Feed-a-Gene Newsletter #1
Click here to download the PDF of the Feed-a-Gene newsletter #1
Welcome to the first Feed-a-Gene newsletter
We are proud to present the first newsletter of the Feed-a-Gene project funded through the Horizon 2020 program of the European Commission. This newsletter provides you with some very first results and on-going activities of the project. Feed-a-Gene strives to attain a large audience beyond the project partners. This is not only important for the dissemination of project results so that these can be developed further and brought to market, but we also want your feedback on planned project actions. To keep up-to-date on what we are doing and plan to do, please register at the stakeholder platform at www.feed-a-gene.eu. We hope that this newsletter gives you a first glance of our contribution to make monogastric livestock production systems more efficient and sustainable.
Jaap van Milgen (INRA), Feed-a-Gene project coordinator
Introducing Feed-a-Gene
Animal production is constantly facing new challenges. In addition to productivity and efficiency, it has become important to consider animal health and welfare, product quality and security, environmental impact, consumer and citizen expectations as well as competition between food, feed, and fuel. Novel solutions are required to increase the efficiency and sustainability of livestock production systems.
First Feed-a-Gene Annual meeting, Foulum, Denmark
The first annual meeting was the occasion for the Feed-a-Gene partners and stakeholders to meet and discuss, and for the research teams to communicate on the progress made in the past year. Attendees enjoyed the warm welcome and efficient organisation of Aarhus University – Foulum. Feed-a-Gene project coordinator Jaap van Milgen (INRA) and project manager Vincent Troillard (INRA Transfert) would like to thank Professor Knud Erik Bach Knudsen and his team at Aarhus University for their hard work planning and organising this meeting.
Progress reports for the Feed-a-Gene project
Much progress has been made in the first year of the Feed-a-Gene project. Click on the following links to read the progress reports for each work package.
- Alternative feed ingredients and real-time characterisation
- Identification of feed efficiency traits related to individual diversity
- Modelling feed use mechanisms and animal response to nutrient supply and environmental challenges
- Management systems for precision feeding to increase resilience to fluctuating environments
- Use of new traits in animal selection
- Sustainability assessment of production systems
FAIR data management and stewardship - Data interoperability for discovery
During the 1st annual meeting, Dr Richard Finkers (Wageningen UR) presented the main principles of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data management.
Feed-a-Gene meets FABRE-TP
Juan Pablo Sanchez (IRTA) presented Feed-a-Gene at the annual meeting of FABRE-TP in Barcelona, Spain on 10 May 2016. FABRE-TP promotes research and innovation for sustainable animal breeding and reproduction in Europe.
Upcoming events
Feed-a-Gene researchers will present the following communications in 2016.
World Rabbit Congress 2016
Qingdao, China, 15-18 June 2016 http://www.wrc2016.cn/
Miriam Piles, IRTA: “Using collective feed intake data to select for feed efficiency on full or restricted feeding regimen”
EAAP 2016
Belfast, UK, 29 August – 2 September 2016 http://www.eaap2016.org/
Sonia Roger, INRA: “Conceptual model of digestion for pigs and poultry and its factors of variation”
