The scientific research activities of the Department of Animal Breeding, Animal Nutrition & Biochemistry is divided according to the focus of individual units of the department:
Department 2420 has accredited user equipment for conducting experiments on animals.
It is aimed at assessing the effects on the quality of livestock production in agricultural primary production, especially with regard to the effect of genotypes in livestock. It also deals with the effects of the external environment on the animal's organism with respect to its production, reproduction and health.
Research in livestock is focused on the study of factors that can positively or negatively affect animal health and their production parameters, with an overlap in the production of healthy and biologically valuable raw materials and food.
The research of the department is also focused on the study of the influence of vegetable diets in poultry on the quality of final production and health status. The research activity of the department is further focused on the field of nutrition and dietetics of farm and domestic animals, pets. into the field of nutrition of feathered and game animals with a focus on supporting their health and condition.
Part of the professional focus of the department is monitoring the latest trends in livestock nutrition, the laboratory implements the control of protein feeds using the method of mutual comparison of nitrogenous substances and amino acid spectrum.
The Unit of Animal Breeding and Animal Nutrition cooperates with a number of domestic and foreign universities and research institutes, as well as with production practice within the agricultural and veterinary practice, feed, processing and food industries.
The unit has a laboratory with equipment for sampling and preparation of feed and biological material and hematological analysis of blood, laboratory for aminoanalysis of biological samples and determination of nutritional value of feed, gas chromatography to assess the fat component of biological samples, elemental analysis for sulfur, nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen, a polarimeter for determining the starch content and a calorimeter for determining the heat of combustion of the samples.
It is aimed at laboratory diagnostics of intravital indicators of animal welfare and stress, biochemical indicators of oxidative stress and evaluation of health safety and quality of food and raw materials of animal origin. The area of intravital indicators of animal well-being and stress is focused on the determination of selected intravital indicators of blood stress (glucose, proteins, lactate, triacylglycerol, AST, ALT, cortisol, vanillic acid), resp. determination of selected intravital indicators of stress in urine and feces (cortisol, vanillic acid):In the study of oxidative stress, the department's research focuses on determining biomarkers of free radicals, such as blood plasma antioxidant capacity, TBARS lipoperoxidation products or carbonylated proteins. In the field of health safety assessment and quality of food and raw materials of animal origin, the research of the department focuses, for example, on the analysis of products and changes in lipids by various technological influences.
As part of its analytical activities, the laboratory has a Varioskan Flash Special Scanning Multimode Reader (spectrophotometric methods for the determination of enzymes, lipoperoxidation, carbonyl proteins, cortisol), Thermo Scientific INDIKO biochemical analyzer (biochemical parameters - serum, plasma, urine, whole blood, cerebrospinal fluid, almost all important, commercial kits) and the VETTEST 8008 biochemical analyzer (IDEXX Laboratories Inc. USA) for biochemical parameters from animal blood/plasma.