Commission on Animal Nutrition

Animal Nutrition is one of the focal points of the EAAP. The commission is characterised by an active involvement of universities and research institutes as well as the animal feed and feed additive industries.

Feed evaluation

In 2012, the EAAP, together with INRA (France) and Wageningen UR (the Netherlands) attempted to increase European collaborations on feed evaluation. During the EAAP annual meeting in Bratislava (Slovakia) a workshop on deriving a European System of Farm Animal Nutrition was organised. As a result of this workshop a proposal was developed on “Multifunctional feeding systems for sustainable animal production – a framework for research and knowledge transfer”. This resulted in a European network of scientists and industries with an interest to increase European collaborations on this topic. They use the EAAP annual meetings as a meeting point to discuss further steps.

One of the official journals of the animal Consortium (BSAS, EAAP, INRAE )

We are pleased to inform you that in January 2021, animal has become an open access journal with no subscription charges and has moved to a new publisher Elsevier.

Animal publishes the best, innovative and cutting-edge science that relates to animals (farmed or managed) used for animal production, and that is relevant to whole animal outcomes, and/or to animal management practices. Papers can be accepted from all species if they are in, or contribute knowledge to, animal production systems. animal is essential reading for all animal scientists, stakeholders and policy makers interested in agricultural, biomedical, veterinary and environmental sciences with expected impacts on Animal Production and Productivity, Animal Welfare, Animal Health, Food Security, Environment, Climate Change, Product Quality, Human Health and Nutrition, and Sustainability of Animal Agriculture and Livestock Systems. Impacts should be of international relevance.

http://www.animal-journal.eu/

ISEP

One of the working groups of the Animal Nutrition Commission is dedicated to Energy and Protein Metabolism and Nutrition. The EAAP co-initiated a series of international symposia on this topic. Already seven International Symposia on Energy and Protein Metabolism and Nutrition (ISEP) have been organised, and an 8th is scheduled for 2025:

• 2003: Rostock-Warnemünde, Germany
• 2007: Vichy, France
• 2010: Parma, Italy
• 2013: Sacramento, California, USA
• 2016: Cracow, Poland
• 2019: Belo Horizonte, Brazil
• 2022: Granada, Spain (next conference)
• 2025: Rostock-Warnemünde, Germany (next conference)

ISEP will host again the The Rank Prize in Animal Nutrition

EAAP is pleased to announce that the 2025 International Symposium on Energy and Protein Nutrition (ISEP) will host the Rank Prize Fund invited Lecture in Animal Nutrition. The meeting will be held in Rostock-Warnemünde, Germany, September 15 – 18, 2025, right on the Baltic coast.

The prize is to recognise excellence in the field of animal nutrition and comprises an honorarium and a contribution for travel and accommodation in the event of a face-to-face meeting being planned. Recipient must attend ISEP and give a main lecture during the opening general session or similar.  The invited paper will be published in animal* to gain world-wide recognition.

The 2022 Rank Prize in Animal Nutrition was assigned to Prof. Christiane Girard of the Sherbrooke Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Find out more here.

Further information on the Rank Prizes can be found on http://www.rankprize.org/

Nominations for the Prize

Nominations made by a proposer will include

1. The name and contact details of the proposer
2. The name and contact details of another scientist supporting the application
3. A brief CV of the candidate which should include
   • Their contact details and career to date
   • Main achievements of international significance in the field of animal nutrition.
   • A list of key publications in internationally recognised peer reviewed journals
   • A list of previous granted awards 

The deadline for submission of the application is Opening of Abstract submission.  If you want more information, please contact EAAP secretariat + president NC (luciano.pinotti@unimi.it)

Selection of the successful candidate will be made by the Award Committee that includes 3 members: President and vice Presidents of EAAP’s Study Commission on Nutrition and the Chair of the ISEP Organising Committee.

EAAP wishes to record its thanks to The Rank Prizes Organisation for choosing ISEP as the venue for the award.

*The International Journal of Animal Biosciences. EAAP/BSAS/INRAE. Subject to peer review

EAAP’s Animal Nutrition Commission will continue to organise strong and attractive nutrition sessions at EAAP’s annual meetings. Important topics like resource efficiency, healthy livestock, sustainable protein chains, and responsible livestock production will be addressed by the commission.

EAAP’s Animal Nutrition Commission will continue to organise strong and attractive nutrition sessions at EAAP’s annual meetings. Important topics like resource efficiency, climate-friendly husbandry, healthy livestock, sustainable protein chains, and responsible feed systems & production will be addressed by the commission.

Future challenges

The animal feed sector has an important position in the agri-food chain and nutritional strategies have high significance for major European challenges in animal production. Therefore, the commission calls for transdisciplinary and multi-actor collaborations, and advocates to give animal nutrition a firm position on the European agenda for research and innovation. Additionally, new technologies such us nanotechnologies as well as sustainable animal nutrition and sensory science in animal nutrition, are also other emerging topics that will addressed. A further future challenge will also be the competition between feed and food, the use of non-human edible feeds for animal nutrition and the way the sector will deal with water.

Smart nutrition

EAAP’s Animal Nutrition Commission organised a discovery session on “Insects for Feed” at the EAAP annual meeting of 2014 in Copenhagen (Denmark). As a result of this meeting an international group of scientists and industries established a network on this topic to stimulate further collaborative research and innovations on this novel feed material, now covered by a specific commission. Further steps in this direction are to address alternative and innovative feed ingredients (SCP, algae, food leftover, etc), smart nutrition, as well as precision feeding, and other innovative solution in animal nutrition and feeding.

One nutrition

Nowadays, the role of animal nutrition in designing foods closer to the optimal composition for long-term human wellbeing is becoming increasingly important. The quality and wholesome of food of animal origin is becoming the prime parameter for consumers, who have become selective about the products they buy. These attitudes can be outlined as “one nutrition” concept. In this direction the commission will promote the organization of session, workshops and satellite symposia.

Animal nutrition in the livestock systems

The animal feed sector has an important position in the agri-food chain and nutritional strategies have high significance for major European challenges in animal production. Therefore, the commission calls for transdisciplinary and multi-actor collaborations, and advocates to give animal nutrition a firm position on the European agenda for research and innovation. It is extremely important to look at the efficiency of the nutrition processes within the existing livestock farming systems, but at the same time we must dare to review the entire livestock and agricultural chain in order to design new systems to meet the future demand for food in a sustainable way and with a fair income for the farmer. Cooperation with other committees is crucial for this.

74^th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science. Lyon (France), August 26th – September 1st 2023

Nutrition commission

• Challenges of fish nutrition and sustainable aquaculture (N; T) WAAP
• Alternative and new feed resources to reduce feed/food competition and enhance circularity of livestock production (N; T) WAAP
• Advances in nutritional modelling and feeding systems (in memory of Daniel Sauvant) (N; D)
• Beyond rumen: role of nutrition in cattle’s intestinal health (N; T)
• Innovation in ruminant nutrition: supplementation – Part 1 (N; T)
• Innovation in non-ruminant nutrition and feeding (N; T)
• Molecules in animal nutrition: over and above building blocks (N; T) WAAP
• Balancing the feed for the economy, the environment, and society (N; T)
• Minerals in animal nutrition: basal diet – Part 2 (N; I)

73^rd Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science. Porto (Portugal), September 5-9, 2022

Nutrition commission

• Nutrition regulation of rumen and/or gut microbiota (N; T)
• Role of nutrition in animal well-being (N; I)
• Symposium: nutrition and reproductive physiology of cattle
• SmartCow: Methods and technologies for research and smart nutrition management in dairy and beef cattle (N; P)
• New/alternative/innovative/revised feeds in farm animals and farmed fish (N; T)
• Nutrition and environment (N; T)
• Increasing animal resilience via nutrition (organized in collaboration with FEFANA) (N; D)
• Equine nutrition – joint session with Animal Nutrition

72^nd Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science. Davos (Switzerland), August 30th – September 3rd, 2021

Nutrition commission

• Low carbon animal nutrition: methane emission and climate
• Transgenerational effect of nutrition (feeding of mother, effect on offspring)
• Inclusive livestock nutrition: where we have a trade-off between performance, environmental sustainability and animal welfare
• Feeding the gut: from microbiome to models
• Animal Nutrition 4.0
• Next generation in animal nutritional science (Young Scientists Session)

71^st Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science, Virtual meeting, December 1-4, 2020

• Feed production facing climate change (new feeds, alternative fiber sources) (N; T)
• New technological challenges facing feeding industry (including nanotechnology) – how to value, how to validate, how to use in practice (N; D)
• Neonatal nutrition/ early life programming (N; T)
• Smart nutrition: the role of nutrition in the circular economy: improving the use of feed not competitive with human nutrition (N; D)
• Dietry methyl donor supplementation in dairy ruminants (ADSA/EAAP Joint)

70^th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science, City of Ghent (Belgium), August 26 – 30, 2019

Nutrition commission

• Dietary functional components: effects on animal performance, health and environment. (N; T)
• Alternative feed ingredients: former food, by-products, and new materials. (N; D)
• Algae as animal feed. (N; T)
• Societal concerns, with focus on environment and antimicrobial resistance, that can be addressed through animal nutrition: state of science and specialty feed ingredients. (N/FEFANA; I)
• Implementing innovative solutions in animal nutrition: tools and success stories from the field to tackle environmental issues and to reduce the need of antibiotic use in animal farming. (N/FEFANA; I)
• Free communications animal nutrition: dairy and beef cattle. (N; BU)
• Feed efficiency and enteric methane emission of cattle. (N; T)
• Free communications animal nutrition. (N; BU)

75^th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science. Florence (Italy), September 1-5, 2024

Nutrition commission – PROPOSALS

• Advance in Fish nutrition (N; T)
• Nutritional Models development and applications in livestock farming (N; T)
• Innovative and emerging feed and forage resources (N; T)
• Nutrition management to reduce methane emission and environmental impact (N; T)
• Nutrition and health and welfare (N; T)
• Nutrition and feeding in the circular economy (N; T)
• Advances in ruminant nutrition (N; T)
• Advances in non-ruminant nutrition (N; T)
• Precision feeding in the Digital Era (N; T)
• Nutritional Programming: chrononutrition and window of intervention (N; T)
• Free communications in animal nutrtion (N; T)
• Feeding for improving the nutritional, safety and organoleptic characteristics of animal-derived foods (N; T)
• Functional feed additives in poultry nutrition (N/WG Poultry; T)
• Horse nutrition (NH; T)