Outline For Animal Science

OUTLINE FOR ANIMAL SCIENCE
TOPIC: Scope of Animal Science
What is Animal Science?
- Animal Science is concerned with the science and business of producing

domestic livestock species, including but not limited to beef cattle, dairy cattle,
horses, poultry, sheep, and swine. An animal scientist applies principles of the
biological, physical, and social sciences to the problems associated with livestock
production and management. Animal Science is also concerned with foods of
animal origin: meat, dairy foods, and eggs (Asas.org, 2021). The food industry is
one of the largest and most important industries in the United States. In addition,
animal science is concerned with aspects of companion animals, including their
nutrition, care, and welfare.
Animal Science is concerned with the science and business of producing domestic
livestock species, including but not limited to beef cattle, dairy cattle, horses, poultry,
sheep, and swine. Animal Science is also concerned with foods of animal origin: meat,
dairy foods, and eggs.
Livestock production
* Livestock is commonly defined as domesticated animals raised in an agricultural

setting to produce labor and commodities such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and
wool. ... The USDA classifies pork, veal, beef, and lamb as livestock and all livestock as
red meat. Poultry and fish are not included in the category.
Livestock selection
Profitability of any individual animal or of a herd or flock of animals is determined by:
-Type or individuality based on the ability to produce high-quality products for a tough
market
- Performance or efficiency of production which is the ability to utilize feed efficiently, in

producing meat, milk, wool or power.
Animal Physiology
Animal physiology is the study of how animals work, and investigates the biological
processes that occur for animal life to exist. These processes can be studied at various
levels of organization from membranes through to organelles, cells, organs, organ
systems, and to the whole animal. Animal physiology examines how biological
processes function, how they operate under various environmental conditions, and how
these processes are regulated and integrated. The study of animal physiology is closely
linked with anatomy (i.e., the relationship of function with structure) and with the basic
physical and chemical laws that constrain living as well as nonliving systems. Although
all animals must function within basic physical and chemical constraints, there is a
diversity of mechanisms and processes by which different animals work. A comparative
approach to animal physiology highlights underlying principles, and reveals diverse
solutions to various environmental challenges. It can reveal similar solutions to a
common problem, or modifications of a particular physiological system to function under
diverse conditions. The discipline of animal physiology is diverse and here the major
areas of research and investigation are outlined.
Animal Nutrition
Animal nutrition research was well-established in several centers around the world by
the turn of the 20th century, and it began to flourish during the second quarter of the
1900s. Many discoveries have been made about animal metabolism and consequent
nutrient requirements; the usefulness of hundreds of feedstuffs as sources of essential
amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, as well as lipids and carbohydrates; the proper
balance of available nutrients in the diet; nutrient supplements and feed-processing
technologies; and metabolite-partitioning and growth-promoting compounds. These
fundamental findings have been applied widely since 1950, bringing about improved
animal feeding. Studies of life processes in farm animals have helped in developing the
optimal nutriment for each animal, and human nutrition has benefitted enormously from
the knowledge that has come from these investigations.
Long before the science of animal genetics developed, all species of agricultural
animals were subjected to selective breeding to some extent. Modifying livestock and
poultry to meet consumer demands requires the application of scientific principles to the
selection of superior breeding animals and planned matings. For example, consumers
have come to prefer more lean tissue and less fat in meat, and so the meat-type hog
was developed in two decades of intensive selection and crossbreeding starting in the
1950s. Swine now yield more lean pork, grow faster, and require less feed to reach
market weight than before. By the 1980s, a laying hen of any popular genetic strain, if
managed properly, could be expected to produce more than 250 eggs annually, while
special meat-producing strains of chickens gain body weight at a rate of 1 : 2 in ratio
with feed intake.
Animal Health
Animal health is essential to the efficient production of wholesome animal products. An

example of the economic effect of animal-disease research conducted by veterinary
scientists is the control of Marek’s disease, a highly contagious disease affecting the
nerves and visceral organs of chickens, which resulted in a loss of more than
$200,000,000 annually to the U.S. poultry industry alone. The disease was studied for
more than 30 years before it was learned that it is caused by a herpes virus. Within
three years of this discovery, a vaccine was developed that reduced the frequency of
Marek’s disease and the resultant meat condemnations in vaccinated chickens by 90
percent and increased egg production by 4 percent. Veterinary scientists also
investigate the chronic infectious diseases associated with high morbidity rates and
various metabolic disorders.
Animal Reproduction
- Some of the most significant research in animal breeding has been done with dairy
cattle and has established the proved sire system, in which bulls are ranked according
to the performance of their offspring. The use of sires proved in this way together with
artificial insemination has enabled dairy farmers to improve their herds by greatly
expanding the influence of genetically superior bulls. Along with increased emphasis on
performance testing, efforts have been made to predict at a young age whether an
individual animal will be an efficient meat, milk, or egg producer. Such success has
made for earlier culling and for herds and flocks of higher genetic merit.
Animals represent renewable agricultural resources because they reproduce, and

animal scientists have studied animal reproduction assiduously since the 1930s. These
investigations began in the United Kingdom but were soon joined by scientists in the
United States, where the work blossomed. Basic discoveries have been put to use
quickly in the animal industries. Elucidation of reproductive structures and mechanisms
made it possible to refine reproductive management in the 1940s, and artificial
insemination made possible the widespread use of proved sires in the 1950s. Additional
basic knowledge and later technological developments made practical the control of the
estrous cycle and of parturition by exogenous hormones and the serial harvesting and
transplantation of embryos from donor females of high merit. The result of these
changes has been an increase in the reproductive rate and efficiency of all species of
farm animals.
Animal Ecology and Ethology
Animal ecology and ethology are relatively young branches of the animal sciences.
Around the middle of the 20th century, environmental physiologists in the United States
and the United Kingdom began to study agricultural animals’ relations with their
environment, including temperature, air, light, and diet. Interactions among
environmental temperature, diet, and the animals’ genetic makeup have been
characterized, and great strides have been made in improving thermal-environmental
management on farms. Lighting management is now essential to profitable poultry
production, and the light environment is being controlled in livestock houses as well.
Since the 1970s emphasis has shifted to include the behavioral adaptability of animals
to their surroundings and the effects of environmental stress on the immune status of
livestock and poultry. Farmers have widely adopted intensive systems of animal
production, and these systems continue to present opportunities and problems to
animal scientists concerned with discovering and accommodating the environmental
and ethological needs of food animals.

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OUTLINE FOR ANIMAL SCIENCE

TOPIC: Scope of Animal Science

What is Animal Science?

- Animal Science is concerned with the science and business of producing

* Livestock is commonly defined as domesticated animals raised in an agricultural

Profitability of any individual animal or of a herd or flock of animals is determined by:

- Performance or efficiency of production which is the ability to utilize feed efficiently, in

Animal health is essential to the efficient production of wholesome animal products. An

Animals represent renewable agricultural resources because they reproduce, and

Animal Ecology and Ethology

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