About the book
It is well known that the quality of animal origin foodstuffs (e.g. meat) is influenced by the quality of feed very strongly. Therefore, a very important area of animal nutrition research is focused on improving quality of animal products by feeding so that it can better meet the requirements of human nutrition.
Animal nutrition in the 21st century aims to provide safe and good quality foodstuffs of animal origin and at the same time achieve a high efficiency of production and a low level of environmental pollution. These criteria, however, contribute to the complexity and rapid expansion of nutrition science. The continuously increasing demand of the human population needs to be supplied from a diminishing agricultural area, while maintaining the sustainability of production. According to the global trends, the challenges facing animal nutrition in the 21st century can be summarized as follows: more awareness and activity of participation is needed in animal production to supply quality and safe food in sufficient quantities, in accordance with the requirements of the society. Therefore, the efficiency of animal production needs to be improved. This can be achieved by enhancing 1) biological efficiency, 2) technological efficiency and 3) economic efficiency. Among many other factors, feed additives play a very important role in achieving the above objectives.
Animal food additives are products used in animal nutrition for purposes of improving the quality of feed or to improve the animal’s performance and health. Other additives can be used to enhance digestibility or even flavour of feed materials. In addition, feed additives are known which improve the quality of compound feed production; consequently e.g. they improve the quality of the granulated mixed diet.
Generally feed additives could be divided into five groups:
1.Technological additives which influence the technological aspects of the diet to improve its handling or hygiene characteristics.
2. Sensory additives which improve the palatability of a diet by stimulating appetite, usually through the effect these products have on the flavour or colour.
3. Nutritional additives, such additives are specific nutrient(s) required by the animal for optimal production.
4.Zootechnical additives which improve the nutrient status of the animal, not by providing specific nutrients, but by enabling more efficient use of the nutrients present in the diet, in other words, it increases the efficiency of production.
5. In poultry nutrition: Coccidiostats and Histomonostats which widely used to control intestinal health of poultry through direct effects on the parasitic organism concerned.
The aim of the book is to present the impact of the most important feed additives on the animal production, to demonstrate their mode of action, to show their effect on intermediate metabolism and heath status of livestock and to suggest how to use the different feed additives in animal nutrition to produce high quality and safety animal origin foodstuffs for human consumer.
