Program

Final Program and Abstracts

Invited Speakers

Speaker: Ryan Arsenault

Title: The Poultry Gut: Signals Integrator, Generator, and Target for Intervention

Speaker Biography:
Ryan Arsenault is an assistant professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at the University of Delaware. Arsenault received his BS (2006) and PhD (2012) from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, in biochemistry and conducted his graduate research at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac). Following his PhD, Arsenault was a postdoctoral research scientist with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS). At USDA-ARS he conducted research on gut health and immunomodulation in chicken and cattle, developing the first immunometabolic peptide array and studying the carry and spread of pathogens important to food safety. Arsenault’s current research centers on kinomics and gut health across food-animal species, and includes the topics of immunometabolism, host-pathogen interactions, feed additives, and antibiotic alternatives. His research is supported by several government and industry sources. Arsenault has published extensively in peer-reviewed scientific journals including Science Signaling, The Journal of Immunology, and Infection and Immunity. His teaching includes the microbiome and gut health, as well as on the topic of One Health.

Speaker: Josef Kamphues

Title: Favoring Gastrointestinal Health of Pigs: Benefits of Dietary Concepts Including Rye as the Main Cereal

Speaker Biography:
Since 1993 Josef Kamphues is the head of the Institute of Animal Nutrition at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation; Hanover, Germany. He received his diploma degree in agricultural sciences at the University of Bonn, Germany, and afterwards he studied veterinary medicine in Hanover, Germany. His thesis and habilitation were done in animal nutrition at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover, Germany. Since decades his research work centers on diseases and disturbances in food producing animals (pigs/poultry) as well as in companion animals (ornamental birds/small rodents) due to dietary faults/lacks. His current research is focused on effects of the physical form of diets on the development and health of the GIT in pigs and poultry, including gastric ulcers and salmonellosis in pigs, feeding against boar taint in fattening boars, dietary strategies against foot pad dermatitis, and salmonella in fattening poultry, and last but not least dietary concepts to favor wellbeing in food producing animals. His research activities are funded by foundations, governments and by the industry (feed/feed technology, feed additives, pharmaceuticals).

In 2012 he was awarded by the University of California, Davis the “James G. Morris Lectureship in Companion Animal Nutrition” and in 2014 the main prize of the Henneberg-Lehmann-Foundation at the University of Göttingen, Germany, for his research work on dietary strategies for gastrointestinal health in pigs.

Speaker: Anne Laarman

Title: Intracellular Homeostasis and Its Impact in Gut Health and Adaptation

Speaker Biography:
Anne Laarman is an assistant professor in the Department of Animal and Veterinary Science at the University of Idaho. He received his BSc (physiology and developmental biology) and MSc (animal science) at the University of Alberta and his PhD (animal physiology) at the University of Guelph. Laarman’s research training is on the interface between nutrition and physiology, focusing on development and dietary adaptation of the ruminant gastrointestinal tract. In previous and current laboratory groups, he studied short-chain fatty acid transport mechanisms and their effect on ruminal acidosis, epithelial integrity, and immune response. His current research program is funded by industry, foundations, and government and focuses on improving nutrient uptake and gut health using feed additives and management strategies during dietary transitions.

Speaker: Crystal Loving

Title: Why Resist: Antibiotic Alternatives in Swine

Speaker Biography:
Crystal Loving's research objectives include identifying critical interactions between commensal intestinal microbiota and the developing immune system that contribute to a balanced and healthy pig. This understanding will lead to the development of intervention strategies to limit in-feed antibiotic use and colonization with foodborne pathogens. The laboratory is interested in better understanding the immune cells and molecules that interact with the microbiota throughout the intestinal tract, with a particular focus on the ileum and cecum. These locations harbor very distinct immune cell populations and organisms, and are unique niches for identifying mechanisms in which these two co-evolved systems interact to maintain a balanced and healthy intestinal ecosystem. The lab is also interested in immunometabolism as a biomarker of animal health and has been exploring change in lymphocyte metabolism under different feed and health conditions. Various immunological assays and tools are utilized to assess the phenotype of immune cell populations and function (cytokine expression, proliferation, metabolism), as well as different husbandry conditions (dietary components, immunomodulators, lactogenic immunity) to monitor intestinal physiological and immunological responses.