About us
Short portrait
Our institute focuses on animal nutrition in research and teaching: How exactly does digestion work? Which feed components have a particular effect on animal performance, welfare and health? What role does the microbiota play in digestion? How does the microbiota of the digestive tract influence the animal?
Our animal husbandry and our own feed production enable us to investigate such questions in a controlled manner. With our advanced laboratory analytics, we also have a wide range of methods at our disposal: from the supply of trace elements to the gene expression of important biomarkers, our laboratories can shed light on many research topics.
Study and teaching
We offer lectures, courses and electives in the fields of botany of forage plants, feed science and general and special animal nutrition, which enable students to study the nutrition of a wide range of animal species in detail. We place particular emphasis on practical issues that are relevant to pets, farm animals and horses.
In addition to university-based training, we offer the Dahlem Dietetics Seminars for veterinarians, which provide further training on animal nutrition in practice.
There is also a veterinary nutrition consultation for dogs and cats on the institute's premises, run by Dr. Susan Kröger.
Research
Our research focuses on the interactions between nutritional factors, the intestinal microbiota and the animal. For example, fiber-containing feed or feed additives such as prebiotics have a complex effect on animal welfare. We are investigating how the digestive physiology and immune system of the animals change and how the microbiota reacts to the altered conditions. A particularly unique feature of the institute is our own sow housing system, which allows us to track the development of piglets from the day they are born. This allows us to investigate, for example, the influence of the sow's diet on the healthy development of her piglets.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a global problem, and not just in commercial livestock farming. We are therefore also researching ways to reduce the development and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria through dietary measures.