UGENT

Universiteit Gent

Belgium

Today Ghent University attracts over 46,000 students, with a foreign student population of about 6% (40% of PhD students). In 2019, the university invested over 275 million Euros in research projects on behalf of public and private partners, and employed around 8200 research staff (including doctoral researchers). Ghent University is ranked 66th in the Shanghai and 123rd in the Times ranking. The University has participated in 263 research projects in the Seventh Framework Programme, of which it coordinated 35 collaborative projects. Up till now, Ghent University is under Horizon 2020 involved in around 300 projects, and coordinates 26 of the collaborative projects. As such, Ghent University is one of the fastest growing European universities in terms of research capacity and productivity, and its commitment to European research excellence is reflected by the recent extension of the ‘European Office’ in its Research Office, i.e. the department overseeing, guiding and administering research projects.

Competence and main role(s) in the project

We mainly focus on the interaction between microbiome and animal health in an important transition period, namely around calving. Our task (3.4) consists of 2 transition dairy cow experiments that focus on rumen microbial status in relation to inter-animal variation, nutritional changes and to animal metabolic, immune and oxidative status. Important added value of our participation is the link between the experiments / tasks within the current project with those of an ongoing experiment in which the health status of the animal is extensively measured ‘in a multi-perspective way’, i.e., with attention for the metabolic, the oxidative as well as the inflammatory health status.

Project staff

Veerle Fievez

Prof. Dr Ir. Veerle Fievez; Coordination & supervision of UGent part; Task 3.4 leader; coordination link with "sister projects" within the group.

Jeyamalar Jeyanathan

Dr Jeyamalar Jeyanathan; Optimisation of methods for analysis of microbial associated molecules. Analysis of the microbial data + metabolic & inflammatory biomarkers.

Charlotte Melis

Charlotte Melis, lab technician; Responsible for sample preparation; running laboratory analyses (DNA extraction, qPCR, preparation for sequencing, analysis of microbial associated molecules); chromatogram readings.

The HoloRuminant project has received funding from European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 101000213. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and not the European Commission (EC). The EC is not liable for any use that may be made of them information contained herein.