Annette Liesegang

University of Zurich | UZH · Institute of Animal Nutrition and Dietetics

Certain feed additives may reduce ammonia emissions in chicken stables through ammonia adsorption or promoting its utilization as a nitrogen source for microbial protein biosynthesis. We conducted a study to test different products on total nitrogen and ammonia excretion, as well as apparent nitrogen retention, during chicken fattening. We used 120...

This study aimed to quantify the effects of dietary inclusion of tannin-rich pomegranate peel (PP) on intake, methane and nitrogen (N) losses, and metabolic and health indicators in dairy cows. Four multiparous, late-lactating Brown Swiss dairy cows (796 kg body weight; 29 kg/d of energy corrected milk yield) were randomly allocated to 3 treatments...

Obesity is an escalating global health problem affecting both humans and companion animals. In cats it is associated with increased mortality and multiple diseases, including diabetes mellitus. Two genes coding for proteins known to play a critical role in energy homeostasis across species are the proopiomelanocortin (POMC) gene and the melanocorti...

Diets based on large proportions of grassland-based feed are uncommon in forage-based intensive beef production, thus contradicting governmental or commercial strategies to promote the use of grassland-based feed in ruminant production systems. Compared with typical maize silage/concentrate diets, grassland-based diets are associated with impaired...

The common boa (Boa constrictor) belongs to the family Boidae and represents one of the most popular traded and kept snake species in captivity. The early diagnosis, prevention and prophylaxis of diseases in this species, and in reptiles in general, still pose major challenges, also due to the lack of reliable reference values. This prompted us to...

Introduction: This project aims to increase students’ interest in the scientific workflow and digestive processes by active research. The idea was to impart knowledge on microbial fermentation in rumen (ruminants) and large intestine (hindgut fermenters, omnivores) using practical techniques to investigate the kinetics of microbial fermentation of...

Introduction: The overall goal of this study is to understand the interaction between macro and micro mineral metabolism in growing sheep and goats. The present abstract provides first preliminary data on end points in performance, serum and bone parameters. Animals, materials and methods: Two consecutive studies were conducted over a period of 28...

The availability of high quality protein rich feed in many developing countries is limited as well as expensive. Low-quality agro-industrial by-products, i.e., rice bran (RB) and wheat bran (WB), are therefore used as poultry feed irrespective of their low protein content. The main objective of the present study was to improve the protein content a...

Piscivores in human care receive whole fish that were frozen, stored and thawed before feeding. Nutrient losses have been documented, but exact changes during storage and with different thawing methods are unknown. Primarily, it was hypothesized that frozen fish lose different vitamins and trace minerals during a storage period of six months. Secon...

Excessive dietary intake of fats and sugars (“Western diet”, WD) is one of the leading causes of obesity. The consumption of the microalga Arthrospira platensis (spirulina, Sp) is increasing due to its presumed health benefits. Both WD and Sp are also consumed by pregnant and breastfeeding women. This study investigated if gestating and lactating d...

Expression levels of genes (RT-qPCR) related to Ca and P homeostasis (transporters and claudins (CLDN)) were determined in porcine jejunal and colonic mucosa. Forty growing pigs (BW 30.4±1.3 kg) received a low and high Ca content (2.0 and 9.6 g/kg, respectively) diet with or without microbial phytase (500 FTU/kg) for 21 days. Dietary Ca intake enha...

Replacing imported soybean meal (SBM) by domestic protein sources such as grain legumes, food industry by-products or novel resource-efficient feeds is a current research focus to enhance the sustainability of ruminant production systems. In addition, grass silage replacing maize silage can contribute to dietary crude protein (CP) supply as well an...

Simple Summary The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the litter, the individual and the mother on the likelihood that kittens become overweight by 8 months of age. Since efforts to investigate these factors in cats often do not account for variables that increase the likelihood of obesity in adult life (e.g., neutering), data on an inta...

Rice bran is a very cheap and abundant agricultural by-products in rice producing countries. Additionally, many developing countries used these by products as poultry feed. Rice bran (RB) contains high fiber and chicken is not capable to digest those fibrous feed effectively, resulting in low production performance. The main objectives of this stud...

A spayed Boston terrier was referred for nutritional advice after failing to respond to long‐term medical and dietary treatment for chronic pancreatitis. Based on clinical appearance, consecutive bloodwork and ultrasound examination, the concomitant occurrence of inflammatory bowel disease was likely. An exclusion diet (novel protein approach) and...

Metabolic profile and leptin presence and expression of receptor in the ovary of 8 queens were analyzed. All queens were assessed for nutritional state and underwent ovariectomy in accordance with Italian law for the control of stray cats and dogs. Three queens were at early gestation, three prepubescent and two non-pregnant. All animals appeared h...

Eating and rumination variables were recorded using a pressure sensor integrated into the noseband of a halter in 60 cows with left displaced abomasum (LDA) before and after postoperative administration of flunixin meglumine (FM). Group 1 comprised 9 healthy control cows that were used to establish reference intervals. Group 2 included 60 cows with...

A viable tool for the monitoring of the systemic condition of the pregnant jenny may be the determination of serum protein fraction (SPF) levels, including metabolic profiling. Tissue development and composition of the growing fetus requires the mother to provide adequate nutrients to its body parts and organs. In this regard, body fluid distributi...

Feeding low dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) diets is one strategy to prevent milk fever in cows. The mechanism of action, as well as whether the calcium (Ca) supply of such diets combined with this feeding regimen should meet the requirements, is still unclear. Small ruminants are commonly used as models for cows. The goal of the present stu...

The supplemental feeding of wildlife is a worldwide phenomenon. The most widespread and socially accepted example is bird feeding. Commercial hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus L.) diets are readily available in Switzerland. To test the hypothesis that commercial hedgehog diets are nutritionally inadequate, the following parameters (as taken from the la...

During an experimental period of 28 days citric acid (CA) was tested as a growth promoter instead of antibiotics with replacement of commercial diet by rice polish (RP). Newly 240 hatched broiler chicks (Cobb 500) distributed into eight dietary groups (3 replicate cages having 10 birds in each), 1=Control (commercial diet), 2=Commercial diet+0.5% C...

Gastrointestinal disorders due to Eimeria sp. and E. coli overgrowth cause high mortality in weaner rabbits and the interest in alternatives to coccidiostats is high. This study aimed to investigate the superiority of natural feed additives towards robenidine preserving gastrointestinal health in the field. Rabbits were divided into four groups, Co...

The influence of phenol-rich dietary grapeseed extract on performance, energy and nitrogen (N) balance and methane production was determined in 16 lambs and 13 goat kids (Body weight: 20.5 and 19.0 kg, 2 months of age, Day 1 of study). Half of the animals received a concentrate containing grapeseed extract, the others received concentrate without g...

In the veterinary profession, the body condition score (BCS) plays an important role in the assessment of patients. It is a subjective, tactile method of evaluating body fat and muscle mass and is used in numerous species. Recognizing obesity (or the contrary, emaciation) is important for veterinarians treating reptiles and could be facilitated by...

While teaching, the Institute of Animal Nutrition of the University of Zurich (IANZ) noticed that veterinary students, veterinarians and pet owners have significant difficulties in reading and understanding pet food labels (PFL). The authors hypothesized that if PFL are easy to read and understand, 90% of those dog owners (n = 43) polled at a dog e...

Introduction Food and dietary ingredients have significant effects on metabolism and health. Objective To evaluate whether and how different diets affected the serum lipidomic profile of dogs. Methods Sixteen healthy beagles were fed a commercial dry diet for 3 months (control diet). After an overnight fasting period, a blood sample was taken for...

Welche Futtermittel sind für meinen Hund gefährlich? Was ist giftig? Was kann ich ohne Bedenken geben? Sind Tischabfälle okay? Salzlos? Ohne Getreide?

In growing dogs, overweight is assimilated and attributed to a fast growth rate. Proper nutrition plays a very important role during growth as mistakes in feeding may lead to severe disease. This case report is an example for excessive weight gain during growth that, particularly in large breed dogs, may lead to skeletal disorders such as improper...

Mastitis metritis agalactia (MMA) is a common disease in post‐partum sows and has a negative effect on sows’ longevity as well as on sows’ and piglets’ health. MMA leads to an inflammatory state. The aim was to investigate the impact of MMA on bone and fat metabolism. The hypothesis was that it is possible to predict MMA by measuring ketone bodies...

Diets excessive in crude protein (CP) are unfavourable in terms of metabolic and environmental load. Dietary phenols, often binding to dietary proteins, may alleviate these problems. In an experiment with 60 lambs (3.2 ± 1.6 months of age; 29.7 ± 5.1 kg body weight), kept in pairs, five diets were tested. A diet with 157 g CP/kg dry matter (DM) ser...

Polyphenols are known to affect digestion of ruminants, whereas there is little information about their metabolic effects. In a 2 × 2-factorial experiment the effects of supplementing a phenolic grapeseed extract were compared in 11 East Friesian dairy sheep and 9 Saanen goats. The concentrate supplemented with 7.4 g/100 g DM grapeseed extract had...

Objective: The methane mitigating potential of various plant-based polyphenol sources is known, but effects of combinations have rarely been tested. The aim of the present study was to determine whether binary and 3-way combinations of such phenol sources affect ruminal fermentation less, similar or more intensively than separate applications. Me...

A research projekt conducted at the Tiergarten in Nuremberg discovered thatdiet can improve claw health in takins.

Health of transition goats can be explored through the assessment of the metabolic profile. Selected circulating parameters of clinical importance may be used for indicating homeostasis perturbations during the transition period. The present study aimed to characterize the metabolic profile of transition dairy goats raised under a pasture-based sys...