Education

We aim at inspiring students to study physiology of livestock and to illustrate how physiology is tied to understanding biological systems and agricultural sciences. Physiology is the knowledge of nature, the science of the naturally occurring body functions. A basic understanding of how the body works is of utmost importance to allow graduates to answer to current problems and to bear future challenges addressed by the complexity of our environment. These will be linked to limits of livestock performance and the demanding livestock value chain. Students need to understand the processes in a healthy body species-specifically at different ages, different environmental effects and different performance constellations. The introduction of the concept of cybernetics is of importance in order to enable students to understand the principle of homeostasis of different organs and of endocrine feedback mechanisms. The more specific the lecture, the more it is stressed that alternative and competitive control mechanisms challenge the understanding of the regulatory networks.