvement and industry excellence.

“With this award, NOVUS celebrates educators who are making a difference in advancing poultry agriculture inside the classroom and throughout the entire industry,” says Bob Buresh, Ph.D., NOVUS executive technical services manager, who presented the award. “The recipient of the NOVUS Outstanding Teaching Award is someone who is making a lasting impact.”

As associate professor in the Department of Poultry Science at Mississippi State University, Adhikari divides her time between research activities and teaching in the classroom. Her teaching appointments include Management of Commercial Layers, Advanced Poultry Nutrition (graduate level), and undergraduate seminars.

Adhikari’s research focuses on laying hen nutrition and gut health management, investigating alternative feed ingredients, feed additives, and nutrient requirements for pullets and layers. Her lab also conducts research on foodborne and poultry health diseases, including Salmonella and E. coli, as well as intervention studies.

In her eight years at MS State University, she has mentored over 35 undergraduate students, nine graduate students (three doctorate and six master’s students), and three visiting scholars, while also serving on committees for 16 graduate students. She currently supervises four doctoral students and one master’s student.

She also partners with various external organizations on research trials, including the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association and the United Soybean Board.

She has delivered 20 presentations (including four internationally) and authored more than 131 publications.

Growing up in an area of Nepal known as “the poultry capital,” her family had a broiler farm where she learned farming at an early age. “This experience provided me with some deep thoughts on how to serve people and animals,” she says.

Dr. Adhikari’s own mother was a teacher and served as one of her first mentors in education. “I have seen her passion toward education and spreading education to younger generations to make them either like her or more educated than her,” she says. Later, Dr. Gene Pesti at the University of Georgia, where she was a doctoral student, made an impression on her. “His passion to teach an undergraduate class in Poultry Nutrition really made an impact on me,” she says. “He was very thorough and passionate about teaching those young students. His  teaching style was very hands-on, where the students would be involved with undergraduate research from the very beginning.” She says she’s thankful for all the mentors she’s had throughout her teaching journey, as well as the peer colleagues and students she has learned from.

Dr. Adhikari says attracting young people to the agriculture industry is a necessity. “Since the world’s biggest challenge has always been food security, and with the population rising, we need to find ways to have more large-scale production that is also sustainable. So, we need more young generations in agriculture. The future of agriculture is rewarding, no matter which section or area they will be involved in. But you must have a passion for it. That’s the biggest requirement for anyone to be in this field.”

PSA is a professional organization consisting of educators, scientists, extension specialists, industry researchers, administrators, producers, and college students who are committed to advancing the poultry industry. Learn more at poultryscience.org.

To learn how NOVUS supports broilers, breeders and layers, visit novusint.com/poultry.