The Department is an integrated, dynamic research, education and extension. Our mission is to provide students with a rigorous and systematic education to effectively respond to challenges facing the sustainable animal production; and become a leading force in the research of biotechnology and management of domestic animals to benefit society. The Department provides undergraduate, Master and Ph. D programs and offers opportunities for our students to work in our animal farms and laboratories, conduct research, and participate in internships. We study production efficiency, physiology, nutrition, processing of animal products, animal welfare, waste management of dairy cattle, sheep, pig and poultry. Our program not only solves animal sciences problems but also secures the food safety and sustainable animal production. The courses in companion animal offer a good opportunity to learn nutrition and behavior for our best friends.

Research Feature: Novel Indigenous miniature pig breeds for biomedical researches
Pig is an optimal animal for conducting biomedical research in model animals because of their genetic, anatomical and physiological resemblance to humans. In terms of elevating output value of unit pig, to construct the bridge of agriculture and medical science is requisite, especially miniature pigs possess white coat color and skin or harboring fluorescent gene. In contrast to the abundant documents available in rodent, the long lifespan of miniature pigs would suitable for human-related validation of valuable preclinical information.  Miniature Lanyu pig is an indigenous pig breed with remote genetic distance to Asian and European pigs. Miniature Lee-Sung pig derived from Lanyu pig, was established by Professor Sung and Lee in our department, for the purpose of as a laboratory pig breed in 1983. The miniature pigs are extensively be used in variant research fields, including developmental biology, regenerative medicine, xenotransplantation, eye development, angiogenesis, cancer research, reproductive science, bone development, tissue engineering. Lee-Sung miniature pig had been successfully developed various disease models, including diabetes type 1 and 2, hepatitis, anophthalmia and Aniridia. The fluorescent protein-harboring transgenic porcine models are available for preclinical studies. Pig harboring fluorescent gene can serve as a host for other fluorescent-labeled cells in order to study cell microenvironment interactions, and provides optimal fluorescent-labeled cells and tissues for tracking the differentiation cells in developing and regenerative medicine researches. These unique miniature pig models provide new powerful and applicable tools for medical studies in the future.