OUR ACTIVITIES
Courses delivered by the Department under the Bachelor’s study programme in Animal Husbandry Technology:
Mandatory: agrotechnics (farming technology, cropping systems, agrotechnical measures); fodder science (plant growing aspects, varieties, yield, economic and feed value); agricultural animal nutrition (determination of nutritional value of feeds by their biochemical composition, scheme for analysis of feeds, nutrient determination methods); standardised feeding of agricultural animals (organisation of feeding, rationing); innovative technologies in livestock farming (new innovative technologies in livestock farming).
Elective: horticulture (nutritional value of vegetables, their role in the diet, biological properties, classification, description, and conditions of growth and development of vegetables); cynology and felinology (the study of dogs and cats, their origins, characteristics and nutrition); feeding of fur animals (specifics of the digestive system of fur animals, determination of the level of absorption of food substances); compound feed production and quality control (concept, classification of compound feed, description of the main groups, characteristics of raw materials); quality management systems in the feed industry (Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), risk factor analysis, and concepts, principles, implementation of the key management points of quality systems).
Courses delivered by the Department under the Master’s study programme in Animal Husbandry Technology:
Mandatory: research methodology (research methodology and methods, empirical and theoretical methods, relationship between cognitive methods, principles, aims and objectives of scientific research).
Elective: development of feed production and quality control (key means and methods of development of feed production, directions of development); production technologies of compound feeds and feed additives (process schemes for the production of compound feeds, proteins, vitamins, premixes); small animal nutrition (specifics of the digestive system of small animals, feeds, additives used for feeding); feed safety and risk factors (identification of risk factors in primary and secondary feed production, methods and principles of their management to ensure safe production); technologies for the preparation of herbaceous forages (biological and nutritional value of forage grasses, chemical composition, physical properties, qualitative, energetic and economic evaluation of herbaceous forages).
Courses delivered by the Department under the Bachelor’s study programme in Animal Science:
Mandatory: agronomy (the totality of the sciences relating to crop cultivation); fodder science (the specific features of plant cultivation, varieties, yield, economic and feed value); animal nutrition (nutrient requirements of livestock of different species and production groups, rationing according to detailed feeding rates).
Speciality courses: horse feeding, diseases (feeds used for horse feeding, their classification, chemical composition and nutritional value, horse health, anatomy, and physiology); dog nutrition (feeding of dogs during the different stages of their growth and lifespan, physiological characteristics of the dog’s digestive system, applicability of feeds).
Elective: invasive species (structural, genetic, and functional characteristics of invasive species, impact on ecosystem structure, functioning and evolution); natural and traditional horticulture (role, development, objectives of natural and traditional horticulture, nutritional value of dietary role of vegetables).
Courses delivered by the Department under the Master’s study programme in Animal Resource Management:
Mandatory: research methodology (research methodology and methods, empirical and theoretical methods, relationship between cognitive methods, principles, aims and objectives of scientific research); special nutrition of animals used for human rehabilitation (general processes, patterns of animal nutrition, specifics of the use of feeds for animals, principles of rationing, analysis of rations).
Courses delivered by the Department under the integrated study programme in Veterinary Medicine:
Mandatory: agronomy and forage analysis (crop production factors, soil composition, tillage, fertilisation, seed and sowing, crop maintenance, forage analysis scheme, methods of nutrient determination), animal nutrition (animal nutritional processes and patterns, feedstuffs used in feeding, feeding schemes).
Elective: feed production and quality control (concept, classification of compound feed, description of the main groups, characteristics of raw materials, formulation); cynology (the study of dogs, their origins, characteristics and nutrition); felinology (the study of cats, their origins, characteristics and nutrition); fundamentals of horse breeding (the origin and evolution of horses, characteristics of breeds, breeding biology, performance and athletic qualities of horses, and the range of their applications).
Courses delivered by the Department under the Bachelor’s study programme in Veterinary Food Safety:
Elective: agriculture and crop production (soils, soil testing methods, soil fertilisation, crop rotations, crop pests and diseases, weed proliferation, environmental protection); determination of nutritional and energy value of feeds (physiological role of the elements of the chemical composition of feeds, determination of the nutritional value of feeds by their biochemical composition); nutrition of food-producing animals (influence of the structure of the diet and the feed used on the health, productivity, quality of production and technological properties of processing, consequences of incomplete and irregular feeding).
Main research fields: optimisation of safe and competitive feeding and feed production technologies for agricultural animals, research on the impact of new feed materials and additives on animal performance.
The Department has two research laboratories:
The Animal Nutrition Research Laboratory carries out research on the detailed analysis of rations and nutritional factors, as well as Bachelor’s and Master’s degree internships in livestock technology. The equipment used for the research includes an NIR feed analyser, a calorimeter for the determination of the total energy content of feed, and a polarimeter for the determination of the carbohydrate content (sugar, starch).
The Unit for Systematic Assessment of Nutrigenomics and Livestock Processes performs combinations of feed assessment and optimisation using the software Hybrimin Futter 2008, assesses variation in feed nutritional quality, models the dependence of livestock production on feed quality, and provides practical application for the management and optimisation of livestock processes.
The researchers at the Department cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania, the Chamber of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania, the Lithuanian Agricultural Consultancy Service, agricultural enterprises, farmers, compound feed production companies, enterprise Terra Animalis, UAB Mars Lietuva, UAB Magnum Veterinarija, the Lithuanian Association of Grain Processors, UAB Žvėris, and others. There is also ongoing cooperation with the University of Warmia and Mazury (Olsztyn), the Agricultural University of Ukraine, the Austrian University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), and others.