Address:	Königin-Luise-Str.49 Building 4 14195 Berlin
Director:	Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jürgen Zentek
Phone:	+49 30 838 52256
Mail:	tierernaehrung@vetmed.fu-berlin.de
Webpage:	http://www.vetmed.fu-berlin.de­/einrichtungen­/institute­/we04­/index.html

About

Our research programme covers the nutrition - host interaction in farm and companion animals. We are specifically interested in the interaction of nutritional factors with the intestine as interface between the animal and the outer world. The main focus is the impact of nutrition on the intestinal microbiota. We have established methods for compositional, functional and metagenmic approaches. This allows studying the complex interaction between the nutritional factors and the host in greater detail. We have established a group working on the second big topic, covering the impact on immunological functions. This has been done for farm animals and companion animals, allowing assessing short and long term effects of nutritional factors on animal health. The method spectrum includes the full panel of nutritional methods, classical and molecular microbiology and up to date immunological methods such as flow cytometry, lymphocyte function tests and micro arrays. We are embedded in national and international projects with European, DFG, public and other third party funding including industry.

Teaching profile

The teaching of animal nutrition is closely integrated into the training of veterinarians. In addition, the institute provides the training for agricultural students at the Humboldt University. Focus of teaching are:

• Scientific principles of nutrition
• Species-aspecific feeding, nutrition and related diseases, dietetic principles for the treatment of disorders of digestion and metabolism
• Animal nutrition as an essential factor to ensure the quality of foods of animal origin (from the stable to the table)
• Animal nutrition as an important element in animal welfare
• Postgraduate Education: The Institute provides the possibility for dissertation or PhD projects, special degrees for veterinarians in nutrition, training of residents of the European College of Veterinary and Comparative Nutrition
• Course as part of the Graduate School "Biology of Nutrition"
• Training Courses for veterinarians

Research profile

Find current research project in the PubDB.

Services

The institute offers a client counselling service (see homepage).