In the livestock sector, CICYTEX is working towards a better knowledge and understanding of the importance of a strong innate and adaptive immune system, as both systems work together to prevent organisms from entering and multiplying in the animal, as well as the influence of diet and microbiota on the health and welfare of livestock. All this knowledge would be used to search for natural alternatives to the use of antibiotics (medicinal plants, postbiotics, bacteriophages, etc.) against common pathological processes.

CICYTEX is a public centre for Food and Farming research based in the Extremadura region. It is composed of four Institutes:
 FINCA LA ORDEN Institute. Focused on Crops and livestosk production (fruit crops, arable crops, vegetables, biofuels, pig breeding, cattle production, sheep production).
 ICMC Institute. Devoted to Mediterranean silvopastoral sysmtems (such as "dehesa" systems).
 INTAEX Institute. Focused on food processing technology.
 CAEM Institute. Center for Organic and Mountain Agriculture. (mountain crops).
Our goal is to develop applied research to the Extremadura agroecosystems, to work in a participatory approach with local stakeholders and to transfer them the scientific knowledge. There are more than 300 people working in CICYTEX. The CICYTEX research activities are distributed over ten knowledge areas from farm to fork and the research groups from different institutes are used to develop projects in a collaborative way among them.
To carry out field trials, the institute has two experimental farms. La Orden, located in the municipality of Lobón, in the Vegas Bajas del Guadiana, with a surface area of 205 ha (95 ha. irrigated and 110 ha. rainfed), is mainly dedicated to agricultural crop trials. The Valdesequera farm, with a surface area of 718 ha. of pasture. It is used for animal experimentation with native breeds of cattle, goats, sheep and pigs.
Website: http://cicytex.juntaex.es/es/