URBANA, Ill. – Pigs have better feed conversion rates with copper in their diets, but until now, scientists didn’t fully understand why. Existing research from the University of Illinois shows copper doesn’t change fat and energy absorption from the diet. Instead, according to new research, the element seems to enhance pigs’ ability to utilize fat after absorption, resulting in increased energy utilization of the entire diet.

URBANA, Ill. — A diet including daily avocado consumption improves the ability to focus attention in adults whose measurements of height and weight are categorized as overweight or obese, a new randomized control trial found. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign conducted the 12-week study, published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology. Read more.

URBANA, Ill. – Cattle feeders choose distillers grains in feedlot diets as an inexpensive alternative to corn and soybean meal. But until now, no one had studied the effects of the common feed ingredient on bull development and fertility. With bull fertility to blame for a significant portion of reproductive failures in cow-calf operations, University of Illinois researchers decided it was worth a look.

URBANA, Ill. – Starting weanling pigs off with the right diet can make all the difference for the health and productivity of the animal. A new University of Illinois study shows amino acids from a new torula yeast product are more digestible by young pigs than amino acids from fish meal.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Artificial sweeteners such as sucralose provide the seductive taste of sweetness without the calories contained in sugar – a seeming win-win for people who need to control their blood sugar and insulin levels or weight.

However, simply tasting or consuming sucralose may affect blood glucose and insulin levels on glucose tolerance tests, scientists at the University of Illinois found in a new study.

Read more from the Illinois News Bureau.

URBANA, Ill. – Many animal feeds contain crystalline amino acids, nitrogen-based building blocks for protein synthesis. Often, crystalline amino acids are manufactured by genetically engineered bacteria, which do not trigger any safety concerns but are capable of producing mass quantities of the protein precursors.

Canadian adults with food insecurity are 10% to 37% more likely to die prematurely from any cause other than cancer compared to food-secure people, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).  Craig Gundersen, distinguished professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois, is a co-author on the study. Read more.

As a result of intersecting research interests in women’s health, a new collaboration was forged between Zeynep Madak-Erdogan (GSP/ONC-PM), Assistant Professor in Food Science and Human Nutrition, and Justina Zurauskiene (ONC-PM), Birmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, Engagement and Education (BRIDGE) fellow and fellow at the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences in Birmingham, England.

URBANA, Ill. – Advancing its longstanding support of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois, the Illinois Pork Producers Association (IPPA) has announced a financial commitment to the new Feed Technology Center currently under construction south of campus.

URBANA, Ill. – Recent changes in corn and sorghum processing for ethanol have led to changes in the composition of grain byproducts, including distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS), a major component of swine feed. As a result, today’s DDGS is typically higher in the amino acid leucine than is necessary to meet nutritional requirements of pigs. According to research from the University of Illinois, excess leucine in pig diets can decrease protein synthesis and reduce feed intake.