Feed-a-Gene: Adapting feeds, animal and feeding techniques to improve the efficiency and sustainability of monogastric livestock production systems
Feed-a-Gene involves an international consortium of 23 public and private partners from Europe and China. Started in March 2015, the project will last 5 years and has been allocated a budget of €9 million. Challenges The global demand for animal products continues to increase, notably because of strong demographic growth and higher purchasing power. According to FAO, there are currently no viable alternatives to intensive livestock production that can meet this growing demand. Monogastric species (pigs and poultry) are the main sources of animal products. However, competition between food, feed, and fuel and environmental issues caused by monogastric livestock production must be addressed and new solutions to increase the efficiency and sustainability of livestock production systems must be developed. Feed-a-Gene aims to: - Unlock the potential of existing feeds and identifying new and alternative feed sources. - Use precision livestock production, including precision feeding for better adapting the nutrient supply to animal requirements. - Identify new genetic markers and use genetic diversity to breed more efficient and robust animals better adapted to fluctuating environmental conditions, and capable to use feed resources that are not or less in competition with other usages. Objectives The objectives of the Feed-a-Gene project include: - Develop new and alternative feeds and feed technologies to make better use of local feed resources, green biomass and by-products of the food and biofuel industry. - Develop methods for the real-time characterization of the nutritional value of feeds to better use and adapt diets to animal requirements. - Develop new traits of feed efficiency and robustness allowing identification of individual variability to select animals more adapted to changes in feed and environmental conditions. - Develop biological models of livestock functioning to better understand and predict nutrient and energy utilization of animals along their productive trajectory. - Develop new management systems for precision feeding and precision farming combining data and knowledge from the feed, the animal, and the environment using innovative monitoring systems, feeders, and decision support tools. - Evaluate the overall sustainability of new management systems developed by the project. Demonstrate the innovative technologies developed by the project in collaboration with partners from the feed industry, breeding companies, equipment manufacturers, and farmers’ organisations to promote the practical implementation of project results. Feed-a-Gene partners INRA (France), Wageningen UR (Netherlands), Newcastle University (United Kingdom), Universitat de Lleida (Spain), IRTA (Spain), Kaposvár University (Hungary), Aarhus University (Denmark), China Agricultural University (China), IPG/Topigs (Netherlands), Cobb (United Kingdom), Hamlet Protein (Denmark), Bühler (Switzerland), DuPont (Denmark), Exafan (Spain), Claitec (Spain), INCO (Spain), Gran Suino italiano (Italy), ACTA (France), IFIP (France), ITAVI (France), Terres Inovia (France), AFZ (France), INRA Transfert (France) Website and social media www.feed-a-gene.eu www.facebook.com/feedagene twitter.com/FeedaGene www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=8359616 Contacts Communication officer: Gilles Tran Association Française de Zootechnie, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05, France Tel: +33 (0) 1 44 08 18 08 Email : gilles.tran@zootechnie.fr Scientific manager and project coordinator: Jaap van Milgen INRA, Domaine de la Prise, F-35590 Saint-Gilles, France Tel: +33 (0) 2 23 48 56 44 Email: jaap.vanmilgen@rennes.inra.fr Project manager: Yoan Emritloll INRA Transfert, 3 rue de Pondichéry F-75015 Paris, France Tel: +33 (0) 1 76 21 61 97 Email: yoan.emritloll@paris.inra.fr
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Switzerland, China, Denmark, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom