Department of Farm Animal Nutrition

Last modified: 24. October 2022

The infrastructure of the Department is outstanding also by international comparison. Our research activity covers the nutrition of all major farm animal species. The seminary room and the animal experimentation rooms, animal surgery room, feed-mixing facility and the related thematic research units (poultry and swine performance testing unit, swine metabolism unit, in situ rumen degradation studies) provide all the conditions needed for high-level teaching and research activity. The current scientific research of the Department in the field of poultry nutrition covers studies on energy supply as well as amino acid and mineral metabolism. The interchangeability of different feed additives also occupies an important place in the scientific programme. Great emphasis is placed on studies on the usability of by-products of industrial origin and on the rumen degradability and fermentation of different ruminant feeds. As a member of an international consortium, we have joined a research and development project aimed at developing non-invasive methods that could serve the purpose of animal nutrition research.

We have extensive domestic and international connections and thus we have daily working relations with the most important universities, research institutes and development divisions of multinational companies working in this special field.

The teachers of the Department participate in the master (MSc) training for the specialty Animal Nutrition and Feed Safety Engineering hosted by our Institute, in BSc and MSc programmes in the field of agricultural education, as well as in all courses of the Doctoral School of Animal Science (PhD programme) that cover knowledge related to the nutritional and practical feeding of farm animals. Our students have the opportunity to join the research projects conducted at the Department; this has resulted in numerous high-standard diploma works, theses and Scientific Students’ Association papers.

Research fields of the Department:

• Study of the nutritive value of swine and poultry diets, with particular regard to energy and digestible amino acid content
• Study of the utilisation of minerals in swine and poultry
• Determination of the rumen degradability and metabolizable protein content of ruminant feeds
• Complex study of the efficiency of early feeding methods on the basis of performance and immunocompetence, with special regard to in ovo nutrient supply
• Development of precision nutrition systems, mathematical modelling of growth
• Adaptation and development of non-invasive methods serving animal nutrition research projects