Peter R. Cheeke
2001 Distinguished Service Award
Donor: Roche Vitamin Inc.

Peter R. Cheeke is a Professor Emeritus of Comparative Animal Nutrition at Oregon State University. His research has focused on rabbit nutrition, nutritional toxicology of natural toxins in feeds and poisonous plants, and the evaluation of potential new feedstuffs. In each of these research areas he has also developed supporting graduate and undergraduate courses and written books. His books include Rabbit Production (5th–8th editions); Rabbit Feeding and Nutrition; Natural Toxicants in Feeds, Forages and Poisonous Plants; Toxicants of Plant Origin (four volumes); Applied Animal Nutrition: Feeds and Feeding; and Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture. He established the OSU Rabbit Research Center, a global resource for rabbit research, and founded and edited the Journal of Applied Rabbit Research. The OSU Rabbit Research Center hosted the World Rabbit Congress in 1992.

His work on the toxicology of pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) has contributed to an understanding of the mode of action of PA, the identification of species differences in susceptibility to PA, and the roles of hepatic enzyme activity in explaining species differences. He worked on the toxic aspects of alfalfa saponins and, more recently, has identified useful applications of saponins in animal production, including effects on rumen metabolism and antiprotozoal activity.

He has been involved with controversial issues involved in animal agriculture, culminating in the publication of the text “Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture” and a contemporary issues article in Journal of Animal Science (JAS 77:2031, 1999). He has contributed to ASAS by organizing symposia at annual meetings and helped organize the Pharmacology and Toxicology section of JAS, served as Section Editor, and contributed papers to this section. He was responsible for the inclusion of rabbits in the species sections at the ASAS annual meetings, and he organized several rabbit symposia at the ASAS Meetings. He is the co-author of 47 papers in the Western Section (ASAS) proceedings. He has published more than 130 technical papers, several books, and numerous book chapters. He has been an invited speaker at more than 70 national and international congresses and symposia on all continents.

Dr. Cheeke has been the recipient of several awards, including the Young Scientist Award of the Western Section ASAS and the Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Science Award at Oregon State University.