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Prairie Swine Centre  >  Nutrition

The overall goal of the nutrition research program at Prairie Swine Centre is to develop nutrition strategies that improve the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of pork production in Canada. This includes research projects to improve our understanding of nutrition, metabolism, and physiology at all stages of production. We work closely with researchers in Saskatchewan, across Canada, and worldwide to create a multidisciplinary research program to address the needs of the pork value chain.

Current themes of the nutrition research program include 1) the impact of dietary composition on animal health and nutrient requirements, 2) the impact of disease on nutrient requirements, 3) strategies to mitigate the negative effects of mycotoxins, 4) incorporation of alternative ingredients in swine diets, and 5) the effect of early-life nutrition on lifetime performance.

Current projects are funded by the Government of Saskatchewan – Agriculture Development Fund, Swine Innovation Porc – Canadian Agricultural Partnership, Evonik Operations GmbH, CJ Bio, Mitacs, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Current Areas of Research
  1. Impact of dietary composition on animal health and nutrient requirements
  2. The impact of disease on nutrient requirements
  3. Srategies to mitigate the negative effects of mycotoxins
  4. Incorporation of alternative ingredients in swine diets
  5. The effect of early-life nutrition on lifetime performance.
Current Nutrition Group Members

Dan Columbus, PhD
Research Scientist

Originally from Sarnia, Ontario, Dan completed his undergraduate degree from the University of Guelph in Animal Biology in 2004. Dan went on to complete his graduate training at Guelph under the mentorship of Dr. Kees de Lange. His MSc research focused on the use of liquid feeding technology and phytase to improve availability of phosphorus in high-moisture corn based diets for newly-weaned pigs. His doctoral studies, completed in 2012, examined the impact of dietary ingredients on availability of amino acids and nitrogen and the efficiency of utilization of non-protein nitrogen sources, such as ammonia and urea, for growth.

After completing his graduate training, Dan moved to Houston, Texas, to complete post-doctoral training under Dr. Teresa Davis at the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Centre, Baylor College of Medicine, where his research focused on examining nutrient regulation of muscle growth and development of nutritional therapies to improve growth of low-birth weight infants, using the pig as a model for the human infant.
Dan joined the Prairie Swine Centre in 2015 and leads the nutrition research program. Dan’s current research focuses on nutrition in the nursery and grower-finisher phase of pig production and on development of research studies utilizing the pig as a model for human nutrition and health.

Josiane Panisson, PhD
Research Associate

Originally from São Miguel do Oeste, Brazil, Josiane Carla Panisson obtained her undergraduate in Animal Science from Universidade do estado de Santa Catarina – UDESC. After she finished her BSc degree, she started working in a technical secondary school as an Animal Science teacher.  In 2014, she enrolled in an MSc program in Animal Science (swine and poultry nutrition) at the Universidade Federal do Parana – UFPR. After completion, she obtained her PhD from the same university in 2020. The research program was developed mainly by the Animal Nutrition Research Laboratory (LEPNAN). In 2018, through the ELAP (Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program) scholarship, she came to University of Saskatchewan as a visiting researcher under the supervision of Dr. Denise Beaulieu.  She joined the Prairie Swine Centre in 2020.

Bria Bentley, BSc
MSc Student

Bria Bentley graduated from the University of Saskatchewan this spring with a BSc in Animal Science. Originally from Calgary AB, she was able to gain experience within various livestock operations including swine, poultry, dairy, and equine. Bria developed a passion for the swine industry after working for Olymel as a Pork Production Technician in the farrowing department. Through work experience and academics Bria has aspiration to continue her pathway in the swine industry. Bria has chosen to pursue a master’s degree in swine nutrition under the guidance of Dr. Denise Beaulieu and Dr. Dan Columbus at the University of Saskatchewan. Bria will be involved in evaluating “swine bioavailability of resistant starch derived from pulse starches.” After completion of her MSc, Bria would like to become an animal nutritionist in the industry.

Taiwo J. Erinle, MSc.
PhD Student

Hailing from Sagamu, South-Western Nigeria. Taiwo earned a B.Tech degree in Animal Nutrition and Biotechnology from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Nigeria, in 2018. Following this, he got admitted into a master’s degree program in Animal Science at Dalhousie University, where he earned his MSc degree in 2022 under Dr. Deborah Adewole. His MSc research evaluated the antibiotic replacement of potentials of grape pomace and red osier dogwood extract as sustainable solutions to combat disease incidence in broiler chickens production challenged with Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) or SE lipopolysaccharide. In addition to poultry, Taiwo’s quest for well-rounded professionalism in monogastric animal nutritional research motivated his research interest in swine nutritional physiology. He is currently in his Ph.D. degree program under the supervision of Dr. Dan Columbus. After completing his Ph.D., Taiwo hopes to remain in academia as a Post-Doctoral Fellow, where he would like to conduct high-quality poultry and swine research to improve monogastric animal productivity.

Marllon de Oliveira, PhD.
Post Doctoral Fellow

Originally from Itabira, Brazil, Marllon José Karpeggiane de Oliveira obtained his undergraduate in Animal Science from Instituto Federal de Minas Gerais – IFMG. He completed his Master’s degree in 2019, and Ph.D. in 2023, in Animal Science at Universidade Estadual Paulista “Julio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP-Jaboticabal). His MSc research focused on evaluating the use of feed additives (probiotics) for broilers under enteric pathogen challenge, while during his Ph.D. he focused on understanding the interaction between nutrition and heat-stressed pigs. In 2024, he joined the University of Saskatchewan and Prairie Swine Centre as a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Dr. Dan Columbus.

Postdoctoral Fellows

Michael Wellington (2020 – 2021), ‘Effect of birth weight and neonatal undernutrition on nutrient utilization’

Atta Agyekum (2016 – 2018), ‘Processed fibre to improve performance in gestating and lactating sows’

Josiane Panisson (2021 – 2022), ‘Effect of timing of feeding on farrowing time’

Olufemi Babatunde (2022 – 2023) ‘Indigestible protein and gut health in weaned pigs’

 

Graduate Students

Miranda Buchinski, MSc student (2021 – 2023) ‘Altering the essential amino acid-nitrogen:total nitrogen ratio with ammonium phosphate impacts nitrogen retention, lysine requirement, and body composition of growing pigs’

Carley Camire, MSc student (2020 – 2022) ‘Examining the effect of non-essential amino acid nitrogen content on lysine requirement for nitrogen retention and growth performance in growing pigs’

Cara Cargo-Froom, PhD student (2018-2022), ‘Pulses as alternative proteins for growing swine’

Lucas Rodrigues, PhD student (2018 – 2022), ‘Examination of the effectiveness of provision of functional amino acids to enhance robustness in enteric challenged pigs’

Michael Bosompem, MSc student (2018 – 2020), ‘Effect of long-term feeding of graded levels of deoxynivalenol to grower-finisher pigs’

Michael Wellington, PhD student (2016 – 2020), ‘Interactive effect of dietary fibre and immune challenge on threonine requirement and intestinal barrier function in growing pigs’

Rochelle Thiessen, MSc student (2017 – 2019), ‘Impact of dietary fibre and indigestible protein on threonine requirements’

 

Undergraduate Honours Thesis Students

Jade Sands (2020 – 2021), ‘Management strategies to improve performance of sows and piglets’

Jack Krone (2018 – 2019), ‘Examining urea flux mechanisms in the porcine gastrointestinal tract’

Vaishnavi Iyer Aka Aiyer (2016 – 2017), ‘Impact of deoxynivalenol-contaminated diets in nursery pigs’

 

Undergraduate Research Assistants 

  • Taylor Baker (2021)
  • Sarah Ibach (2021)
  • Victoria Windrem (2020)
  • Keara Leong-Machielse (2020)
  • Jade Sands (2019)
  • Paisley Johnson (2019)
  • Jack Krone (2019)
  • Miriam ter Borgh (2018)
  • Liam Kelln (2017)