The aim of this study was to assess smallholder farmer awareness in terms of good pig management and to identify serious management issues that should be readily changeable despite resources being limited in a rural setting. Methodology was a combination of questionnaire and observational surveys performed at pig-keeping households practising either confinement or a free-range system. Households were identified using the snowball method. A total of 120 pig-keeping households were included, of which 32 practised free-range systems and 88 confined their pigs. The observational survey included management practices and welfare assessment based on one pig from each of the 120 households. The results indicated that farmers were not aware of the basic requirements of pigs regardless of the production system practised. Water was often neglected and provided less frequently among those practising free-range. Pigs kept free-range also received treatment less frequently compared to those kept confined. Pigs were generally kept in poor conditions with risk of injury and without shelter from wind, rain, cold, heat, and sun. Welfare issues exist within both production systems, but issues within the confinement system could be easily eliminated with proper management. More knowledge on basic pig husbandry is required in the region and is essential for improving production. Educating farmers on the basic requirements for water and feed, alone, could vastly improve smallholder pig production. Education on pig management should therefore be a cornerstone in any research activity involving smallholder farmers in rural areas.

Seasonality and species are key aspects of the abiotic and biotic environment, respectively, that influence nutrient, phytochemical and antioxidant profiles of invasive alien plants leaf-meals. The current study investigated the effects of season on nutrient, amino acid, fatty acid, mineral, bioactive polyphenolic composition and antioxidant activity of Acacia mearnsii and A. dealbata leaf-meals. Overall, A. mearnsii leaf-meal harvested in the hot-dry-season had greater crude protein, ether extract, neutral detergent soluble fibre, 24 and 48 h in vitro neutral detergent fibre digestibility, macro-mineral contents, individual polyphenols, C18:1n9 and C18:2n6 compared to other leaf-meals. Regardless of the season, A. mearnsii leaf-meals had greater amino acid concentrations than A. dealbata leaf-meals. Hot-dry-season leaf-meals had a greater concentration of total flavonoids than the leaf-meals in the cool-wet-season irrespective of species. Antioxidant potency composite of the Acacia leaf-meals was in the order of A. dealbata × hot-dry-season > A. mearnsii × hot-dry-season > A. mearnsii × cool-wet-season > A. dealbata × cool-wet-season. The findings suggested that A. mearnsii leaf-meal harvested in the hot-dry-season has superior nutritional and polyphenolic profiles, which could support its use as a nutraceutical and preservative for the enhancement of ruminant production and product quality compared to other leaf meals.

Global pork production has largely adopted on-farm biosecurity to minimize vectors of disease transmission and protect swine health. Feed and ingredients were not originally thought to be substantial vectors, but recent incidents have demonstrated their ability to harbor disease. The objective of this paper is to review the potential role of swine feed as a disease vector and describe biosecurity measures that have been evaluated as a way of maintaining swine health. Recent research has demonstrated that viruses such as porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and African Swine Fever Virus can survive conditions of transboundary shipment in soybean meal, lysine, and complete feed, and contaminated feed can cause animal illness. Recent research has focused on potential methods of preventing feed-based pathogens from infecting pigs, including prevention of entry to the feed system, mitigation by thermal processing, or decontamination by chemical additives. Strategies have been designed to understand the spread of pathogens throughout the feed manufacturing environment, including potential batch-to-batch carryover, thus reducing transmission risk. In summary, the focus on feed biosecurity in recent years is warranted, but additional research is needed to further understand the risk and identify cost-effective approaches to maintain feed biosecurity as a way of protecting swine health.

Chlorella (vulgaris spp.; CLV) is a genus of unicellular freshwater microalgae that are fit for human consumption and are used as additives with high nutritional value in feed for agriculturally important animals. Chlorella spp. are characterised by their simple cultivation, high productivity and levels of protein and other nutrients. Investigations have shown that the growth performance of broilers can be positively affected by the addition of very low amounts of CLV biomass (0.5-1.0% of the diet) to feed. The effect of CLV on growth and development is considered to stem from its high protein content (60.6%) and nutritional value. Results have shown enhanced body weight gain (2.7%), better feed conversion ratio (lowered by 2.8%), meat colour and breast muscle weight (20.1%) in CLV-supplemented chicks compared to control birds (control breast weight 19.1%). Additionally, a significant decrease in drip loss (2.26%) from breast muscle was observed with CLV supplementation and levels of blood total protein, albumin, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol significantly increased (P<0.05), while the levels of liver enzymes indicative of oxidative damage (alanine aminotransferase, ALT) decreased by 23.2%, indicating better liver function. In terms of immunity, blood lymphocytes were increased in broilers fed a diet supplemented with liquid CLV (17.9 x 103/µl) compared with birds supplemented with dry CLV (13.5 x 103/µl). Additionally, the levels of IgA, IgG, and IgM were elevated by 29.7%, 69.1%, and 32.3%, respectively, in broilers that consumed feed containing CLV. Similarly, the intestinal diversity and abundance of Lactobacillus spp. were significantly increased (9.9 ± 1.88 and 8.99 log10 CFU/g, respectively) by dietary supplementation with liquid CLV compared to that in non-treated chicks (8.7 ± 1.22 and 8.51 log10 CFU/g, respectively). Energy digestibility was increased significantly by 1.29% in CLV-treated chicks compared to the control chicks. This review highlights the findings associated with the utilisation of CLV biomass as a feed supplement and its effect on broiler growth and health.

As vitamin B12 is only synthesized by bacteria, ruminant products, especially dairy products, are excellent sources of this vitamin. This study aims to identify if diet and cow characteristics could affect vitamin B12 concentration in milk of dairy cows. Information on 1484 first, 1093 second and 1763 third and greater parity Holstein cows in 100 herds was collected during three consecutive milkings. During the first morning milking, all dietary ingredients given to cows were sampled and quantities offered were recorded throughout the day. Nutrient composition of ingredients was obtained by wet chemistry to reconstitute nutrient composition of the ration. Milk samples were taken with in-line milk meters during the evening milking of the 1st day and the morning milking of the 2nd day and were analyzed for vitamin B12 concentration. Milk yields were recorded and milk components were separately analyzed for each milking. Daily vitamin B12 concentration in milk was obtained using morning and evening vitamin B12 concentrations weighted with respective milk yield, then divided by daily yield. To decrease the number of interdependent variables to include in the multivariable model, a principal component analysis was carried out. Daily milk concentration of vitamin B12 averaged 3809±80 pg/ml, 4178±79 pg/ml and 4399±77 pg/ml for first, second and third, and greater lactation cows. Out of 11 principal components, six were significantly related to daily milk concentration of vitamin B12 when entered in the multivariable model. Results suggested that vitamin B12 concentration in milk was positively related to percentage of fiber and negatively related to starch as well as energy of the diet. Negative relationships were noted between vitamin B12 concentration in milk and milk yield as well as milk lactose concentration and positive relationships were observed between vitamin B12 concentration in milk and milk fat as well as protein concentrations. The percentages of chopped mixed silage and commercial energy supplement in the diet as well as cow BW were positively related to vitamin B12 in milk and percentages of baled mixed silage, corn and commercial protein supplement in the ration were negatively related to vitamin B12 concentration in milk. The pseudo-R2 of the model was low (52%) suggesting that diet and cow characteristics have moderate impact on vitamin B12 concentration in milk. Moreover, when entering solely the principal component related to milk production in the model, the pseudo-R2 was 46%. In conclusion, it suggests that studied diet characteristics have a marginal impact on vitamin B12 concentration in milk variation.

Epidemiological studies in humans and animal models (including ruminants and horses) have highlighted the critical role of nutrition on developmental programming. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that the nutritional environment during the periconceptional period and foetal development can altered the postnatal performance of the resultant offspring. This nutritional programming can be exerted by maternal and paternal lineages and can affect offspring beyond the F1 generation. Alterations in epigenetic mechanisms have been proposed as the causative link behind the programming trajectories observed in the offspring. Although a clear cause–effect relationship between epigenetic modifications during early development and later offspring phenotype has not been demonstrated in livestock species, strong associations have been reported for some epigenetic marks (e.g. messenger RNA) that are worth exploring as possible predictors of future offspring phenotype. In this review, we shortly describe the main epigenetic mechanisms studied so far in mammals (i.e. mainly in the mouse) thought to be associated with developmental programming, and discuss the few studies available in mammalian herbivores (e.g. cattle) showing the effect of nutrition on epigenetic marks and the associated phenotype. Clearly, there is a need to develop research on nutritional strategies capable of modulating the epigenetic machinery with positive influence on the phenotype of livestock herbivores. This type of research is needed to alleviate the challenges currently faced by the livestock industry (e.g. impaired fertility of high-yielding dairy cows). This in turn will have a positive influence on animal welfare and productivity of livestock enterprises.

Recently with limited information from intensified grain-based farming systems in developed countries, livestock production is challenged as being huge consumer of freshwater. The smallholder mixed crop-livestock (MCL) system which is predominant in developing countries like Ethiopia, is maintained with considerable contributions of crop residues (CR) to livestock feeding. Inclusion of CR is expected to reduce the water requirement for feed production resulting improvement in livestock water productivity (LWP). This study was conducted to determine feed water productivity (FWP) and LWP in the MCL system. A multistage sampling procedure was followed to select farmers from different wealth status. Wealth status dictated by ownership of key farm resources such as size of cropland and livestock influenced the magnitude of livestock outputs, FWP and LWP. Significant difference in feed collected, freshwater evapotranspired, livestock outputs and water productivity (WP) were observed between wealth groups, where wealthier are relatively more advantaged. Water productivity of CR and grazing land (GL) analyzed separately showed contrasting differences where better-off gained more on CR, whereas vice versa on GL. These counterbalancing of variations may justify the non-significant difference in total FWP between wealth groups. Despite observed differences, low WP on GL indicates the need of interventions at all levels. The variation in WP of CR is attributed to availability of production factors which restrained the capacity of poor farmers most. A linear relationship between the proportion of CR in livestock feed and FWP was evident, but the relationship with LWP was not likely linear. As CR are inherently low in digestibility and nutritive values which have an effect on feed conversion into valuable livestock products and services, increasing share of CR beyond an optimum level is not a viable option to bring improvements in livestock productivity as expressed in terms of LWP. Ensuring land security, installing proper grazing management, improved forage seed supply and application of soil and water conservation are expected to enhance WP on GL. Given the relationship of production factors with crop biomass and associated WP, interventions targeted to improve provision of inputs, credit, extension and training support due emphasis to the poor would increase CR yield and reduce part of water use for feed production. Optimizing feed value of CR with treatment and supplementation, following water efficient forage production methods and maintenance of healthy productive animals are expected to amplify the benefits from livestock and eventually improve LWP.

The production of protein from animal sources is often criticized because of the low efficiency of converting plant protein from feeds into protein in the animal products. However, this critique does not consider the fact that large portions of the plant-based proteins fed to animals may be human-inedible and that the quality of animal proteins is usually superior as compared with plant proteins. The aim of the present study was therefore to assess changes in protein quality in the course of the transformation of potentially human-edible plant proteins into animal products via livestock production; data from 30 Austrian dairy farms were used as a case study. A second aim was to develop an approach for combining these changes with quantitative aspects (e.g. with the human-edible feed conversion efficiency (heFCE), defined as kilogram protein in the animal product divided by kilogram potentially human-edible protein in the feeds). Protein quality of potentially human-edible inputs and outputs was assessed using the protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score and the digestible indispensable amino acid score, two methods proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to describe the nutritional value of proteins for humans. Depending on the method used, protein scores were between 1.40 and 1.87 times higher for the animal products than for the potentially human-edible plant protein input on a barn-gate level (=protein quality ratio (PQR)). Combining the PQR of 1.87 with the heFCE for the same farms resulted in heFCE×PQR of 2.15. Thus, considering both quantity and quality, the value of the proteins in the animal products for human consumption (in this case in milk and beef) is 2.15 times higher than that of proteins in the potentially human-edible plant protein inputs. The results of this study emphasize the necessity of including protein quality changes resulting from the transformation of plant proteins to animal proteins when evaluating the net contribution of livestock to the human food supply. Furthermore, these differences in protein quality might also need to be considered when choosing a functional unit for the assessment of environmental impacts of the production of different proteins.

The importance of selenium as a key component of antioxidant systems in animals is well recognised due to much research about this mineral in many species. Selenium is required as part of the antioxidant enzyme structure and plays a major role in various protective systems in animal physiology, including immunity, cellular stability and DNA protection. The following review is the first in a series of three which details the importance of selenium in animal nutrition, and how the chemically organic form, which is akin to the form of the mineral in natural feed materials, can provide increased benefits in utilisation, storage and metabolism compared to inorganic sources.

This study examines the dynamic effects of grain prices and energy prices on catfish feed prices and the price of food-sized catfish at the farm level. Using the autoregressive distributed lag model and bounds testing procedure, a long-run relationship between feed and farm prices and their determinants was confirmed. Given the effect of corn and soybean meal prices on catfish feed prices, and catfish fish feed prices on farm prices, the long-run responsiveness of feed prices to a percentage increase in U.S. ethanol production is 0.325, and the responsiveness of catfish farm prices is 0.064. Although both feed and farm prices increase with ethanol production, the relatively small responsiveness of farm prices when compared with feed prices suggests that catfish farmers are worse off. Results are conditional on ethanol production causing an increase in grain prices.

The present article summarises the effect of dietary supplements viz., dietary organic acid (OA) supplements, mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS) and β-glucan supplementation on poultry. The article focuses on the effects on immunity, and the follow on benefits to gut development and performance in growing poultry.

One of the environmental challenges that the poultry industry has faced is manure utilisation and/or disposal. Poultry manure and its nitrogenous compounds can be a potential pollutant causing eutrophication, nitrate or nitrite contamination of water, ammonia volatilisation, and acid deposition in the air. Therefore, reducing nitrogen excretion and emissions in poultry manure is important to maintain a clean environment. Proper nutrition is an important first step to optimise performance and growth in animals as well as to reduce the negative impacts on the environment. Amino acids are components of protein nutrition that greatly influence animal growth. However, excess or insufficient amino acid supplementation in diets increases nitrogen excretion and emissions. One way to reduce this is to prevent uricase activity in the microflora in poultry manure. Egg yolk antibodies are economic alternatives for administering in feed to poultry. Supplementation of feed grade antibodies into poultry diets can be a potential approach to minimise bacterial uricase activity and reduce ammonia emissions from poultry manure. In order to use this dietary strategy effectively, a well-balanced feed formulation and a more practical way of delivering the antibodies in feeds remains to be developed.

During the past fifteen years, phytoadditives in animal nutrition have attracted attention for their potential role as alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters. The goal of this paper is to review the current scientific data on the use of phytoadditives in broiler nutrition. The efficacy of phytogenic applications in broiler nutrition depends on several factors, such as composition and feed inclusion level of phytogenic preparations, bird genetics, and overall diet composition. Difficulty arises when comparing different studies using phytoadditives due to the large variation in composition and sourcing, thus the potential biological effects of phytogenic compounds may differ. However, a great amount of research data supports a potential role of phytoadditives as natural, non-antibiotic growth promoters in broiler nutrition. The mechanisms behind growth promotion are far from being elucidated, as data on phytoadditive effects on nutrient digestibility, gut function and the immune system are still scarce. Phytogenic intake may certainly depress pathogen growth in the gut, however an understanding of their effects on the complex gut ecosystem is still far from clear. There is insufficient amount of studies describing the effects of phytoadditive dietary intake on carcass meat safety, whereas the beneficial effect of phytogenics on carcass meat quality is very well documented. As the last point of this review, further considerations on the efficient applications of phytoadditive compounds in broiler nutrition are given.

Controlling potentially harmful and polluting emissions from farms is important in the developed world, where legislation exists in many countries limiting emissions such as ammonia and controlling how manure is disposed of from intensive farming operations. In Switzerland, there are legal agreements concerning controls of ammonia emissions, most especially from farms. Ammonia production from pig farms can be controlled by dietary intervention, such as reducing protein levels, which in turn reduces excretion, mainly via urine. The following paper surveys current practices for nitrogen use on Swiss pig farms, and how feeding strategies may assist in controlling ammonia production from pig production systems. The survey found that 70-75% of all feeds used for pigs of all categories were reduced in protein and nitrogen, with 90% being reduced in protein in high animal density areas. Regression analysis showed that CP levels explained up to 49% of the nitrogen efficiency, suggesting that other factors are important in pollution control. Although piglet diets are more tightly regulated in terms of controlling N input, excessive protein levels in so-called reduced protein diets for finisher pigs and dry sows are common in the market. Hence, there is considerable potential to reduce N-input and ammonia emissions from Swiss pig production, which could be implemented at no or minimal extra cost.

Increasingly more studies are raising concerns about the increasing consumption of meat and the increasing amount of crops (cereals and oilseeds in particular) used to feed animals and that could be used to feed people. The evolution of this amount is very sensitive to human diets and to the productivity of feed. This article provides a 2050 foresight on the necessary increase in crop production for food and feed in three contrasting scenarios: diets with no animal products; current diets in each main region of the world; and the average diet of developed countries extended to the whole world. We develop empirical aggregate production models for seven world regions, using 43 years and 150 countries. These models realistically account for the contribution of feed from food plants (i.e. plants that would be edible for humans) and of grassland to animal products. We find that the amount of edible crops necessary to feed livestock in 2050 is between 8% and 117% of today's need. The latter figure is lower than that in comparable foresight studies because our models take into account empirical features occurring at an aggregate level, such as the increasing share of animal production from regions using less crop product per unit of animal product. In particular, the expected increase in animal production is estimated to occur mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where the amount of feed from food crops required per unit of animal product proves to be lower than that in other areas. This 117% increase indicates that crop production would have to double if the whole world adopted the present diet of developed countries.

Organic acids and their salts have been approved by European legislation as an alternate source of antibiotic growth promoter in diets, because antibiotics are associated with problems due to potential residual effects via food animals developing resistant strains of pathogens. Citric acid (CA) is a weak organic acid which is a natural preservative and can add an acidic or sour taste to foods and soft drinks. It exists in small amounts in a variety of fruits and vegetables, most notably citrus. Penicillium mould and Aspergillus niger could be efficient CA producers on a commercial basis. Its inclusion in animal diets has been reported to decrease colonisation of pathogens and limit then production of toxic metabolites, improve availability of protein, Ca, P, Mg and Zn as well as serve as a substrate in intermediary metabolism. Its addition in drinking water is not promising for performance, but lower doses would be useful for sanitary aspects and gut health. Its inclusion at 0.5% in the diet improves performance and non-specific immunity of broilers. It also enhanced specific immunity against new castle disease in vaccinated broilers. Current data supports a recommendation in the broiler diet up to 0.75% in pelleted feed and 0.5% in mash diets, with a safety margin of 6.0%. Additional research is needed to determine the feasibility of its use in low nutrient density broiler diets.

There is growing interest in developing natural alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters in order to maintain both birds’ performance and health. In the last decade, Turmeric has been extensively used in poultry diets. Turmeric is a natural herb of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. Wide range medicinal properties of this plant have been advocated. In poultry feed, Turmeric has been extensively used in different concentrations, dosages and durations. In this review, the beneficial effects of this plant on growth, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, ameliorative effect on liver health, immunomodulatory and antioxidative effects are reviewed.

The incorporation of feed-use (FU) amino acids (AAs) in diets results in a reduced use of protein-rich ingredients such as soybean meal, recognized to have elevated contributions to environmental impacts. This study investigated whether the incorporation of l-lysine.HCl, l-threonine and FU-methionine reduces the environmental impacts of pig and broiler feeds using Life Cycle Assessment. The following impact categories were considered: climate change, eutrophication, acidification, terrestrial ecotoxicity, cumulative energy demand and land occupation. Several feeds were formulated either to minimize the cost of the formulation (with or without AA utilization), to maximize AA incorporation (i.e. the cost of AA was considered to be similar to that of soybean meal), or to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. For both pig and broiler feeds, calculations were made first using only cereals and soybean meal as main ingredients and then using cereals and several protein-rich ingredients (soybean meal, rapeseed meal and peas). In addition, these calculations were performed using two types of soybean meal (from Brazil, associated with recent deforestation or not). For broiler feeds, two types of maize (from France, irrigated, with mineral fertilization v. not irrigated, with animal manure fertilization) were also tested. Regarding the feeds formulated to minimize cost, incorporation of AA decreased the values for eutrophication, terrestrial ecotoxicity and cumulative energy demand of both pig and broiler feeds, regardless of the base ingredients. Reduction in climate change and acidification due to the incorporation of AA depended on the nature of the feed ingredients, with the effect of AA incorporation being greater when combined with ingredients with high impacts such as soybean meal associated with deforestation. Feeds formulated to maximize AA incorporation generally had a similar composition to those formulated to minimize cost, suggesting that the costs of AA were not the limiting factor in their incorporation. Feeds formulated to minimize greenhouse gas emissions had the lowest values for climate change and cumulative energy demand, but not for other impacts. Further research is needed to elucidate whether the incorporation of additional AA (tryptophan and valine) along with l-lysine, l-threonine and FU-methionine could decrease on the environmental impacts of pig and broiler feeds further.

The ban of sub-therapeutic antibiotic use in the European Union countries and elsewhere, and recent moves toward removal or reduced use of these compounds in other countries has put pressure on the poultry industry to look for viable alternatives. Available data suggest that specific egg yolk antibodies (EYA) have beneficial effects in prevention or treatment of bacterial and viral infections in humans and different animal species. The number of studies conducted in chickens, however, is quite low compared to other species and this may be a limiting factor in the current use of this technology in the poultry industry. The objectives of this review paper are to discuss how EYA are produced and work, to present examples of their applications in different pathological conditions in chickens, and to address challenges that this technology is currently facing.

Feeding broilers by alternating different diets for 1 or 2 days is known as sequential feeding, and it possibly reduces leg problems since it slows down early growth and may enhance general activity. The present study compared continuous feeding with a standard diet (C: metabolisable energy = 12.55 MJ/kg, crude protein = 190 g/kg) with alternations of a high-energy/low-protein diet (E+P−:+7% ME; −20% CP) and a low-energy/high-protein diet (E−P+: −7% ME,+20% CP) and investigated its effects on growth, behaviour and gait score in 352 male Ross broiler chickens. Sequential feeding was carried out during ten 48-h sequential-feeding cycles from 8 to 28 days of age. Three treatments were compared: complete diet (C) and two alternations of diets varying in protein and energy contents (S1: E+P− followed by E−P+; and S2: E−P+ followed by E+P−). Chickens received the same feed during the starter and finisher periods (0 to 7 and 29 to 38 days of age). Body weight (BW), feed intake, general activity and gait score, bone quality and carcass conformation were measured to evaluate leg condition and general performance. Sequential feeding significantly reduced BW at 28 days of age (S1: −9.1%; S2: −3.7%/C group; P < 0.05) and S1 were lighter than S2. In both sequential groups, time spent standing increased (C: 28%; S1:33%; S2: 35%; P < 0.05) and leg abnormalities decreased (mean gait score: C: 2.61; S1: 2.45; S2: 2.38; P < 0.02). This improvement was not related to changes in bone quality. BW at slaughter was impaired in Group S1 only, and the feed conversion ratio throughout the rearing period was not significantly impaired by sequential feeding. However, abdominal fat was higher in the S2 group. Sequential feeding using diets varying in energy and crude protein can be a useful method of reducing leg problems in broilers since it improves gait score without impairing growth performance when used as early as 8 days of age and up to not less than 8 days before slaughter in order to compensate for reduced growth. This improvement can be explained by reduced early growth and enhanced motor activity. However, it appears that the low-energy diet should be given first in order to avoid a reduction in BW at slaughter.