Milk oligosaccharides supplementation during early life of piglets for gut health

Job title:

Milk oligosaccharides supplementation during early life of piglets for gut health

Company:

Aarhus Universitet, Foulum

Job description

Applicants are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Animal and Veterinary Sciences programme. The position is available from 15 October 2024 or later. You can submit your application via the link under ‘how to apply’.Title:
Milk oligosaccharides supplementation during early life of piglets for gut healthResearch area and project description:
Proper nutrition in early life of piglets is vital for promoting gut health in the animal’s future. Before weaning, piglets are essentially consuming milk from the sow or milk replacer supplement. One important component of milk is milk oligosaccharides which are prebiotics and essential in developing the gut microbiome. Optimal consumption in milk oligosaccharides in early life can enhance neonate health, potentially leading to more robust animals that are larger in size and less prone to illness. The overall goal of this project is to determine the effects of supplementation in milk oligosaccharides during early life on piglet’s gut health and robustness against post-weaning diarrhea. The hypothesis is that feeding milk oligosaccharides to piglets in early life will contribute to the establishment of a beneficial microbiome and modulate the immune system, thusly improving the piglet’s robustness and resilience during the weaning period.Suckling piglets will be given experimental milk replacer enriched with milk oligosaccharides. During the experimental period, pigs will be sampled (blood, feces) on individual basis, and milk replacer content in milk oligosaccharides will be put into relation with the gut microbiome and various gut health indicators. The PhD project will result in the understanding of mechanisms of action of milk oligosaccharides as prebiotics and the link to potentially reducing the susceptibility to enteric infection.This PhD project is part of the international research project, PIG-PARADIGM (Link: PIG-PARADIGM, an AMR (antimicrobial resistance) research project (au.dk), funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and will be carried out in collaboration with other scientists from the project. The project is entitled ‘Preventing infection in the gut of developing piglets – and thus antimicrobial resistance – by disentangling the interface of diet, the host and the gastrointestinal microbiome’.Please note that for technical reasons, you must upload a project description. Please simply copy the project description above and upload it as a PDF in the application.Qualifications and specific competences:

• An MSc degree or equivalent in animal Science, veterinary medicine or related ?elds.
• High motivation and strong passion and experience in nutrition and health of livestock, and analytical techniques to assess carbohydrates and gut health in relation to dietary interventions.
• Curiosity driven interest in carbohydrates and early life nutrition of piglets.
• A prior knowledge and experience in animal experimental research project and carbohydrates analyses will be advantageous.
• A high level of verbal and written communication in English as this is the language used during the project.
• Practical abilities to work in a variety of experimental facilities, build new experimental setups and laboratory techniques and conduct research independently.
• Good interpersonal skills, the ability to thrive in a diverse, multidisciplinary environment, and the ability to disseminate scientific results.
• Training will be provided in certain techniques, depending on qualifications.

Place of employment and place of work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Research Centre Foulum, Blichers Alle 20, 8830 Tjele, Denmark.Contacts:
Applicants seeking further information are invited to contact:

• Professor Knud Erik Bach Knudsen, e-mail:

(main supervisor) * Tenur-Track Assistant Professor Élisabeth Chassé, e-mail:
(co-supervisor)
How to apply:
Please follow to submit your application.Application deadline is Friday, 6 September at 23:59.
Preferred starting date is 15 October 2024.For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see our .
Please note:

• Only documents received prior to the application deadline will be evaluated. Thus, documents sent after deadline will not be taken into account.
• The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.
• Shortlisting will be used, which means that the evaluation committee only will evaluate the most relevant applications.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply, regardless of their personal background. Salary and terms of employment are in accordance with applicable collective agreement.

Expected salary

Location

Aarhus, Midtjylland

Job date

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 22:36:17 GMT

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