Animal Health and Nutrition Forum - “Gastrointestinal Functionality: Nutrition, Biochemistry, Microbiota and More”

Gut health is a topic widely discussed for animal as well as human welfare because optimal gastrointestinal functionality is crucial for health. Gut health informs performances as it improves feed efficiency, reduces use of antibiotics, and sustains food safety. Nutritional and managerial practices used within the food-animal agricultural system may have relevance to the challenges faced by global human health.

Jack Odle will discuss the piglet agri-medical model developed in his laboratories. It is considered to be the premier model for all mammalian neonates including pediatric pre-clinical research. He will discuss the model and its use and will focus on recent work in his laboratory on prebiotic oligosaccharides.

Joan Torrent will address how gut health can be managed and animal performance maintained or enhanced in the absence of antibiotics.

Featured Speakers:

"Bioactive Nutrients Impacting GI Health of the Neonate"

Jack Odle, Ph.D., received his bachelor's degree from the Department of Animal Sciences at Purdue University and M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a focus in Nutritional Biochemistry.  He joined the Department of Animal Science at North Carolina State University in 1995 and was named William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor in 2005. His research program is focused primarily on the "Nutritional Biochemistry of the Neonate." Key areas of research focus include lipid metabolism and intestinal health. Dr. Odle has received numerous awards from animal and human nutrition research societies including the Non-ruminant Nutrition Award, the Animal Growth & Development Award and most recently the New Frontiers in Animal Nutrition Award. He has garnered $12M USD in research funding and has published his research in a collection of 400 papers, abstracts and reports. He has served on several editorial boards. In 2012 he served on the NRC committee to revise the nutrient requirements of swine, and was a founding member of the National Animal Nutrition Program.
 

"Life without antibiotic growth promoters: from "foo-foo" dust to real solutions"

Joan Torrent, Ph.D., is the co-owner, co-founder and Technical Director of Oligo Basics with offices in Brazil, the U.S. and Spain. Oligo Basics develops and manufactures functional feed additives. Joan received his bachelor's in Veterinary Medicine from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain). He then came to the U.S. and obtained a master's and Ph.D. in Animal Nutrition from Colorado State University.