Pre-Conference Workshop
Standardization of Piglet Biomedical Research Approaches: Challenges and Opportunities
Motivation for the Workshop:
- The piglet is considered one of the best animal models for pediatric nutrition and assessing immune, gut, and neurocognitive outcomes.
- No guidelines exist for the design or conduct of piglet studies, which can make interpretation of findings across studies difficult, particularly for studies designed to test the safety and/or bioactivity of formula ingredients or bioactives.
Goals of the Workshop:
- To summarize current experimental approaches for piglet studies
designed to assess the safety and/or efficacy of the formula, formula
ingredients, and bioactive components and identify gaps in our
knowledge.
- Power analyses
- Age of study initiation and duration for specific outcomes
- Colostrum vs. colostrum-deprived
- Effects of animal handling, including housing, transport, anesthesia, euthanasia
- Identify ways to improve the standardization of piglet studies
- Publish Manuscript
Target Audience:
- Academic researchers and clinicians
- Regulators
- Food industry
- Toxicologists
- Contract Research Organizations
- Consultants
Proposed Agenda
| Time |
Topic |
Speaker and Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 – 8:30 AM | Registration and Breakfast | |
| 8:30 – 8:45 AM | Welcome and Goals of the Workshop | Sharon Donovan, Ph.D., RD University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign |
| 8:45 – 9:15 AM | Complexities of Evaluating Animal Models in a Food Safety Framework | Rachel Morissette, Ph.D. and Kotaro Kaneko, Ph.D. Food and Drug Administration |
| 9:15 – 9:45 AM | Factors Influencing the Design of Piglet Studies | Ryan Dilger, Ph.D. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign |
| 9:45 – 10:00 AM | Break | |
| Short Presentations of Current Piglet Protocols | ||
| 10:00 – 10:10 AM | Gastrointestinal and Liver Development and Disease; Term and Preterm Piglets | Doug Burrin, Ph.D. Baylor College of Medicine |
| 10:10 – 10:20 AM | Gastrointestinal Development and Disease, Growth, Preterm Piglets | Thomas Thymann, Ph.D. University of Copenhagen |
| 10:20 – 10:30 AM | Microbiome Composition and Development | Sharon Donovan, Ph.D., RD University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign |
| 10:30 – 10:40 AM | Immune Development | Sheila Jacobi, Ph.D. Ohio State University |
| 10:40 – 10:50 AM | Safety and Toxicology | Supida Monaikul, Ph.D., DABT Experimur |
| 10:00 – 11:00 AM | Q&A | |
| 11:00 – 11:30 AM | Establishing Growth Standards for Artificially Reared Piglets | Stephen Fleming, Ph.D. Traverse Science |
| 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM | Identification of Research Needs and Proposed Approaches | Group Discussion |
| 1:00 – 2:00 PM | Lunch, Networking, and Continued Discussion | |