i. Course Title: AS 201- APPLIED ANIMAL NUTRITION
ii. Course Aim: To impart knowledge and skills to students on the principles and techniques of feed evaluation and estimation of nutrient requirements for different classes of farm animals.
iii. Course Expected Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
• Estimate the voluntary food intake by different animal species.
• Evaluate the nutritive values of livestock feeds using different techniques and systems.
• Estimate nutrient requirements for different species and classes of farm animals.
• Measure nutrients utilization from different feedstuffs by different species and classes of farm animals.
• Diagnose nutritional related problems in farm animals.
iv. Course status: Core
v. Credit rating: 7 Credits
vi. Total hours spent: 70 hours
Pre-requisite: AS 104
vii. Course content:
Introduction to feeding, voluntary food intake and factors affecting voluntary food intake by farm animals. Measures of nutrient utilisation in the body. Apparent and true digestibility coefficients. in vivo and in vitro methods of estimating digestibility. Factors effecting digestibility values of feedstuffs.
Energy partition in the body of ruminants and non-ruminants. Gross energy, digestible energy, metabolisable energy and net energy. Methods of measuring energy values. Bomb calorimeter and animal calorimetry. Energy evaluation systems including total digestible nutrients, starch equivalent, metabolisable energy and net energy. Energy requirements of different species and classes of animals. Feeding standards for maintenance, production and draught power.
Chemical and biological methods of evaluating quality of dietary protein for non-ruminants, including chemical composition, essential amino acid composition, chemical score, digestible crude protein, nitrogen balance, biological value, protein efficiency ratio, net protein utilisation and gross protein value. Methods of evaluating quality of dietary protein for ruminants, including protein solubility and degradability. Protein requirements for different species and classes of farm animals for maintenance, production and draught power. The concept of ideal protein.
Mineral metabolism. Concept of mineral availability, requirements, interrelationships and deficiency disorders. Metabolic roles of vitamins, requirements and deficiency disorders.
Practical: In vivo digestibility trials, two-stage in vitro technique, in vitro gas production technique, in sacco/in situ or degradability experiments, gross energy determination using bomb calorimeter, amino acid determination in feeds. Determination of mineral contents in some feeds. Estimation of energy and protein values of some feedstuffs.
viii. Teaching and learning activities
Teaching activities
Teaching activities will involve lectures, tutorials and laboratory practical training.
Learning activities
Learning activities will involve performing take home assignments, seminar presentations and independent reading. Students will be encouraged to do independent study by reading relevant reference books, teaching manuals, scientific papers and other learning materials.
ix. Assessment methods:
A variety of coursework assessments will be done and these include take home assignments, tutorials, seminar presentations and practical reports. There shall be written theory and practical tests given at appropriate time during the semester. In addition, there shall be an end of semester University examination.
x. Reading list:
Cheeke, P. R. (2005). Applied Animal Nutrition: Feeds and Feeding, 3rd Ed. Pearson Prentice Hall. 604 pp.
Reddy, D. V. (2001). Principles of Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology. Oxiford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt ltd. 376 pp.
Klemens, R.O. and Church, D.C. (2009). Livestock Feeds and Feeding. 6th Ed. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Bondi, A. A. (1987). Animal Nutrition. A. Wiley. Inter Science Publ. 549pp
McDowell, L. R. (2008). Vitamins in Animal and Human Nutrition. Elsevier. 793pp
Chaiyabut, N. (Ed) (2012). Milk Production-An up-to-Date Overview of Animal Nutrition, Management and Health. In Tech. 404pp.