Expanding Income Opportunities for African Farmers
#FarmIncome
Expanding Income Opportunities for African Farmers
#FarmIncome
Research Terms
Dr. Adesogan is a Professor of Ruminant Nutrition, the Director of the Food Systems Institute, and the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems. His research focuses on sustainably increasing animal-source food production and consumption; improving forage production, quality and preservation; and using feed additives, forages and byproducts to sustainably improve animal production and health.
| Director |
Adegbola Adesogan |
| Phone | (352) 294-1014 |
| Website | https://foodsystems.ifas.ufl.edu/ |
| Mission | Global Food Systems Institute (GFSI) Helps You Get There! We support faculty, staff, students, and Extension professionals engage in international work, including teaching, research, and outreach to strengthen human capacity for effective food systems, primarily in the Global South. We assist with project development, identification of funding opportunities, and developing multidisciplinary teams. Our vision is to become a globally preeminent and transformative community for advancing the frontier of knowledge and practice for food and fiber systems. Our mission is to engage in participatory research-based solutions that enhances the nutritional, health, and livelihoods, of global citizens and the environment through scientifically improved food and fiber systems. We value transformative teaching, research, and Extension education that is interdisciplinary and based upon trusted and unbiased research findings. |
This additive helps cattle to digest lower quality feed more efficiently, and, ultimately, has potential to produce more milk, if used as feed additives for dairy cows. In the tropics and subtropics, forages used to supply energy and effective fiber in feed for dairy cows is often less digestible. This is due to the presence of increased quantities of lignocellulose, an intricate and recalcitrant network that impedes access to digestible fiber in the cell wall.
Researchers at the University of Florida have identified an expansin-like protein, that when expressed as a recombinant protein by bacteria, and combined with exogenous fibrolytic enzymes, increases digestibility of lower quality feeds. The recombinant expansin-like protein increases hydrolysis of cellulose by improving the efficiency of fibrolytic enzymes, and thereby has potential to increase feed efficiency and milk yield if used as feed additive for dairy cows.
A recombinant protein for improving the digestibility of forages used as ruminant feed, especially those with higher lignocellulose content, which renders the material more difficult to digest
This recombinant bacterial expansin-like protein combined with exogenous fibrolytic enzymes increases hydrolysis of cellulose both when added prior to ensiling the forage, or when added to haylage immediately prior to feeding.
