Animals are biological transformers of dietary matter and energy into high-quality foods (e.g., meats, eggs and milk) for human consumption, as well as raw materials such as wool and leather for clothing and accessories for humans. Through biotechnological techniques, animals are also employed to produce enzymes and proteins to treat a wide array of human diseases. Mammals, birds, fish, and shrimp possess both common and divergent metabolic pathways for their maintenance and adaptations, but all of them need food to survive, grow, develop, and reproduce. As an interesting, dynamic, and challenging discipline in biological sciences, animal nutrition spans an immense range from chemistry, biochemistry, anatomy and physiology to reproduction, immunology, pathology, and cell biology.
Dr. Guoyao Wu, University Distinguished Professor, has recently published a 772-page book entitled Principles of Animal Nutrition (November 2017. CRC Press, Boca Raton, USA), with the cover being prepared by Dr. Gregory A. Johnson, Professor of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences and of Animal Science. Before the publication, the entire manuscript was reviewed by expert scientists at Texas A&M University and other institutions. They are Drs. Fuller W. Bazer, Werner G. Bergen, John T. Brosnan, Margaret E. Brosnan, Jeffrey L. Firkins, Catherine J. Field, Nick E. Flynn, Wayne Greene, Chien-An Andy Hu, Shengfa F. Liao, Timothy A. McAllister, Cynthia J. Meininger, Steven Nizielski, James L. Sartin, Stephen B. Smith, Luis O. Tedeschi, James R. Thompson, Nancy D. Turner, Rosemary L. Walzem, and Hong-Cai Zhou.
This book consists of 13 well-written chapters. It highlights recent advances in biochemistry, physiology and anatomy that provide the foundation to understand how nutrients are utilized by ruminants and non-ruminants. The text begins with an overview of the physiological and biochemical bases of animal nutrition, followed by a detailed description of chemical properties of carbohydrates, lipids, protein, and amino acids. It advances to the coverage of the digestion, absorption, transport, and metabolism of macronutrients, energy, vitamins, and minerals in animals. To integrate the basic knowledge of nutrition with practical animal feeding, the book continues with discussion on nutritional requirements of animals for maintenance and production, as well as the regulation of food intake by animals. Finally, the book closes with feed additives, including those used to enhance animal growth and survival, improve feed efficiency for protein production, and replace feed antibiotics.
While the classical and modern concepts of animal nutrition are emphasized throughout the book, every effort has been made to include the most recent progress in this ever-expanding field, so that readers in various biological disciplines can integrate biochemistry and physiology with nutrition, health, and disease in mammals, birds, and other animal species (e.g., fish and shrimp). All chapters clearly provide the essential literature related to the principles of animal nutrition, which should be useful for academic researchers, practitioners, beginners, and government policy makers. This book is an excellent reference for professionals and a comprehensive textbook for senior undergraduate and graduate students in animal science, biochemistry, biomedicine, biology, food science, nutrition, veterinary medicine, and related fields.
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For more information regarding news from the Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, please contact Maggie Tucker at maggie.tucker@tamu.edu or (979) 845-1542.