Nutritional Strategies to Improve Ruminant Performances and Feed Efficiency
Marta Lourenço was born in Lisbon, Portugal on May 19th 1979. In 2003, she completed her studies on Veterinary Medicine at the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. In September 2007 she obtained her PhD degree in Applied Biological Sciences from the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium. Her PhD research was entitled “Effects of the botanical composition of forages on rumen, milk and meat fatty acid metabolism”. Since October 2007 until December 2013 she was a full post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering. During her post-doctoral research, she was involved in the evaluation and improvement of the nutritive value of feedstuffs, methane mitigation strategies, and rumen microbiology and fat metabolism. One of her main interests during this period was the use of plant metabolites to manipulate rumen metabolism. Since March 2012, she is the coordinator of the International Training Program in Dairy Nutrition offered by Ghent University. Since January 2014, she is working half time at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, besides working at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, both of Ghent University, Belgium. In the new position as a senior researcher, she is involved in the biochemical nutrition and metabolism of all animal species.
Besides her job at the University, since January 2013 she started with her consultancy to industry on aspects related to animal nutrition.
She is the main author or co-author of different publications, participated actively and passively in many international symposia, congresses and study-days.