Lohmann Animal Health honors young researchers with Dissertation Prize 2013

On October 10, four pre-selected finalists of the competition for the Lohmann Dissertation Prize 2013 presented the topics and contents of their theses in front of a jury of experts as well as an audience of young scientists and students of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. The event took place on the university campus in the Bayer auditorium of the Richard-Götze-House and gave all participants an excursion into the various research areas, not only into those of the doctoral candidates but also into those of the institutes which had hosted the Ph.D. theses.
Finalists Dr. Denise Gessner, Dr. Amr Abd El-Wahab, Dr. Behnam Saremi and Dr. Henning Petersen held the presentations of their dissertations in Hanover as young yet renowned researchers in their individual field of expertise. All dissertations presented had been written in English and completed within the last two years. Topics included:

• Investigations on the effects of nutritional and physiological factors on stress-responsive transcription factors in animal and cell culture models (Dr. Denise Gessner - Doctor of Natural Sciences)
• Experimental studies on effects of diet composition (electrolyte contents), litter quality (type, moisture) and infection (coccidia) on the development and severity of foot pad dermatitis in young turkeys housed with or without floor heating (Dr. Amr Abd El-Wahab - Doctor of Veterinary Medicine)
• Characterization of insulin sensitivity and inflammation related factors in dairy cows receiving conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) or a control fat supplement during lactation (Dr. Behnam Saremi - Doctor of Agricultural Sciences)
• Comparative investigations on interspecies adaptation of low-pathogenic avian influenza viruses (AIV) and the impact of NS-reassortment of highly-pathogenic AIV on virus-host interactions in different poultry species (Dr. Henning Petersen - Doctor of Veterinary Medicine)
The winners' rankings were:

• First place, including a premium of €2,000 for the doctoral student and €15,000 for the supervising institute: Dr. Henning Petersen and Clinic for Poultry of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (Prof. Dr. Silke Rautenschlein and Dr. Arne Jung)
• Second place, including a premium of €1,000 for the doctoral student and €8,000 for the supervising institute: Dr. Denise Gessner and Institute of Animal Nutrition and Nutritional Physiology of the Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen (Prof. Dr. Klaus Eder)
• Third place, a novelty and assigned to the two other finalists, together with a premium of €500 for each of the two doctoral students and €3,000 for each of the two supervising institutes: Dr. Amr Abd El - Wahab and Institute for Animal Nutrition of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (Prof. Dr. Josef Kamphues); and Dr. Behnam Saremi and Institute for Animal Science, Department of Physiology and Hygiene of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn (Prof. Dr. Helga Sauerwein and Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Suedekum)