Unit LIVESTOCK FEEDING AND NUTRITION
- Course
- Animal science
- Study-unit Code
- 85004809
- Curriculum
- In all curricula
- Teacher
- Gabriele Acuti
- Teachers
-
- Gabriele Acuti
- Hours
- 81 ore - Gabriele Acuti
- CFU
- 9
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2020
- Offered
- 2021/22
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Discipline delle produzioni animali
- Academic discipline
- AGR/18
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- Chemical and nutritional values of feeds and feedstuffs. Effects of mechanical and heat treatments. Digestion, metabolism and digestibility of nutrients. Energy and feed intake. Nutritional requirements of animals. Feed formulation with electronic spreadsheets and dedicated software. Relationship between diet and animal welfare and health status, quality of animal products, and environmental sustainability.
- Reference texts
- Ronchi, Savoini, Trabalza Marinucci (2020). Manuale di Nutrizione dei Ruminanti da Latte. Ed. Edises Università
G. Bittante, I. Andrighetto, M. Ramanzin - Fondamenti di Zootecnica. Liviana Editrice, 1990, Padova.
Visit Unistudium website to download the files/slides used during lessons. - Educational objectives
- The course offer the knowledge to understand relationship between diet and animal welfare, and quality of animal production.
Knowledge for understanding the relationship between diet, well-being and productivity of animals: 1) chemical and nutritional value of feeds; 2) digestion, dietary principles and the metabolism nutrients; 3) classification and description of feeds; 4) nutritional requirements of animals; 5) feed treatments, animal welfare and environmental sustainability.
Main competence (i.e. the ability to apply the acquired knowledge) will be: formulate feed or rations to mainly categories of domestic animal species with electronic spreadsheet program to improve digestive efficiency, quality of animal production with respect of animal welfare and environmental sustainability. - Prerequisites
- In order to be able to understand and apply the topics described within the course it is important to have knowledge of anatomy (especially digestive tract), biochemistry and physiology (especially digestive tract) of livestock animals (poultry, swine, ruminants). Moreover, it is required to know how to use an electronic spreadsheet program to formulate feed or rations to mainly categories of livestock animal species. These prerequisite / precondition are valid for both attending and non attending students.
- Teaching methods
- The course is organized as follow:
- face-to-face theoretical lessons on the topics discussed during the course;
- practical training for applying the topics discussed during the course (feed formulation with spreadsheets and dedicated software).
Practical training; dairy cows farm, feed manufacturing industry. - Other information
- Non mandatory attendance but strongly recommend.
- Learning verification modality
- 1. number of tests: 2;
2. goal of the tests: to assess the understanding of the relationships between diet, animal welfare and quality of animal production with particular attention to: 1) chemical and nutritional value of feeds; 2) digestion, dietary principles and the metabolism nutrients; 3) classification and description of feeds; 4) nutritional requirements of livestock animals; 5) feed treatments, nutritional strategies to improve digestive efficiency, animal welfare and environmental sustainability;
3. mode of administration: 1) diet formulation of livestock animals with electronic spreadsheet program to evaluate the ability to applied the nutritional strategies knowledge and 2) oral exam ams at assuring the level of knowledge to verifing the understanding capability on theoretical contents as indicated on the program and also test the communication skills of the student and his autonomy in the organization and exposure with appropriate Language;
4. timing of execution: both at the end of the course;
5. timing: 45 minutes for diet formulation of livestock animals with electronic spreadsheet program; 40-45 minutes for oral exam;
6. tipology: diet formulation with electronic spreadsheet program and oral exam on the topics discussed during the course and examinated in-depht through a recommended text;
7. measurements: assuring the level of knowledge and understanding with particular reference to the connection capacity (multidisciplinary level) of the topics discussed. - Extended program
- FACE-TO-FACE THEORETICAL LESSONS AND PRACTICAL TRAINING
The nutritional principles. Carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, ash, vitamins and minerals. Gross energy. Animal feeds. Chemical, bromatological and nutritional quality of animal feeds. Antinutritional factors and contaminants. Sampling. Feed manufacturing and technology. Genetically modified feeds. Digestion and metabolism. Principles of the anatomy and physiology of the digestive system. Digestion in monogastric and polygastric animals. Energy, protein, lipidic and mineral metabolism (and their correlations). Estimation methods. Methods for determining and estimating the digestibility of feeds. Energy of feeds. Main evaluation systems of energy and nitrogen value of feeds. Feeding behavior. Feed intake capacity of livestock species: variability related to animal, feed and the environment. The feeding behavior of grazing animals and their impact on the ecosystem. Nutritional requirements. Nutritional requirements for livestock species according to category, type and level of production. Body Condition Score (BCS). Monogastric species. Feed formulation and criteria for diet formulation. Poligastric species: Feeding strategies and criteria for diet formulation. Diet formulation. Manual formulation. Use of electronic spreadsheet program.