The food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has reported that by 2020, the developing countries should be producing roughly half of the milk with India leading in the output. (Annon. 2003a). Further, in most developing countries, the per capita milk production has kept pace with the population growth. The dairy production also expanded alongwith its consumption which is pa...

Phytobiotics represent a wide range of bioactive compounds that can be extracted from various plant sources. In recent years, some interesting and novel applications of phytobiotics in the production and well– being of monogastric animals have emerged, and these aspects are reviewed in the present paper. Recent studies at the University of New England indicate that water–soluble carbohydrate ex...

Plant breeders have made and will continue to make important contributions toward meeting the need for more and better feed and food. The use of new techniques to modify the genetic makeup of plants to improve their properties has led to a new generation of crops, grains and their by-products for feed. The use of ingredients and products from genetically modified plants (GMP) in animal nutritio...

40 percent of annual production costs in typical cow/calf operations. These costs also have a dramatic impact on cost per unit of gain in stocker operations. Consequently, cattle producers must continually evaluate new methods to make efficient use of available resources while optimizing animal performance and minimizing supplementation costs. Often, when cattle graze marginal to low quality fo...

In this study, 183 livestock feeds and 85 animal manure samples were collected from commercial farms in England and Wales and analysed to determine their heavy metal (zinc, copper, nickel, lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium and mercury) contents. Zinc and copper concentrations ranged from 150±2920 mg Zn/kg dm (dry matter) and 18±217 mg Cu/kg dm in pig feeds, depending on the age of the pigs. In p...

To fulfill increased world food demand and to overcome the consequences related to natural and industrial changes, scientists have been trying to select and improve both feedstuff and livestock, genetically. Biotechnology, also involving chemical and physical techniques, is applied to nutrition to increase the abundance (availability) of feed and to improve the digestibility of nutrients in tho...

Developing production systems for ruminants using tropical feed resources requires an understanding of the relative roles and nutrient needs of the two-compartment system represented by the symbiotic relationship between rumen micro-organisms and the host animal. Fibre-rich, low-protein forages and crop residues are the most abundant and appropriate feeds for ruminants in the tropics. Strategie...

Since the discovery and development of the first antibiotics prior to the Second World War, these drugs have played an important role in curing disease in humans and animals. In 1946 experiments showed that low, subtherapeutic levels of antibiotics could increase feed efficiency and growth in food animals, and the addition of various antibiotics to feed for livestock was initiated. Because prev...