Assistant Manager, Knowledge Transfer
Phone (587) 778-6877
Email Contact Miranda
Dr. Miranda Smit recently joined the Prairie Swine Centre as Assistant Manager – Knowledge Transfer and will be an integral part of the Centre’s Knowledge Transfer team. Miranda’s background allows her to tackle the different research and extension projects head on.
Miranda was born and raised in the Netherlands, where she studied Animal Science (B.Sc. and M.Sc.) at the Wageningen University, also spending a year in France where she obtained a second M.Sc. degree in Agriculture. Miranda’s story of how she ended up in Canada and in the pork industry are connected to each other. While working on her Master’s degree in The Netherlands, she asked her supervisor to find an exchange student opportunity for her in Canada, as she had always dreamed of going there. Her supervisor, being a swine researcher himself, got her in touch with George Foxcroft at the University of Alberta and in 2006 she spent 4 months in Edmonton studying fetal programming.
After finishing her Master’s degree, she returned in 2007 to the University of Alberta to work as research technician at the Swine Research and Technology Centre (SRTC), during this time fell in love with pigs and Canada. She returned in 2008 to start her PhD. in pig reproduction under the supervision of George Foxcroft. Her thesis focused on feeding omega-3 fatty acids to sows, as well as effects of low litter birth weight on postnatal growth performance. Since graduation she was employed with Alberta Agriculture and Eduardo Beltranena in the Monogastric Feed Research Group. During her time with Alberta Agriculture she wrote numerous magazine and journal articles on feeding alternative ingredients or low energy diets to nursery and grow-finish pigs. She also produced a wide variety of posters, abstracts, factsheets, radio interviews and presentations about her work.
In her off-time, Miranda enjoys hiking in the mountains, riding horses, dancing, traveling near and far, and learning new languages (currently working on Spanish).
Education
- Ph.D. University of Alberta, 2013
- M.Sc. École Supérieure d’Agriculture de Purpan (ESAP) and Wageningen University, 2007
- B.Sc. Wageningen University, 2004
Awards
- 2010 Banff Pork Seminar student competition award, 1st prize
- 2012 R.O. Ball Young Scientist award, 1st prize
Service
- 2021 Banff Pork Seminar Advisory Committee member
- Reviewer for: Journal of Animal Science, Translational Animal Science, Poultry Science, Canadian Journal of Animal Science, and Theriogenology
Selected Publications
- Researchgate overview
- Response of growing pigs to the inclusion of hybrid rye in low or high-energy diets
- Increasing hybrid rye level substituting wheat grain with or without enzyme on growth performance and carcass traits of growing-finishing barrows and gilts
- Dietary energy level, feeder space, and group size on growth performance and carcass characteristics of growing-finishing barrows and gilts
- Effects of feeding canola meal or soy expeller at two dietary net energy levels on growth performance, dressing and carcass characteristics of barrows and gilts
- Increasing dietary inclusions of camelina cake fed to pigs from weaning to slaughter: Safety, growth performance, carcass traits, and n-3 enrichment of pork
- Feeding diets with reduced net energy level to growing-finishing barrows and gilts