Fiber in Animal Nutrition

Description

Today there is rising awareness that moderate fiber levels are essential for gut health, gut motility and overall well being of monogastrics.

Fiber has been part of feed analytics since the development of the Weender analysis in the 19th century. In general considered an antinutritive factor in the feed for monogastrics, diluting the diets and reducing nutrient digestibility. But these negative attributes are determined by the fiber characteristics and their proportion in the diet. Todays emerging analytics give us a better understanding of the diverse fiber fraction and how to evaluate and employ fiber in the diets. However many questions concerning the effects of fiber in nutrition still remain unanswered.
This book reviews the state of the art knowledge about feeding fiber to monogastric livestock and companion animals, covering key issues surrounding analysis, definition, regulation and mode of action in the gut. The book places a special focus on current topics like animal welfare and functional health effects, making it interesting to all who are involved in animal nutrition and the animal feed business.