Multidisciplinary approaches for improving sustainable livestock production: introduction

Introduction to the Feed-a-Gene/SAPHIR session "Multidisciplinary approaches for improving sustainable livestock production: research needs, opportunities and difficulties" held on 30 August 2018 at the 69th EAAP meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Chair: Jaap van Milgen, INRA, Feed-a-Gene project coordinator & Marie-Hélène Pinard-van der Laan, INRA, SAPHIR deputy coordinator

Livestock production is an essential component of a sustainable food supply. The dimensions of sustainability combined with the complexity of biology call for multidisciplinary approaches to assess the functioning of (components of) livestock production systems. Horizon 2020 projects such as Saphir and Feed-a-Gene are funded by the European Commission and have a multidisciplinary approach towards livestock production (e.g., nutrition and genetics, genetics and health, novel management strategies and socio-economic aspects). The objective of this session is to address and discuss the challenges and opportunities in multidisciplinary research in livestock production. As there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution, how can different actors and stakeholders make collectively best use of (disciplinary) knowledge and levers to make livestock production more sustainable?