March 2018 Lab News

Achievements

On March 8, Gloria Casas successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on "Nutritional value of rice co-products." One week later, Diego Navarro defended his dissertation, "Influence of physiochemical characteristics and inclusion rate of fiber-rich ingredients on utilization of dietary fiber and energy by growing pigs."

Gloria Casas at her Ph. D. defense   Diego Navarro at his Ph. D. defense

Congratulations to Dr. Casas and Dr. Navarro!

New experiments

Von started a study of the effects of increased dietary concentrations of microbial phytase on growth performance of growing pigs.

Travel

The lab traveled to the ASAS Midwest Section meeting in Omaha, Nebraska March 12-14. John gave a presentation titled "Effects of Various Heat Treatments on Concentrations of Digestible and Metabolizable Energy and on Amino Acid Digestibility in Soybean Meal Fed to Growing Pigs" as part of the David Baker Symposium on Ideal Protein and Amino Acid Nutrition of Pigs. Su A and Jeru competed in the grad oral competition. In addition, Vanessa, Charmaine, Diego Rodriguez, Molly, Gloria, Carly, Diego Navarro, and Laia all gave oral presentations; and Cristhiam, Su A, Diego Rodriguez, Charmaine, and Gloria presented posters.

Gloria received two awards at the Midwest Meeting. As we announced in the November 2017 issue, she was named Midwest Animal Science Young Scholar by the Midwest Section. Gloria also recieved the ASAS Tim S. Stahly and Ernie Peo Outstanding Swine Nutrition Midwest Graduate Student Award.

On March 23, the lab went to Decatur to tour the ADM facilities there. They visited the James R. Randall Research Center (JRRRC) labs and the lysine plant. They also had the opportunity to meet with ADM Animal Nutritionists, including Stein Lab alumni Ferdinando Almeida and Laura Merriman.

At the ADM tour March 2018

Publications

Navarro, D. M. D. L., E. M. A. M. Bruininx, L. de Jong, and H. H. Stein. 2018. Analysis for low-molecular-weight carbohydrates is needed to account for all energy-contributing nutrients in some feed ingredients, but physical characteristics do not predict in vitro digestibility of dry matter. J. Anim. Sci. 96:532-544.