Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "The gut-brain axis, nutrition and drug-resistant idiopathic epilepsy in dogs: Is there a role for the manipulation of the gut-microbiome and metabolome?" "Myriam Hesta" "Department of Morphology, Imaging, Orthopedics, Rehabilitation and Nutrition" "Firstly, the gut microbiome and metabolome are investigated using plasma and faecal samples to identify differences between dogs with idiopathic epilepsy and healthy dogs. This knowledge is then used in part two, where a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study is set up to evaluate medium-chain fatty acids in the diet with a view to obtaining better seizure control and quality of life." "Balancing protein nutrition in pigs: A data-driven path to sustainability" "Jeroen Degroote" "Department of Animal Sciences and Aquatic Ecology" "To effectively minimize nutrient wastage, it's essential to reduce nutrient consumption without hampering animal performance. Precision feeding embodies the current state-of-the-art methodology to accomplish this. Here, nutrient requirements are calculated daily for each individual, and feed composition is adapted to match these requirements. Although precision feeding demonstrates a significant potential to reduce nutrient losses, we foresee that the impact in the field will be hampered by its limited capacity to flexibly adapt to the wide variation in commercial conditions. Many of the input features and parameters (e.g. maximum protein deposition rate, amino acid digestibility coefficients) are fixed values that do not represent the individual and time-dependent variability in animal responses. Second, precision feeding relies on continuous updates from the research community to keep up with the fast-developing production circumstances, where it is impossible to recreate all possible scenarios that impact nutrient efficiency. This project will develop a machine learning framework that digests sensor data and metadata, into a robust estimate of the input features and hyperparameters that serve the precision feeding calculations for pigs. Whenever new farm data is available, the framework will be retrained to learn from its own mistakes by comparing the predicted animal performance with the measured performance. By including multiple data streams (climate data, stocking density, feed matrix, etc.), as well as alternative representations of the data (time domain and frequency domain), we significantly augment the capability to capture the complexity of real-life conditions. This will enable training for tailored nutrient requirement calculations that drive the farm-specific feeding programs, as well as identifying farm-specific parameters that need better management, paving the path for continuous improvements in nutrient efficiency in pigs. " "Fibre as important macronutrient in carnivore nutrition" "Geert Janssens" "Department of Veterinary and Biosciences" "This project aims to investigate if animal fibre, e.g. fur and bones, has a health effect in cats and to what extent this is due to the chemical or physical traits of animal fibre. In addition, we aim to develop a technique to quantify animal fibre with which we will analyse wild prey of cats along with common macronutrient analysis." "Evaluation of nutrition strategies involving glutathione precursors on the glutathione redox status and heat stress tolerance in broiler chickens" "Heat exposure affects broilers production and health on a worldwide basis particularly in the finisher phase. It triggers several metabolic dysfunctions, including cell death by causing “oxidative stress”. Therefore this research conducted to evaluate nutritional strategies that involve diet supplementation with precursors of GSH synthesis (endogenous antioxidant) using N-acetylcysteine, cysteine to suppress the adverse effect of heat stress on broilers." "BOF ZAP human nutrition" "Bryan Gonzales" "Department of Public Health and Primary Care" "A professorship granted by the Special Research Fund is a primarily research-oriented position and is made available for excellent researchers with a high-quality research programme." "Insects for Nutrition and Health: Development and Evaluation of Insect-based Complementary Foods for Children in Kenya" "Xavier Gellynck" "Department of Agricultural Economics" "In Kenya, malnutrition puts children at increased risk of morbidity and mortality. While agricultural   biodiversity includes under-exploited species that may contribute to food and nutrition security, and health, edible insects are still neglected and undervalued. This study examines the potential of complementary foods from fifteen local edible-insects from a marketing and analytical perspective.  " "Interaction between oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) progenies and K and Mg mineral nutrition" "Eduardo de la Pena" "Department of Plants and Crops" "Good management practices in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) plantations require accurate prediction of fertilizer (i.e. micro and macronutrient) requirements. The main objective of this doctoral research is to improve palm oil production by identifying oil palm progenies that are more efficient in absorbing and utilizing minerals for standard fertilization." "Novel mineral fertilizer matrices for improved microelement nutrition" "Soil and Water Management" "Mineral micronutrient fertilizers are essential to maintain high productivity in crop production systems. Yet, fast micronutrient release from conventional soluble fertilizers often results in poor nutrient use efficiencies (NUE), while micronutrient sources are scarce and depend on foreign supply. This C3 proposal addresses these issues with the development of a new slow-release micronutrient fertilizer compound (SR-µ-fertilizer) for boron (B), molybdenum (Mo) and selenium (Se). The capabilities of this SR-µ-fertilizer will be demonstrated with applied research activities: i) synthesis and chemical testing of promising compounds, ii) a proof-of-concept plant trial comparing the NUE of powder SR-µ-fertilizer and soluble B/Mo/Se, and iii) a plant trial assessing the NUE of the SR-µ-fertilizer embedded in different macronutrient fertilizers. Two main valorization strategies will be pursued: establishing direct collaborations with fertilizer companies and participating in a H2020 project on new sustainable fertilizers." "Impact of Bio-fortified Sweet Potato Adoption on Food and Nutrition Security in Tigray, Ethiopia." "Hans De Steur" "Department of Agricultural Economics, Haramaya University" "In Tigray region of Ethiopia, 80% of the population is poor and malnourished. Bio-fortified sweet potato, the flagship of agriculture-based nutrition interventions, could help to reverse that trend, but its adoption rate is tremendously lower than elsewhere in Ethiopia. This project examines the drivers and impact of its adoption in order to improve food, and nutrition security, and rural development." "Food Care: quality nutrition for vulnerable populations" "Jusra Baki" "Mens en maatschappij, Stadskracht, Health and science" "Abstract is not available in english"