January 8, 2010

Germany approves research on antibiotic-free pig diet

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has recently approved new interdisciplinary research into the development of an antibiotic-free diet for pigs.

The funding was publicly announced late last year and was approved as of January 1, 2010. The project, named "Nutrition and Intestinal Microbiota - Host Interaction in the Pig", will be carried out at several universities and it will take an interdisciplinary approach in dealing with the effect of nutrition on intestinal function and animal health.

Researchers at the Free University of Berlin aim to treat swine diseases that have health-policy and economic relevance more effectively or even prevent them. Specifically, they are trying to achieve greater efficiency in animal husbandry without utilising antibiotics. 

This research will create numerous possibilities for animal nutrition, health and food safety. The long-term perspective of this research programme is to try to transfer the results onto humans.

The host university for this project will be the Free University of Berlin while the other participating universities are Charité University Hospital, Berlin; Humboldt University in Berlin; Technical University of Berlin.

Meanwhile, a number of institutions will also take part, including the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Berlin and German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbrücke.