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Animal Science

Advancing discovery and innovation in animal biology and management to support sustainable food systems and animal care.

Welcome to the Department of Animal Science

The Department of Animal Science offers undergraduate and graduate programs on the biology and management of food, laboratory and companion animal species. Our goals are to discover and develop new techniques and information to benefit animals, agriculture and human health. We seek to accelerate solutions that support sustainable animal systems, and to translate scientific discovery, data-driven insight and innovative technologies into real-world practice. Our internationally recognized faculty have diverse interests in digital agriculture, animal nutrition, environmental sustainability, physiology and metabolism, forage and nutrient management, and genetics, genomics and reproduction.

Major in Animal Science

Animal science majors learn from internationally recognized professors in all aspects of domestic animal biology: breeding, genetics, nutrition, physiology, growth, behavior and management.

Animal Science Major

Learn more about what an animal science major can do for you.

Undergraduate Studies

International Opportunities

Check out the international opportunities available with the animal science major.

Learn more about international opportunities

Graduate Studies

Approximately 40 graduate students from a variety of disciplines belong to the Department of Animal Science, most of them in the field of animal science.

Graduate Field of Animal Science

Undergraduate research

Discovering new genes

Cameron Xu ’26 is using biometry and statistics to help Cornell CALS animal science professor Vimal Selvaraj identify new genes. Together, they’re investigating how steroid hormones regulate the body’s processes, uncovering new knowledge that could advance cancer research and solve other human health challenges.

Explore synthetic biology at CALS
Play CALS Undergraduate Research Experience: Cameron Xu '26

News

Holstein cows in a freestall

News

Cost share and market access are the top drivers of digester adoption
U.S. dairy production has continued its decades-long consolidation into fewer, larger operations [1], [2]. Recent news coverage has suggested that the growth in anaerobic digester adoption over the past decade may have encouraged this expansion...
  • Cornell Cooperative Extension
  • Animal Science
  • PRO-DAIRY
a man spreads handful of fishfeed in fish tank

Field Note

Fish to lettuce, sustainable aquaculture = zero waste
Tucked away across the street from Frank Morrison Hall, in an unassuming greenhouse on the Cornell University Ithaca campus, live a school of tilapia: a freshwater fish eaten around the world. Their home consists of a row of giant aquarium tanks...
  • Animal Science
  • Fish
  • Animals
a glass of milk with splash

News

The New York dairy revolution by the numbers
So why New York, and why now? New York has been experiencing a quiet revolution over the past quarter century. This has not only kept the state on the map in terms of continuing to be a leading dairy state but also appears to have seeded a surge...
  • Dairy
  • Cornell Cooperative Extension
  • Animal Science

Sign up for our newsletter

Get The Feed, Cornell Animal Science Department's monthly newsletter. Full of the latest news, events, and comings and goings, The Feed is your portal to all things animal science.

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a woman in a lab coat looks at a beaker of liquid
Diana Reyes Gomez prepares samples of SeaGraze, a product developed by Symbrosia based on the seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis, for a shelf stability trial. Photo provided.

Contact us for more information

Thank you for your interest in Animal Science at Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. 
Reach out through the information below, or find a more direct point of contact for your inquiries.

149 Morrison Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-4801
Phone: (607) 255-2862
Fax: (607) 255-9829
E-mail: ansc_mainoffice [at] cornell.edu (ansc_mainoffice[at]cornell[dot]edu)