Basic Terms in Animal Nutrition
Introduction to Animal Husbandry
Safdar Hassan
Faculty of Animal Husbandry
[email protected]
Animal Nutrition
• Science of the use of feed/food
• Processes by which an animal ingests, digests, absorbs and
uses the nutrients in feed for maintenance, growth, work and
reproduction
• Animal Nutrition also involved feed formulation and feed
manufacturing processes
Nutrient
• Chemical substances
• Found in the feed material
• Can be used and are necessary for;
• Maintenance
• Growth
• Production
• Reproduction and
• Health of animals
• Examples are carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, minerals and vitamins
Carbohydrates
• Chemically they are defined as poly-hydroxy aldehydes and ketones or their
derivatives while compounds of C, H and O
• Common classes are mono-saccharides, oligo-saccharides and poly-
saccharides, glucose, sucrose, cellulose etc. are common examples
• Synthesized and stored abundantly in plants like starch
• Major components in animal feed e.g. cereal grains (maize, wheat, rice etc.)
• Most of them are very easily digested, absorbed, and transformed into body fat
Protein
• Complex organic compounds made up chiefly of amino acids polymers
• Each protein contain specific number and sequence of amino acids
• Compounds of C, H, O, N and some times P, S and Zn also
• Each protein has specific function inside the body
• Some common proteins are albumin, protamine, histones etc.
• Plants and some bacteria have the ability to synthesize their own
proteins while animals are dependent on plants and microbes
Some amino acids are synthesized (non-essential amino acids) in the body
and some are not (essential amino acids)
Indispensable / Essential (AA) Dispensable / Non-essential (AA)
Threonine Hydroxy proline
Valine Alanine
Histidine Serine
Arginine Aspartic acid
Lysine Asparagine
Methionine Cysteine (sparing for methionine)
Phenylalanine Tyrosine (sparing for phenylalanine)
Tryptophan Citrulline
Leucine Glycine (essential for poultry)
Isoleucine Glutamic acid (essential for poultry)
Ruminants do not require the essential amino acids to be supplied in the diet as the
micro-organisms present in the rumen can synthesize all the essential amino acids
Fat
• Lipids (Fats and Fat like substances) are Complex organic
compounds found in plant and animal tissues
• Fats are glycerol esters which are solid at room temperature while oils
are esters of glycerol that are liquid at room temperature
• The part of feed which is water insoluble but soluble in organic
solvents like ether, benzene etc.
• They are saturated source of energy as they contain 2.25 times more
energy than carbs and proteins
• Oleic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid are few examples of dietary fats
Fiber
• These are sub-class of carbohydrates
• It can be defined as the least digestible portion of feed in the digestive
system of mono-gastric animals
• It is mostly fed to ruminant animals
• Fibrous portion of feed containing cellulose, hemicellulose and
lignin
Minerals
• It may be defined as those inorganic elements which remain
mostly as ash when plant and animal tissues are burned
• There are about 40 dietary mineral elements
• The term essential mineral elements are restricted to a mineral
element which has been proved to have a metabolic role in body
• The classification of the essential minerals into macro (large
amount) and micro-elements (minute amount) depends upon their
concentration in the animal body
Macro Minerals Micro Minerals
• Ferrous (Fe)
These are seven
• Copper (Cu)
• Calcium (Ca)
• Cobalt (Co)
• Phosphorous (P)
• Fluorine (F)
• Chlorine (Cl)
• Iodine (I)
• Sodium (Na)
• Manganese (Mn)
• Potassium (K)
• Molybdenum (Mb)
• Sulphur (S) • Selenium (Se)
• Magnesium (Mg) • Zinc (Zn)
• etc.
Vitamins
• Complex organic compounds
• Required in minute amount
• Mostly function as co-enzymes (parts of enzyme system)
• Essential for the transformation energy and
• Regulation of metabolism of the body
• Complex organic compounds
• Required by animals in minute quantities
• These are essential for normal body functions (i.e. growth, production,
reproduction and health)
• Animals show deficiency symptoms in their absence
• There are 15 known Vitamins, having no chemical resemblance
• Poultry can not synthesize vitamins
• In the ruminants the microflora can synthesize vitamins (B-Complex and K)
• On the basis of their solubility, there are two classes i.e. fat soluble (vitamin A, D,
E and K) and water soluble (vitamin B-complex and C)
Energy
• The capacity / ability to perform work
• Carbohydrates, protein and fats provide energy to the body when
they are burned inside the body
Calorie
• Unit of energy
• One calorie is the amount of energy required at a pressure of 1
standard atmosphere to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1
degree Celsius (1 gram calorie = 4.18 Joule)
Ruminant vs Non-ruminants
Stomach in poultry Stomach in Ruminants
Hydrolysis
• A chemical digestion process called enzymatic hydrolysis, can break the
bonds holding the molecular 'building blocks' within the feed together
• For example, proteins are broken down into their 'building block' amino acids
• Human, ducks, chicken etc.
Fermentation
• Chemical changes brought about by enzyme produced by various
microorganisms in the rumen
• Volatile fatty acids are the key end-products of fermentation
• Cattle, sheep, goat etc.
Complete Ration
• Feed allowance given to the animal in 24 hours
Balanced Ration
• One, which provides an animal the proper amounts and proportions of
all the required nutrients
Ingredient
• A constituent of feed material
• Maize grains, soybean meal, molasses etc.
Roughages Concentrates
• Class of feedstuff contain coarse • Another class of feed ingredients
bulky feeds
contain more digestible nutrients
• High in fiber contents (more than
• Low in fiber contents (less than
18%)
18%)
• Low in total digestible nutrients (less
• High in total digestible nutrients
than 60%)
(more than 60%)
• Examples are fodder, silage, hay,
wheat straw etc. • Examples are cereal grains,
vegetable and animal protein
meals, molasses etc.
Feed Supplements Feed Additive
• Another feed ingredients’ class • An ingredients / combination of
• A feed ingredient used to improve ingredients added to basic mix to
the nutritional value of basal help fulfill a specific need other
feeds than nutrition
• usually rich in protein, minerals, • Foe example, antibiotics are
vitamins, or a combination of part added in the feed for disease
or all of these prevention
• DCP, limestone, vitamin • Pellet binders are added to
supplements etc. make strong and firm pellets
Grazing Browsing
• To consume standing vegetation, • The forage of glean leaves, bark,
as by livestock or wild animals and green stems from plants and
shrubs eaten by animals with some
difficulty
Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA)
• These are end-product of fermentation
• Commonly used in reference to
• Acetic
• Propionic
• Butyric acids
• Found especially in rumen / silage
Mash / Meal
• Form of feed in which feed has a particle size some what greater than flour
• But due to selective behavior of birds, it is not precise
Pellets
• Form of feed made by compacting mash feed along with steam through die
openings of pellet machine
• Animal cannot choose from pelleted feed
Crumbles
• Big pellets are problematic to eat by young chicks
• That’s why pelleted feed reduced to irregular granules
Mash Pellets
Crumble
Metabolism
• All the bio-chemical changes that take place in the animal body after
nutrient’s absorption from the digestive tract
Anabolism
• Building up processes
• Nutrients used for the formation or repair of tissues
• Like glucogenesis, lipogenesis, glycogen synthesis etc.
Catabolism
• Breaking up processes
• Nutrients are oxidized to for the production of work and heat
• For example glycolysis, krebs cycle etc.
Feedlot
• Large scale facility for intensive feeding of ruminants for
fattening prior to slaughtering
• For example before Eid ul Adha
Feed Conversion Ratio
• The ratio expressing the number of units of feed required for
one unit of production (meat, milk, egg) by an animal
• It is abbreviated as “FCR”
FCR = Feed consumed / Weight gain
