Overview

Digestion in animals involves mechanical, enzymatic, and microbial processes in the gastrointestinal tract, which convert large feed particles to a size which can be absorbed, transported, and used by the animals. The digestive systems of all farm animals are not the same, rendering them less competitive and able to adapt to a wide range of available feed resource niches. Based on the structure and functions of the digestive tract, farm animals are divided into two major groups: ruminants or polygastrics, e.g. cattle, buffaloes, sheep, and goats; and non-ruminants or monogastrics, e.g. horses, donkeys, rabbits, dogs and cats. The key difference between these two groups of animals lies in the structure of the stomach. Ruminants, as opposed to non ruminants, have three additional stomach compartments where digestion takes place in different environments. In general, for farm animals the processes associated with digestion include prehension, ingestion, grinding or mastication, digestion of feed, absorption of nutrients, and excretion of waste products. Nutrient Digestion and Utilization in Farm Animals to present comprehensive topics on nutrient digestion and utilization in cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry and fish. The book covers a range of topics and modelling approaches; these are absorption and passage; growth and development; mineral metabolism; methodology; environmental impact; and animal production and feed evaluation. Deterministic, stochastic, empirical and mechanistic modelling approaches are described. This book will be of significant interest to researchers and students of animal science, particularly those concerned with nutrition modelling.

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9781681176253

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