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Livestock Ecology and Healthy Production

Research activities of this theme are mainly focused on the manipulation of carbohydrate nutrition and amino acids  metabolism  in  pigs,  poultry  and  ruminants , improvement  of  animal  meat  quality,  development  of  new feedstuff  resource  and  feed  additive,  regulation  of dietary  nitrogen and phosphorus metabolism in pigs, animal feeding environment, management of improved grassland in the hilly region, and animal welfare.

Staff members  

This centre  consists  of two  research  teams  for  healthy  and  environment-friendly  production  of pork and healthy feeding of ruminants and sustainable grassland management in subtropical regions. Leading scientists in this  centre  are  Professor  Yulong Yin  and  Professor Zhiliang Tan.  At present,  there  are  totally 4 professors, 4 associate professors and 8 research assistants. Thirty M.Sc. and Ph.D. postgraduates are registered in the center.

Projects 

During the last five years, the centre has completed 20 research projects with total funding of 13 M (¥); with 8 projects (¥6 M) funded from the Natural  Science Fundation of China and the Ministry of Science and Technology, 5 projects funded from CAS (¥ 6 M) as the priority areas of CAS Knowledge Innovation Plan.

Achievement 

Main progresses  have  been achieved  during the  last five  years  including the new methodology related to animal  nutrition  and  metabolism. Five  new  methods  including  a mobile nylon bag technique, a method for the determination  of  endogenous N and AA, an  improved  hepatic portal  vein  catheters  technique, subtraction and regression analysis methods for determination of endogenous P losses and an in vitro method for determination of N and AA digestibility, were established. These methods were used in studying the mechanisms and regulations of nutrition metabolism at the levels of organ, tissue, and cell and molecule. Five P and AA-transporter genes were cloned in pig kidney and intestine. It was found that NaPiIIc mRNA was mainly expressed in jejunal. And the gene was an important transporter of P absorption and  endogenous N secretion. It was found that these factors largely decided feed  protein  efficiency. The nutritional characteristics of forages and crop residues have been accurately evaluated  using in vitro  gas  production  technique and nylon bag degradation technique, and their database has been set  up  and extensively applied in ruminant production system. AA metabolism has been fully studied using catheter  technique  of  vein and artery, and  isotope  tracer, and  the  limitation  order  of dietary  AA has been partly determined in growing ruminants. The effects of grazing regime on nutrients recycling, animal performance, grass biomass and bio-diversity of grass land in the hilly land of subtropical region have initially been studied.