About | FlockLeader

At Perdue, we know chickens. We’ve been caring for them for over 100 years! In fact, the backyard flock of our founders, Pearl and Arthur Perdue, started it all.

To this day, we remain dedicated to raising strong, healthy, and happy birds. Through science and innovation, Perdue continues to improve the health of our own birds. We have nutritionists and poultry scientists on our team to make sure our flocks stay as healthy as possible all the time.


Now we want to share our expertise with Backyard Chicken owners everywhere!

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The Team

THE TEAM

Mikayla Baxter, Ph.D.

Mikayla is the Digestive Health Products Manager for Perdue Agribusiness Animal Nutrition.

Mikayla was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. She was first introduced to animal agriculture during her B.S. at the University of Guelph where she worked as a Research Assistant conducting nutritional trials on dairy calves and heifers. Mikayla completed her M.S. in laying hen reproductive physiology at the University of Guelph and completed her Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas in Poultry Science, studying intestinal physiology. Her research has underlined the importance of research in animal agriculture and how it can be applied to both human and animal health.

Mikayla enjoys spending time with family, friends, and her dogs.

John Sylvester, Ph.D., P.A.S.

John is the Director of Sales and Marketing for Perdue AgriBusiness Animal Nutrition.

John grew up in Ohio and after time spent in the US Navy, as an F/A 18 mechanic, returned to attend The Ohio State University. He earned a B.S. in Human Nutrition, and a Ph.D. in Nutrition Science with focus on ruminant nutrition and rumen microbiology. John has focused on developing nutritional products to ameliorate health challenges and increase animal performance across multiple species. His current research is targeted on improving gastrointestinal health by supporting immunity, barrier function, microbial diversity and nutrient uptake using probiotics and functional compounds.

Dr. Sylvester comes to Perdue from BioZyme Inc. as the Director of Research and Development from 2012-2016. Prior to that he worked at Mars Inc. (Buckeye Nutrition brand) as the Director of Research and Quality.