Achievements
Neil Jaworski and Laura Merriman passed their prelims on July 23 and July 24, respectively. Congratulations!
Personnel changes
July 30 was Maryane Sespere's last day in our lab. We held a cookout at Dr. Stein's house to say goodbye. Best of luck to Maryane back at the Federal University of Mato Grosso-Brazil!
Lab activities
John finished animal work on a study of the effects of carbohydrases on the performance of weanling and growing-finishing pigs fed diets containing corn, soybean meal, and DDGS.
Travel and visitors
Everyone traveled to Orlando, Florida for the 2015 ASDA-ASAS-CSAS Joint Annual Meeting on July 12-16. Maryane presented a poster, and Dr. Liu, Neil, and John gave oral presentations.
On July 24, our lab had the honor of hosting Dr. John Patience and his research group from Iowa State University.
Yanhong left for vacation in China, and Jen left for vacation in Albuquerque.
Caroline left for Leon, Mexico on July 28 to attend the XLIX Mexican Swine Veterinarians Association (AMVEC) Congress.
Gloria Casas returned from her internship in the lab of Molecular Nutrition and Cell Biology of Aarhus University in Denmark to learn techniques to analyze carbohydrates. While there earlier this month, she wrote:
"At this point, I have run several sets of samples and I have some results. This process involves not just learning the procedures, but also developing the skills in the lab. I have had the opportunity to discuss the results with the expert, which allowed me understand it better. I found a big lab with good equipment and technicians that know every single step and are willing to teach. Besides that, I've had the opportunity to learn about the facilities that they have to do research. I am surprised about the different topics that this group and other groups are working on. In addition, I might visit a couple of swine farms, and learn how pork is produced in Denmark.
Living in Denmark for a few weeks has also been a cultural experience. They have excellent food, mainly the bakery products – they are amazing!! – as well as the pork meat, and dairy products. The landscapes are beautiful, especially the lakes! And even though the people always are complaining about the weather, it is not so bad. Viborg is a small town, with a beautiful architecture, and many places to do exercise or just to walk, enjoy the view and be relaxed."