Feed Additives and Supplements for Ruminants

This book comprehensively reviews various feed additives and supplements that are employed for ruminant production and health. It discusses important strategies of using additives and supplements through rumen fermentation, immunomodulation, nutrient utilization, and cellular metabolism that lead to enhanced milk production, body weight gain, feed efficiency, and reproduction. The book also presents the importance of nutritional supplements such as B-vitamins, advances in mineral nutrition, role of lesser-known trace elements, protected amino acids, slow-release nitrogen and rumen buffers on performance and health of ruminants. In addition, the book explores strategies for improving environmental stewardship of ruminant production by minimizing carbon footprint associated with greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing ruminant-derived food safety through mycotoxin binders, exogenous enzymes, probiotics, flavours, biochar, ionophores, seaweeds and natural phytogenic feed additives with an emphasis on plant secondary metabolites (tannins, saponins and essential oils, etc.). It also details information on silage additives, additives and supplements employed in successful calf rearing, transition cow management as well as to ameliorate the adversity of heat stress in ruminants.

Overall, the book is valuable for veterinary and animal science researchers, animal producers, nutrition specialists, veterinarians, and livestock advisors.

Dr. M.S. Mahesh, is an Assistant Professor (Livestock Farm Complex) at the Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences of Banaras Hindu University, Mirzapur, India. He has graduated in Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry from Veterinary College, Bengaluru and earned master’s and Ph.D. in Animal Nutrition from ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India. He was awarded with university gold medals for academic excellence during under-graduation, and afterwards with Junior- and Senior Research fellowships. His areas of specialization include use of novel feed ingredients in ruminants, feed characterization, on-farm diet formulation and optimization, designing species-specific micronutrient premixes, troubleshooting nutritional issues and rationalizing feed additive applications for an augmented performance of dairy cattle and buffaloes. His previous association with animal feed industry helped him gain a broad-spectrum of hands-on experience on the diverse facets of practical dairy nutrition. He has published over 25 research/review papers in journals of national and international repute with a few other technical articles. He served as the former member of editorial board of Indian Journal of Animal Nutrition and currently associated as reviewer for many international journals on animal science and multidisciplinary areas. He is a life member of professional societies such as Animal Nutrition Society of India, Animal Nutrition Association and Karnataka Veterinary Council. In his present role, he teaches students and researchers on topics related to animal nutrition.

Dr. Vinod Kumar Yata is currently serving as the Research Director and Principal Scientist at the Research Centre of KBK Multi-Specialty Hospitals in Hyderabad, India. He is also serving as a Visiting faculty at Centre for Biotechnology, Institute of Science and Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological Institute, Hyderabad, India, India. Prior to this role, he worked as a Research Scientist at the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida, USA. He also held the position of Research Associate at the National Dairy Research Institute in Karnal, India. Previously, he worked as an assistant professor at the Department of Biotechnology, Dr. B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar, Punjab, India. He received his Ph.D. in biotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. He specializes in interdisciplinary research which includes Nanotechnology, Microfluidics, Animal Biotechnology, Cancer biology and Bioinformatics. He has developed a microfluidic device for the separation of live and motile spermatozoa from cattle semen samples. His research interests are focused on the development of nanocarriers, understanding prodrug enzyme therapy, and targeted drug delivery. He elucidated the structural features and binding interactions of several biomolecules by in silico methods. He has published several research articles in peer reviewed international journals and presented papers in several international conferences.