Facilities

Pilot plants

Pilot feed manufacturing plant: It has all the necessary equipment for the manufacture of granulated and extruded feed, including formulation, precision, control and handling of small quantities.

Pilot cheese production plant: Equipped with curdling vats provided with milk pasteurization systems, brine bath, press and ripening and drying chambers, which allows the production of different types of cheese (lactic and/or enzymatic curd). . The available facilities allow for training courses for the cheese sector with a capacity of between 10 and 20 students.

Slaughterhouse and cutting plant: There is an experimental slaughterhouse and refrigerated cutting room with the necessary material for quality studies of the carcass and meat.

Farms

Experimental small ruminant farm: it currently has a flock of Murciano-Granadina goats and a flock of Guirra sheep. It has a mechanical milking and dairy system.

Rabbit selection nucleus: It houses four rabbit lines in closed reproduction. They supply animals to multiplier farms and to commercial farmers who establish their own multiplication. A laboratory is available on the experimental farm to perform laparoscopies and record ovulation rates and the number of implanted embryos.

Experimental Genetic Improvement Farm: On this farm, rabbit lines are selected for food efficiency. A laboratory is available on the experimental farm to perform embryo transfers, laparoscopies and record ovulation rates and the number of embryos implanted.
Experimental feeding farm: It is equipped to house 200 breeding rabbits and their corresponding bait in two closed buildings, another 42 breeding rabbits in a climate-controlled building with variable temperature control and another 50 rabbits housed in digestibility cages. It also has a laboratory for taking samples from live animals and equipment for dehydrating large samples.

Multifunction warehouse: Installation with two independent rooms with a controlled environment for testing with animal models (rabbit, mice, minipigs, birds…). It has a laboratory for surgery and ultrasonography evaluation.

Sheep and goat barn: Newly built barn with capacity for 160 places for small ruminants (goats and sheep), equipped with an environmental control system, feed distribution and automated milking, and a metabolic chamber for carrying out studies to reduce environmental pollution by production animals.

Animal Bioenergetics Warehouse and Equipment: In a small module adjacent to the Small Ruminants Warehouse there is a mobile open-circuit indirect calorimetry system designed entirely at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Within this modality it is the only one that exists in Spain. It allows the quantification of gas exchange (oxygen consumed, carbon dioxide and methane produced) in small ruminants. It is possible to quantify gas exchange every 2 minutes, due to the continuous data recording system. This not only allows us to study energy metabolism but also greenhouse gas emissions produced by ruminant animals.

Aquaculture Laboratory (LAC): 7 experimentation lines with independent circuits. Line 1 formed by 8 quadrangular tanks of 4000 liters each and dedicated to fish fattening, line 2 formed by 18 cylindrical tanks of 1500 liters and intended for fish pre-fattening, and line 3 for digestibility, with 5 tanks. Trunk-conical 300 liters. All of them are integrated into a recirculation system with a mechanical filter and biofilters, and a heat-cold pump, thus allowing a constant temperature throughout the year. Line 4 consists of 30 100-liter buckets integrated into a recirculation system, for growth studies with prawns. Likewise, there are 12 buckets of 200 liters (line 5) and 9 cylindrical tanks of 400 liters (liters 6) in a biofloc system. Finally, there are 24 isothermal tanks of 1200 liters, for shrimp growth studies in a biofloc system.

External Laboratory (LACEX): The LACEX is an open warehouse with a roof, in which there are 4 tanks of 2000 l and 8 of 750 l of fiberglass, and which has a series of buried cisterns to facilitate the water supply. sweet and marine. The hydraulic system is designed to operate in recirculation and biofloc.

Fish Reproduction Laboratory: This is a building that houses laboratories for sampling work, and tank and aquarium rooms with controlled photoperiod and temperature, where GAB members will carry out their research activities, especially all those tasks related to his lines of research in fish reproduction

Laboratories

Chromatography: This lab allows us to determine amino acids, fatty acids, methane and progesterone, among others, in a wide variety of samples of animal origin. The equipment is composed of a high precision liquid chromatograph (HPLC) with an automated injector and fluorescence and ultraviolet detectors, two gas chromatographs with automatic injectors and flame ionisation detector (FID). To prepare samples we have a centrifugal vacuum lyophiliser, a rotary evaporator and equipment for sample centrifugation, filtration, agitation and homogenisation.

Bromatology: Performing several analyses, including primary feedstuff characterisation, fibres, starch and energy. We also conduct other bromatologic determinations in raw materials, by-products, faeces and products of animal origin. In vitro nutrition tests based on enzymatic activity are also carried out in this lab.

Histology: Equipped with an automatic revolver to process tissue samples and prepare paraffin cuts, manual microtomes, staining of samples and cut preservation. This lab has all the basic equipment required to conduct immunohistology tests.

Fish reproduction physiology: Kitted out for the basic manipulation of a wide variety of samples (blood and sperm among others) and elaborating dilution media: osmometer, pH-meter, centrifuges, extractor hood, incubation ovens, PCR, optic and fluorescence microscopy, etc. We can also determine sperm quality including motility and morphometry.

Production and cryopreservation of gametes and embryos: In this lab we can manipulate embryos and oocytes, conduct embryo transfers and cryopreserve them.

Genomics of reproduction: In this lab we extract and purify DNA and RNA from tissues, gametes and embryos. We can conduct a sequence analysis of nucleic acid fragments. We analyse the expression of genes related with the endocrine gonadotropic activity, the oocyte maturity and the embryo development.

Meat quality: Equipped with all the instruments and certificates required for the official analysis of milk and dairy products. The laboratory uses automated analysers commonly used in the milk industry and can certify milk quality.

Milk Lab: equipado con el material necesario para el análisis oficial de la calidad de la leche y productos lácteos así como de los equipos automáticos más empleados en la industría láctea.

Environmental simulation: In this laboratory we can conduct engineering assays to optimise livestock facilities. We apply CFD techniques to optimise the housing design and evaluate climate control systems by means of different instrumentation such as fans, pressure drop meters, anemometers and other sensors.