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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.

URBANA, Ill. – The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois is proud to welcome nine faculty members who have joined since fall semester, 2019. Their expertise will add to the existing strengths in five academic units, as well as University of Illinois Extension, which is housed in the college.

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.

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.

URBANA, Ill. — A new study in rats suggests that caffeine may offset some of the negative effects of an obesogenic diet by reducing the storage of lipids in fat cells and limiting weight gain and the production of triglycerides. Read more from the Illinois News Bureau.

URBANA, Ill. – Pet owners are increasingly treating their “fur-babies” like members of the family. In response, some pet food companies are developing diets that more closely resemble human food, incorporating human-grade meat and vegetable ingredients that pass USDA quality inspections. Until now, little research had been done on these foods.  A new study from the University of Illinois shows these diets are not only highly palatable, they are more digestible than originally estimated.

URBANA, Ill. – Dairy producers frequently add clay as a feed supplement to reduce the symptoms of aflatoxin and subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) in lactating cows. In a new study from the University of Illinois, researchers show that clay can also improve the degradability of feedstuffs.

URBANA, Ill. – Given greater oil-extraction efficiencies at corn-ethanol plants, the resulting co-products, distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS), are lower in fat. That means less energy for pigs and other livestock consuming DDGS as part of their diet, according to research from the University of Illinois.