Dietary alternatives to force-feeding for the production of foie gras

Foie gras is a commercial food product made from duck livers containing elevated amounts of fat. The traditional production practice involves the force-feeding of corn-based diets to the animals. Foie gras is currently produced globally at around 26 000 ton/year; however, given the growing animal welfare concerns, demand has started to dwindle, and its production has been banned in several countries. We propose to evaluate dietary changes with potential to increase voluntary feed intake and liver fat accumulation. To achieve our objective, we have devised two independent longitudinal studies evaluating the effects of replacing glucose with fructose, as well as using fructose in combination with varying levels of dietary fats.

Faculty Supervisor:

Michel Lefrançois

Student:

Leslie Delprat

Partner:

Centre de recherche en sciences animales de Deschambault

Discipline:

Animal science

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

Université Laval