Laboratory of digestion and nutrition

Significant results were obtained on the testing of cereal agroindustrial feed substrates enriched with fungi Thamnidium elegans and Cunninghamella echinulata, which produce a microbial oil as a source of gamma-linolenic acid. For the first time the enriched cereal agro-industrial substrates were tested in ruminants. These additives open new perspectives in nutrition of livestock. The impacts of the selected herb mixtures containing bioactive compounds on rumen metabolism of sheep have been successfully tested. We found that the replacement of hay in a high-concentrate diet by mix of medicinal herbs has a beneficial effect on rumen fermentation and lipid metabolism in sheep. I addition, we have shown that a combination of several organic acids and mix of selected medicinal herbs in high-concentrated diets can reduce methane emissions from the rumen by up to 10-11%. Decreasing methane emissions is one of the important tasks of the EU in reducing the environmental impact of ruminants breeding.

Instrumental facility:

• High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC 3000 Ultimate, Dionex, Sunnyvale, CA, USA)
• Mass Spectrometer (API 2000 AB Sciex, Framingham, MA)
• The gas chromatograph (Perkin-Elmer Clarus 500, Inc., Shelton, CT)
• Nitrogen Analyzer (FLASH 4000, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Cambridge, UK)
• Crude fiber analyzer (ANKOM 2000 ANCOM TECHNOLOGY, Macedon NY, USA)

 
Personal staff: