Achievements

On January 24, Vanessa Lagos received the Frank W. Kari Award for Excellence in Nutrition Research. This award is given to graduate students who are enrolled in the Division of Nutritional Sciences in the College of ACES at the U of I, and is used by recipients to attend scientific conferences. Congratulations, Vanessa!

Personnel changes

We welcomed three new visiting scholars in January. Elizabeth Guevara is our first team member from Ecuador and she will help us update our feed database. Johana Gonzalez is from Bogota, Colombia, and she will spend the next 6 months in our laboratory. Minoy Cristóbal is from Lima, Peru. He graduated in 2014 from the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. We look forward to working with all three of our new lab members!

After a year as a visiting scholar, Diego Lopez returned to the National University of Colombia to finish up his degree. He plans to come back to the U of I later this year to start a Master's degree.

New experiments

Jeru started an experiment on the fate of ingested pentoses in the intestinal tract of pigs. Su A started a study of the effects of microbial phytase on STTD of Ca in calcium carbonate from different suppliers. Hannah started an experiment to determine amino acid digestibility of 8 sources of beef fed to growing pigs. And finally, Carly started a study of the effects of isoquinoline alkaloids on growth performance and gut health parameters in weanling pigs.

Travel

Diego Navarro traveled to Atlanta to attend the International Production & Processing Expo January 30 - February 1.

Publications

Hanna, C. D., C. K. Foran, P. L. Utterback, H. H. Stein, and C. M. Parsons. 2018. Phosphorus bioavailability in increased-protein, reduced-fiber canola meal, conventional canola meal, and soybean meal fed to crossbred chicks. Poult. Sci. 97:188-195.