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Animal nutrition: beyond boundaries of feed and feeding

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Broadening Horizons
N°31 July 2016 www.feedipedia.org

Harinder P.S. Makkar nutrition and overall sustainability of the livestock

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, operation. This will enable better appreciation of the role
Animal Production and Health Division, Rome, Italy . of feed and feeding in livestock operation. Also synergies
Introduction and trade-offs of managing various domains can be
In a conventional sense Animal Nutrition is the science of feed established in more integrated and more meaningful ways
preparation and feeding i.e. how feeds should be prepared and (Makkar, 2016).
fed to animals to produce adequate and safe food and non-food Animal nutrition and productivity
materials such as wool or manure. Availability, in a sustained
manner, of desired type and quantity of animal feed and its Poor feeding decreases productivity of the animal. A vast
feeding is the foundation of livestock production system. Animal array of literature on nutrition-reproduction interactions
feed availability and animal feeding is a multi-faceted theme. It shows that good feeding increases milk production of
influences all livestock sub-sectors across production systems. It lactating animals. It also increases growth rate of meat
also has far reaching effects on human nutrition, poverty, food producing animals, giving more meat. Good nutrition
prices and global economy. It impacts almost every sector of the increases reproductive efficiency: higher cyclicity, lower
livestock production – from animal reproduction, health and age at first calving, lower inter-calving interval, higher
welfare – to farm economic viability, environment, animal
productive life and higher profitability to farmers (FAO/
product safety and quality.
IAEA, 2002). Furthermore, now a good body of evidence
Over the last 25 years, considerable progress has been made in exists showing that in utero nutrition has impact on
increasing our understanding of the metabolism in domestic
productivity and health of offsprings later in life (Bell and
animals, at levels of biological organization, including the whole
Greenwood, 2013, 2016).
animal, organ systems, tissues, cells, and molecules. Although
the birth of ‘molecular biology’ including ‘omics’ offers exciting Animal nutrition and farm economics
opportunities in better understanding the fundamental
Feed is financially the single most important element of
nutrition, the strategic and applied research in future will focus
animal production, irrespective of species and production
on better understanding of interactions and dynamics amongst
how feed is prepared and fed, animal nutrition and other system. Feed cost can account for up to 70% of the total
components such as environment, welfare, biodiversity, product cost of production of an animal product. High feed costs
quality and safety can wipe out a livestock rearing operation. In 2008 high
Traditionally, the issues of environment, animal health, animal cost of feeds decreased supply of animal products and
welfare, product safety and quality have been debated increased prices. Optimization of feed use efficiency i.e.
separately for each domain. In this short paper, efforts have producing more with less feed decreases feeding costs and
been made to weave strands from these domains with animal increases economic viability of the livestock operation
(Makkar and Beever, 2013).

Animal nutrition and product safety and quality.

The safety and quality of the food chain can be affected

because of the close link between feed and food-borne
pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella and fatty
acids, minerals in animal products, product shelf life).
Many of these changes elicit positive effects on human
health. Recently, there has been interest in the use of
dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), specifically the
omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids (FA) α-linolenic acid (ALA),
eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid
(DHA) to improve sow and piglet performance. Feeding
Photo credit: Stéphanie Maylon, CIAT specific n-6 and n-3 FA from either fish (Mateo et al., 2009;

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Leonard et al., 2010) or flax (Farmer and Petit, 2009) to sows processing and transport of feed account for about 45% of
also transfer these fatty acids to their offspring via milk. Feeding the GHG emission from livestock sector. At a species level,
cattle with flax-based feeds can increase concentrations of n-3 feed production constitutes 47% and 57% of emissions
from pork and chicken supply chains, respectively. For
fatty acids in beef (Drouillard et al., 2004).
cattle, small ruminants and buffalo, feed production
Animal nutrition and environment contributes 36%, 36% and 28% of the total emissions
respectively (Gerber et al., 2013). Feed nutrients (70 to
90% of nitrogen and phosphorus) are lost into the
environment through manure, which if not managed
properly can lead to environmental pollution. Livestock
contribute 37% of anthropogenic CH4, mostly from enteric
CH4 (FAO. 2009a), which is largely feed dependent. Feed
production and use also impact land use and land use
change (Gerber et al., 2013), which also leads to loss of
sequestered carbon and biodiversity. Both environment
and biodiversity degradation have linkage with ecosystem
and human health. Smart feeding practices, especially the
balanced ration approach i.e. feeding a diet containing
nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates and minerals in
the right proportion and in an amount that meets the
nutrient requirements of animals for achieving the targeted
production would decrease nitrogen, phosphorus and
Photo credit: Stéphanie Maylon, CIAT methane release in the environment and the biodiversity
loss (FAO, 2012a; Garg et al., 2013). Use of locally adapted
feed resources is also expected to conserve biodiversity.
The livestock production is resource demanding: it occupies 30%
of the world’s ice-free surface and consumes 8% of global Animal nutrition and food-feed competition
human water use, mainly for the irrigation of feed crops (FAO,
In 2012–2013, 795 million tonnes of cereals (one-third of
2009a). The area dedicated to feed-crop production represents
33% of total arable land. In addition, animal products generally total cereal production) were used in animal feed and by
have a much higher water and carbon footprints than plant- 2050 an additional 520 million tonnes would be required
based foods (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2012; Ripple et al., 2014) for feeding livestock. In 2000, 78% of feed grains were fed
and livestock sector contributes approximately 14.5% of all to pigs and poultry in regions where industrial intensive
anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (7.1 Gigatonnes
system dominate (FAO, 2013a). In the last 20 years, there
of CO2-equivalent per year). Globally, the production,

Impact of feed and feeding on various components of livestock operation

2
has been an increased interest in forage-fed beef for multiple during the period of improper nutrition might also properly
reasons (health related, environmental concerns, and welfare protect the animals. Correct nutrition can reduce infectious
issues) (Scaglia et al., 2014). Use of smart feeding options such afflictions by enhancing cell-tissue integrity and optimizing
as decrease in the level of grains in the concentrate by using defence mechanisms of the immune system (FAO, 2012b).
agro-industrial by-products, increase in green fodder use, Feeding of balanced ration has been shown to increase
feeding of total mixed ration instead of feeding individual immuno-globulin levels in blood, suggesting higher
ingredients, use of chopped forages, increase in digestibility of immunity (FAO, 2012a). Supplements such as minerals,
crop residues could contribute to decrease in grain in diet. antioxidants and amino acids such as methionine also play
a role in immune stimulation (Jankowski et al., 2014; Celi et
Animal nutrition and feed-fuel competition.
al., 2014). Good nutrition is also a biosecurity measure to
About 10% (ca 120 million ones) of global production of course control zoonotic and infectious diseases.
grains are used for bioethanol production (FAO, 2013a). A
Animal nutrition and animal welfare.
continued rapid expansion of biofuel production up to 2050
would lead to the number of undernourished pre-school Feeding to sustain high production levels, nutrient
children in Africa and South Asia being 3 and 1.7 million higher deficiency or excess can lead to metabolic disorders in
than would have been otherwise the case (FAO, 2009b). Efficient ruminants such as acidosis and lameness causing welfare
use of alternate novel feed resources such as biofuel coproducts issues; whilst breeding animals of monogastric species
e.g. glycerol, dried distillers grains, gluten meal, cassava residue, which are restrict-fed to optimise health and production
Camelina sativa meal, sweet sorghum residue, kernel meal from may suffer from chronic hunger. A number of welfare
the non-toxic Jatropha, pongamia meal, castor meal, palm kernel problems in ruminants are elicited by the feeding of poor
meal, and algae residue (Makkar, 2013) would contribute to quality or unsafe feeds. A properly balanced diet free of
decreasing feed-fuel competition. undesirable substances and water supplied in adequate
amounts avoid physical and psychological suffering from
hunger and thirst; furthermore correct nutrition is crucial
for optimal performance and to sustain optimal fitness.
Further information on adverse effects of improper animal
nutrition on animal welfare and the corrective measures is
available in FAO (2012b).

Animal nutrition and global security.

Increased food-feed-fuel competition can lead to food

shortages, high food price and high volatility in prices. This
could adversely impact global food security and could
possibly trigger civil unrest and conflict among masses and
between people and government. Government stability
and governance could be affected, resulting on global
insecurity. This has happened in the recent past in some
developing counties. Animal nutritionists have a role as a
peacemaker also by playing with the feeds and feeding in a
manner that there is least food-feed-fuel competition and
the feed efficiency is optimized to achieve more animal
products from less feed.

The choice of feed constituents (diet) and their

consumption affect animal productivity (including
reproductive efficiency), greenhouse gas emissions (GHG),
Photo credit: R. K. Henning, Wikimedia Commons animal health, animal-sourced food safety and quality and
animal welfare. The production of those dietary
Animal nutrition and animal health. Improper nutrition constituents has an impact on water quality, GHG and land
(unbalanced diet, under or over feeding) impacts health use. The animal well-being and possibly human well-being
adversely directly, and also makes animals more prone to may be influenced by animal diets.
diseases. Furthermore, in case of disease, corrective measures in The aforesaid challenges and issues are being addressed
the form of medicines are less or not effective. Vaccination done through the FAO’s initiative: Towards Sustainable Animal

3
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has the core traits, i.e. balanced in all nutrients, free from
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animal products that are safe for human consumption and influences postnatal productivity of ruminant livestock.
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supplementation (available at: http: //www.feedipedia.org/
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integrated with sound quality control systems (FAO, 2013b), also Drouillard, J. S., M. A. Seyfert, E. J. Good, E. R. Loe, B.
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