Nutrition And The Welfare Of Farm Animals

This book explores the importance of good nutrition in ensuring an adequate standard of welfare for farm animals. It is often not realized that farm animals can suffer when they are fed unsuitable diets, which may be because these diets are more economic or the farmer does not know how to rectify poor nutrition. This book reveals how to recognize and deal with feeding problems in farm animals, when the animal’s behaviour is indicating a deficiency, through oral stereotypies for example. Feeding livestock in emergency situations can present special challenges, and the availability of clean and potable water, one of the essential components of life, can also be an unrecognized problem for many farm animals. Feeding farm animals effectively is rarely recognized for the major welfare issue that it is. We may assume that animals in intensive husbandry conditions have adequate feed, yet it is often too concentrated and designed primarily to immediately maximize production from the animals, in the form of growth, milk yield or reproduction. In extensive rangeland conditions adequate feed supply also cannot be assured, potentially leading to undernutrition with serious consequences for the health and even survival of livestock. This book will provide a much-needed review of the relationships between nutrition and the welfare of farm animals.

Around 60 billion animals are bred for food each year worldwide and more than a billion are transported, often over long distances, every week. However, awareness and understanding of animal welfare, the factors that affect it and the correlation between it and other issues such as food safety and quality are increasing. Long distance transport can cause both physical and mental problems in animals and promoting animal welfare will be beneficial to both the animals and the agricultural and processing industries. In conjunction with a global coalition of NGOs working on animal transport and welfare, this volume brings together studies from well known animal scientists and researchers to review the implications and necessity of long distance animal transport for slaughter. Authoritative reports on regional practices are combined with discussions of the science, economics, legislation and procedures involved in this practice. This review will be essential for researchers and professionals within animal production and welfare as well as veterinary science.

Antimicrobial resistance is a global and increasing threat. Stewardship campaigns have been established, and policies implemented, to safeguard the appropriate use of antimicrobials in humans, animals, and plants. Restrictions on their use in animal production are on the agenda worldwide. Producers are investing in measures, involving biosecurity, genetics, health care, farm management, animal welfare, and nutrition, to prevent diseases and minimize the use of antimicrobials. Functional animal nutrition to promote animal health is one of the tools available to decrease the need for antimicrobials in animal production. Nutrition affects the critical functions required for host defence and disease resistance. Animal nutrition strategies should therefore aim to support these host defence systems and reduce the risk of the presence in feed and water of potentially harmful substances, such as mycotoxins, anti-nutritional factors and pathogenic bacteria and other microbes. General dietary measures to promote gastrointestinal tract health include the selective use of a combination of feed additives and feed ingredients to stabilize the intestinal microbiota and support mucosal barrier function. This knowledge, used to establish best practices in animal nutrition, could allow the adoption of strategies to reduce the need for antimicrobials and contain antimicrobial resistance.

Nutrition is the key driver of animal health, welfare and production. In agriculture, nutrition is crucial to meet increasing global demands for animal protein and consumer demands for cheaper meat, milk and eggs and higher standards of animal welfare. For companion animals, good nutrition is essential for quality and length of life. Animal Nutrition examines the science behind the nutrition and feeding of the major domesticated animal species: sheep, beef cattle, dairy cattle, deer, goats, pigs, poultry, camelids, horses, dogs and cats. It includes introductory chapters on digestion and feeding standards, followed by chapters on each animal, containing information on digestive anatomy and physiology, evidence-based nutrition and feeding requirements, and common nutritional and metabolic diseases. Clear diagrams, tables and breakout boxes make this text readily understandable and it will be of value to tertiary students and to practising veterinarians, livestock consultants, producers and nutritionists.

" ... At the Expert Consultation held at FAO headquarters in Rome in September 2011, participants called for a series of case studies to document existing practices that enhance animal welfare as well as farmers' incomes; currently, such studies are few and far between. This document presents a number of such studies and it is hoped that the information they contain will encourage researchers and agencies working in the area of animal welfare to initiate studies to capture the impact of any intervention on farmers' incomes - an area that has been neglected to date. It is also envisaged that these studies could pave the way for developing guidelines and policy options to promote sustainable animal feeding that enhances animal welfare, animal productivity, animal product quality and profitability."--Preface.

High producing farm animals are permanently challenged by a variety of factors: lack of proper nutrition (deficit/surplus), housing systems, infections and stress. The incidence, course and outcome of production diseases are changing continuously. Therefore new information on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of production diseases is needed. These problems are complicated by the discussion of animal welfare, the rapid changes in agricultural production and the economics of production. The following key topics are handled: Fatty liver in dairy cows Alternatives to growth-promoting antibiotics Chronic inflammation and animal production Animal behavior and welfare in intensive production systems Epidemiology of production diseases New techniques in immunoprophylaxis Nutrition-immunology and production-immunology relationships Phosphorus nutrition: animal health and environmental concerns Application of genomics to production disease Role of specific fatty acids in animal health, reproduction, and performance Trace mineral nutrition and metabolism Subclinical rumen acidosis This book is essential to scientists, veterinarians and others interested in animal production.

Advances in Agricultural Animal Welfare fully explores developments in the key areas of agricultural animal welfare assessment and improvement. Analyzing current topical issues, as well as reviewing the historical welfare issues, the volume is a comprehensive review of the field. Divided into five sections, the book opens in Part One by reviewing advances in animal welfare science, examining cognitive psychology, genetics and genomics. Part Two then looks at transdisciplinary research in animal welfare, with coverage of bioethics, welfare and sustainability from both environmental and food safety perspectives. Part Three explores the process of translating science into policy and practice, followed by discussion on the global achievability of welfare standards in Part Four. Finally, Part Five highlights some emerging issues in agricultural animal welfare. This book is an essential part of the wider ranging series Advances in Farm Animal Welfare, with coverage of cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry and aquaculture. With its expert editor and international team of contributors, Advances in Agricultural Animal Welfare is a key reference tool for welfare research scientists and students, practicing vets involved in welfare assessment, and indeed anyone with a professional interest in the welfare of agricultural animals. Provides in-depth reviews of emerging topics, research and applications in agricultural animal welfare Provides coverage of topics important to all agricultural animals and complements the wider series, Agricultural Animal Welfare, which will provide comprehensive coverage of animal welfare of the world’s major farmed animals Edited by a world leading animal welfare academic, with contributions from a writing team of both leading academics and practitioners