Ruurd Zijlstra

Ruurd Zijlstra is a Professor at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, within the Department of Agricultural, Food & Nutritional Science. He holds a PhD from the University of Illinois and specializes in swine and carbohydrate nutrition, focusing on ingredient evaluation, feed processing optimization, and laboratory-based technology calibration for feed quality assessment.

His research emphasizes reducing anti-nutritional factors in feed through processing methods like grinding, pelleting, and extrusion. Courses taught include AFNS 562 (Swine Nutrition), AFNS 563 (Poultry Nutrition), AN SC 462 (Monogastric Nutrition), AN SC 464 (Companion Animal Nutrition), AN SC 488 (Animal Nutrition and Health), and AN SC 499 (Integrative Project in Animal Health/Science).

Research interests include optimizing feed processing decisions, improving nutrient digestibility, and applying nutrition to address animal health challenges. He advises undergraduate and graduate courses with a focus on experiential learning through capstone projects.