The Institute TTE has its roots in agricultural sciences, where it provides an indispensable core competence in the form of animal nutrition.
The main element of animal nutrition is the adequate feeding of agricultural livestock (nutrient requirement of the organism – nutrient supply from feed – evaluation of nutrient bioavailability or anti-nutritive substances in the diet). Furthermore, animal nutrition is one of the most potent factors to quantitatively influence environmentally important emissions (CO2, CH4, N2O, NOx, NH3, P, etc.) and water consumption in primary food production. Increasing resource use efficiency along the process chain from primary production to the consumer must therefore be the focus of future-oriented livestock research. Animal nutrition plays a central role in this chain by quantitatively recording the transfer of energy and nutrients from feed to animal performance and food of animal origin.
RESEARCH TOPICS:
- Amino acid requirements (esp. tryptophan, lysine, threonine, valine).
- Use of local feeds (e.g. full-fat soybeans, millet) in monogastric animals
- Characterization of local protein sources in ruminant diets
- Suitability of agricultural and industrial by-products (e.g., dried distillers’ grains with solubles, wheat bran) as high-quality feeds
- Processing (e.g. hydrothermal treatment) of feeds and effects on feed quality and animal performance
- Optimization of nutrient use efficiency to reduce environmentally relevant emissions using benzoic acid, clay minerals, phytase, ensiling, etc.
- Use of zootechnical feed additives (organic acids, enzymes, probiotics, prebiotics, phytobiotics, rare earths elements, etc.)
- Influence of undesirable substances (e.g. mycotoxins) on fattening performance and carcass characteristics.
