Having acquired his M.Sc. and his Ph.D. in Poultry Science at Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University (India), Dr. Manafi has been engaged with many research projects funded by governmental organizations and industry and has a collaboration background with scientists from the USA, Australia, India, and European Union since 2009. He has more than 16 years of research experience in Monogastric Animal Production and Physiology, both in academia and industry. His main research interest is feed evaluation, nutrient requirements for different animal species, application of herbal/medicinal plant origin extracts as alternatives to chemical feed additives in poultry diets, digestive physiology and poultry nutrition, production, and management.
Prof. Manafi has been especially focused on mycotoxins in poultry feed, nutritional application of biotechnological feed additives (microbial enzymes, prebiotics, probiotics, phytobiotics, etc.) on poultry growth and health, and nutritional value of Agro-Industrial by-products as alternative feed resources. He is currently serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Animal Science at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Malayer University, Iran.
Your career has been focused on researching monogastric animal production and physiology with a special interest in poultry. What lead you to this particular line of research?
Before I joined the university, I was very interested in chicken behavior and used to sit and watch them while visiting a friend’s poultry commercial farm.
This enticed me to explore the field of Animal and Poultry Science at the university and led me to continue my postgraduate studies in Poultry Science through competitive scholarships and funds from different organizations.
Since my Master thesis, I have worked in the field of Mycotoxins and had the chance to join many ongoing projects. I continued my research on this topic for my Ph.D. thesis, which has led to a long-time mycotoxin trial in broiler breeders and allowed us to evaluate the carry-over effects on the progeny chicks. It was a massive study and I have published many highly cited publications about it.
Micotoxicosis prevention