University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty

Animal Health

Carcass & Meat Quality

Feed & Feed Tehnologies

Physiological Studies

Animal Nutrition Research Group at the Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana 1. The group has its own experimental facilities and laboratory: - 24 individual balance cages for weaned piglets: in vivo studies on digestibility and nutrient utilisation, blood sampling, digesta transit time, - 12 individual balance cages for fattening pigs: in vivo studies on digestibility and nutrient utilisation, blood sampling, digesta transit time - slaughterhouse for obtaining tissue samples for further analysis (capacity of about 100 pigs per experiment) - laboratory for analysis of feed, animal tissues and other samples: proximate analyses, AAS (all macro and micro minerals), GC (all fatty acids), HPLC (vitamins, products of oxidative stress (malondialdehyde, TBARS ...)), Comet assay (rate of DNA damage), equipment for measuring the in vitro oxidative capacity of tissues, equipment for performing analyses with commercial kits (8-hydroxy-deoxy-guanosine, isoprostanes ...), equipment for measuring in vitro digestibility 2. In collaboration with other departments of the faculty, a wide range of research can be carried out: - histological analyses of the intestine and other organs - microbiota, microbiome analyses - genome and metabolome analyses 3. In cooperation with a large farm (2.500 sows), larger-scale experiments on sows, piglets and fatteners can also be carried out under practical conditions. For further information please contact janez.salobir@bf.uni-lj.si