Laboratory for Animal Feed Quality Control and Animal Products

Laboratory Activities

The accredited Laboratory for Testing and Quality Control of Animal Feed and Animal Products tests basic feedstuffs, complete mixtures, and mineral-vitamin premixes intended for the nutrition of domestic animals, as well as aflatoxin M1 in milk. The Laboratory for Animal Feed Quality Control and Animal Products, operating within the Department of Animal Science at the Faculty of Agriculture in Novi Sad, has a 60-year tradition behind it. During this period, the laboratory and its experts have made a great contribution to education, science, and practice in the field of animal nutrition.

Hundreds of graduate engineers have acquired knowledge in this laboratory, and a large number of M.Sc., master’s, and Ph.D. students have conducted research here for their scientific papers and projects. In the last 20 years alone, the results of this laboratory have been used in 35 master’s and master theses, as well as 20 doctoral dissertations. Scientific papers containing the results of this laboratory are presented at prestigious scientific conferences in the country and abroad.

The laboratory was accredited on December 17, 2007, and pays special attention to the quality of its services. It is accredited according to the requirements of the SRPS ISO/IEC 17025:2006 standard by the Accreditation Body of Serbia (ATS) under accreditation number 01-206. The laboratory successfully participates in international interlaboratory proficiency testing.

Scope of Testing

The equipment of the Laboratory of the Department of Animal Science enables the determination of a series of parameters in order to determine the quality of animal feed:

For basic feedstuffs, complete and complementary mixtures, their chemical composition is controlled (dry matter, ash, crude protein, crude fat, total fiber and fiber fractions (NDF, ADF, and lignin), as well as the amount of macroelements (Ca, P, Na, K, and Mg);
In premixes, the content of microelements (Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn) is controlled, as well as the amount of vitamins A and E;
Silage quality control (share of silage acids, pH, etc.);
Control of the quality of thermal processing of soybeans (urease activity, solubility of protein in water (PDI index);
As part of animal feed safety, analyses for present mycotoxins are performed, as well as microbiological analysis services. Mycotoxin analyses are performed for the most frequently present mycotoxins in animal feed (zearalenone, total aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, and deoxynivalenol), using the ELISA technique and liquid chromatography;

In addition to animal feed safety parameters, the Laboratory also determines aflatoxin M1 in milk.