Mechanisms that contribute to variation in residual feed intake of beef cattle

• Grant number: 13/01631-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2013
• End date: December 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Flávio Dutra de Resende
• Grantee: Matheus Henrique Moretti
• Supervisor: Gordon E. Carstens
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Texas A&M University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/18410-2 - Feeding strategies in the growing and finishing cattle Nellore, BP.DR

Abstract

The central hypotheses for this project is that a large proportion of observed inter-animal variance in feed intake of growing and lactating cattle is unexplained by variation related to BW and level of production, which can be quantified as residual feed intake (RFI). The overall objectives of this project will be to determine the biological basis (e.g., energy expenditures, digestibility, tissue composition) for phenotypic variation in RFI of growing and lactating cattle, and to discover physiological or metabolic biomarkers (e.g., residual energy expenditure) of RFI for early, cost-effective and accurate identification of cattle that are energetically more efficient. (AU)