AFIA awards researchers in animal nutrition

The American Feed Industry Association has sponsored a series of awards for researchers in the field of animal nutrition since 1948.

 

Five such awards were presented to researchers at the annual meetings of the animal science societies in Denver, Colorado recently.

 

The following researchers were granted for their research:

 

Hartnell, the leading animal nutritionist for evaluating biotech crops at the Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Mo., was recognized for his professional achievements by the Federation of Animal Science Societies.

 

Hartnell’s collaborative studies, efforts to improve study design, and outreach to scientific, industry, farm, and consumer groups have contributed to the success of the technology.

 

He has conducted studies in more than 18 countries, and he co-chaired the International Life Sciences Institute Task Force that developed best practices to comprehensively evaluate biotech feeds.

 

His contributions in this area include more than 30 peer-reviewed publications and presentations. 

 

Stein’s research focuses on digestive physiology and ingredient evaluation. He has published 67 peer-reviewed journal articles, four book chapters, 68 conference proceedings and bulletins, and 123 research abstracts.

 

In addition, Stein has presented his research at numerous events in the United States and other countries, and he has mentored five post-doctoral fellows and 21 graduate students.

 

He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Animal Science and on several research review panels.

He also is a member of the National Research Council committee that is writing the 11th revised edition of Nutrient Requirements of Swine.

 

Earlier this year, Stein launched a website (http://nutrition.ansci.illinois.edu/) to make his swine nutrition research more accessible and more applicable for producers and feed companies.

 

McAllister leads a team that focuses on ruminant nutrition, microbiology, molecular biology and beef production at the Lethbridge Research Center.

 

His innovations include the following items: characterizing microbial processes of feed digestion, development of exogenous enzymes, prevention of bloat, mitigation of acidosis, fate of feed transgenes, biofuel feed by-products, mitigation of methane emissions, and the use of subtherapeutic antibiotics in beef production.

 

He also is an associate editor of the Canadian Journal of Animal Science and the Journal of Animal Science. He has published nearly 300 scientific, peer-reviewed papers.

 

VanAmburgh is an associate professor at Cornell University, where he teaches several courses in dairy cattle nutrition, nutrient management on farms, and more.

 

He also is the adviser to the university’s Dairy Science Club. He splits his time 50-50 between teaching and research.

 

VanAmburgh is recognized for his outstanding research contributions to the dairy industry in the areas of growth and development of dairy replacement animals, ruminant nitrogen use, and modelling feed chemistry and components present in dairy rations using the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Proteins System, or CNCPS.

 

He is best known for his research evaluating the nutrient requirements of dairy replacement animals, from birth through lactation. He has investigated the endocrine and ontogenic control of several processes, including pubertal and mammary development.

 

The mammary development research was ground-breaking in scope because it allowed the industry to re-evaluate what was thought to be a problem—negative effects of nutrient intake on mammary development—and refocus an entire area of research.

 

In addition, VanAmburgh and his research team continuously work to improve the university’s CNCPS, with the intent that the biology of the cow matches the modelling within the software.

 

This model is the one most used in the industry for building and evaluating dairy rations in the field. He now is conducting research on nitrogen use in lactating dairy cows, and he is using the CNCPS model in this endeavour.

 

Southern holds the Doyle Chambers Distinguished Professorship at the LSU Agricultural Center.

 

He specializes in non-ruminant nutrition, and he focuses on the areas of amino acid and mineral use by swine and poultry.

 

He has served on the editorial board of Poultry Science and the Professional Animal Scientist and as associate and division editors of the Journal of Animal Science. He now is the section editor of Poultry Science.

 

A member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Animal Nutrition from 1998-2002, he has received numerous awards for his professional accomplishments.