Nutritional Programming Unit

Early nutrition influences the long-term development, resilience and health of farm animals

We research the effects of early (maternal) nutrition in relation to growth and development, changes in the energy and macronutrient metabolism, and intestinal functionality of the descendants in pigs and poultry.

One of the focal points is examining the phenotype at the organism and molecular level. Here we search for nutritional and physiological factors that can influence the utilisation of nutrients and the development and health of newborn and young animals in the acute and longer term. We pay special attention to growth-retarded piglets, due to idiopathic reasons or to inadequate maternal nutrition. The goal of these studies is to clarify causes for the variability of development in order to derive feeding and management recommendations, for piglets that exhibit retarded growth. In this context we are researching the importance of macronutrients, bioactive nutritional ingredients and metabolites as modulators of  metabolic signaling chains. This includes receptor-mediated effects in cells and tissues.

We also examine the metabolic costs of body reserve mobilisation as a consequence of infections and other stressors in chickens. Here one of the focal points is studying the question whether the host-pathogen (nematode) interaction can be influenced by nutritional factors.