Dr. Ríus Ph.D., M.S., D.V.M.

Dr. Ríus received his undergraduate education in veterinary medicine from the National University of La Plata, Argentina. After graduation, Dr. Ríus obtained a fellowship to work at the School of Veterinary Medicine in La Plata. From there, he then moved to the USDA- Dairy Forage Research Center, Madison, WI as visiting scholar and worked on phosphorous metabolism in lactating dairy cows with Dr. Larry Satter. He then joined the Department of Animal Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to pursue his MS degree in the laboratory of Dr. Geoff Dahl. While at U of I, Dr. Ríus worked in the field of environmental physiology elucidating the effect of photoperiod in dairy cattle. After graduation, he moved to Blacksburg, VA to pursue doctoral research in the Department of Dairy Science at Virginia Tech. He joined the lab of Dr. Mark Hanigan to investigate the effect of amino acids and energy on lactating dairy cattle. After defending his dissertation, Dr. Ríus obtained a Scientist position at DairyNZ in Hamilton, New Zealand. He worked for 4 years investigating the effect of milking frequency and feeding management tools on pasture-based lactating dairy cows. While at DairyNZ, he also worked closely with dairy producers on topics such as nutrition, feeding, and grazing management. Dr. Ríus joined the faculty of the Department of Animal Science at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN and he was recently promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor.

GRADUATE STUDENTS:

Zhantao Yu (Ph.D. student)

I am a Ph.D. student, my research focuses on the effect of heat stress on dairy cattle intestinal integrity. My research tries to find out what changes happen to cows when they suffered from heat stress.

 

POSTDOC:

Juan Manuel Cantet Ph.D., D.V.M.

Juan Manuel Cantet is a Doctor in Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from the National University of La Plata (UNLP) and a Doctor in Agricultural Science of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) of Argentina. Since his undergraduate studies, he has been interested in Animal Nutrition, Dairy Production, and Ruminal Metabolism. During his doctoral studies, he investigated nutrient partitioning and methane production during ruminal fermentation of various temperate and tropical forages of importance for livestock.

After completing his doctorate, Dr. Cantet continued with post-doctoral studies with a grant from the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina (CONICET) in which he studied the growth, metabolism, and behavior of Holstein calves under different feeding programs.

Currently, Dr. Cantet is working at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA), in the Laboratory of Nutrition of Dr. Agustin Rius, doing research and teaching with a Post-doctoral Research Associate position in the Department of Animal Science of UTIA, involved in various projects related to the effects of heat stress and oxidative stress on performance, intestinal function, and energy and protein metabolism from calves and cows.

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE:

Suchita Das