We are looking for students who want to do their degree projects in the area of digestibility studies with both pigs and poultry. These degree projects are done within the framework of an ongoing larger project on future feed for poultry, fish and pigs.
The food system accounts for about 1/3 of the global greenhouse gas emissions and is the biggest cause of loss of biodiversity. In turn, the production of food from animals has the greatest impact in the sector, and the feed is responsible for 50-85% of climate emissions from poultry, eggs, fish, and pigs. Furthermore, 80% of all agricultural land globally is used for feed – which often consists of food that humans could eat directly. This makes the feed one of the most important challenges to address. At the same time, the food system is facing major problems with food waste – in Sweden alone, 900,000 tons of food is thrown away every year by food manufacturers, stores, restaurants, and households. These are resources that could be used much more efficiently.
Several innovative feed ingredients will be tested during the project for evaluation of nutrient composition, and nutrient digestibility for different animal species. Particularly interesting ingredients are the American black soldier fly and mealworm fed on the residual flow from the food industry, mycoprotein produced using residual flows from the forest industry, blue mussels from the Baltic Sea that are not suitable for human consumption, and by-products from the production of concentrate of the Swedish broad bean. These protein-based feed ingredients are expected to replace several components in conventional feed, such as soya and wild-caught fish, both of which have major negative effects on the climate and biodiversity.
As the next step in the project, digestibility studies with pigs and with poultry are planned to be performed during the fall 2023 at Swedish livestock research centre and VHC. The project offers possibility for 2 master students to do their thesis degree project. Participating students will get experience from all parts of a digestibility study with animals, as well as scientific methodology, literature review and thesis writing.
Do you want to know more, contact Emma Ivarsson, emma.ivarsson@slu.se orMagdalena Åkerfeldt, magdalena.akerfeldt@slu.se
The project is run by Axfoundation and SLU with support from 27 partners, learn more about the project and partners:
The feed of the future for fish, pigs, poultry and laying hens - Axfoundation