Laboratory specialized in animal feed resources for tropical countries

The laboratory performs food analysis, answers questions on nutrition and formulation, and participates in the implementation of research and experimentation protocols. It has a collaboration network that enables it to direct specific requests to French or foreign technical and scientific partners.

It thus contributes to the knowledge of foods and variations in their nutritional value and to the quality control of compound foods.

Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)

The animal feed laboratory furthermore uses Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS). This is an analytical technique based on the principle of absorption of radiation (infrared) by organic matter. This absorption is related to the chemical composition of the samples and can be estimated by simply measuring the absorption of light by the sample. NIRS has a large number of applications in the industrial field (chemistry, pharmaceuticals, agro-industries). At Cirad, it is mainly used to estimate the chemical composition of feed, forage and faeces samples (digestibility studies).