From the biochemical pieces to the nutritional puzzle: using meta-reactions in teaching and research.

We now live in an era where metabolic data are increasingly accessible and available. Analysis of this data can be done using novel techniques (e.g.

Animal board invited review: Quantification of resilience in farm animals.

Resilience, when defined as the capacity of an animal to respond to short-term environmental challenges and to return to the prechallenge status, is a dynamic and complex trait. Resilient animals can reinforce the capacity of the herd to cope with often fluctuating and unpredictable environmental conditions. The ability of modern technologies to simultaneously record multiple performance measures of individual animals over time is a huge step forward to evaluate the resilience of farm animals.

An in vitro and in vivo approach to characterize digesta from pigs fed different forms of pea flour.

In vitro models of digestion are useful tools to explore the behavior of dietary fiber sources in gastrointestinal conditions. To evaluate the validity of our digestion model, digesta obtained in vivo and in vitro were characterized and the impact of cell wall integrity on protein bioaccessibility and digestibility evaluated. Six cannulated barrows [Pietrain × (Large White × Landrace)] were included in a 2 × 2 Latin square design where they were fed two diets identical in chemical composition but differing in nutrient bioaccessibility.

Apparent jejunal amino acid digestibility, gut morphology, and the expression of intestinal amino acid transporters in pigs fed protein or free amino acids.

Dietary amino acids (AA) supplied as protein or in free form are not only digested and absorbed at different rates but can also induce differences in the intestinal physiology of pigs. We compared the apparent jejunal AA digestibility, intestinal morphology, and gene expression of AA transporters of pigs fed diets providing different forms of AA. Thirty growing pigs (33.