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Animals
Special Issues
Dietary Components in Animal Nutrition: Favoring Sustainability, Welfare and Safety
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Dietary Components in Animal Nutrition: Favoring Sustainability, Welfare and Safety

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 April 2025 | Viewed by 291

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Xihong Zhou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Changsha, China
Interests: animal nutrition; animal physiology; animal feed; inflammation; gut microbe
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Increasing attention has focused on animal sustainability, welfare and safety, which can be greatly improved by dietary components. Dietary components significantly affect the physiology and behavior of animals. Inappropriate diet components could lead to stress and consequently threaten animal health, as energy consumption and immune response are highly enhanced. A suitable proportion of nutrient elements in diet is crucial to animal sustainability, welfare and safety.

This Special Issue of Animals will publish reviews and original research articles covering the recent research advances in the influence of dietary components in animal nutrition on sustainability, welfare and safety. The dietary components may mainly involve different levels and types of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, as well as functional components, including plants and plant extracts, organic acids, probiotics, etc.

We are particularly interested in studies that strengthen our understanding of the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of dietary components on the sustainability, welfare and safety of farm animals. In addition, promising and innovative diet additives and feeding patterns that favor sustainability, welfare and safety are welcome.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The influence of dietary components, innovative additives and feeding patterns on sustainability, welfare and safety in farm animals;
  • Host alterations in response to dietary components and feeding patterns revealed by multi-omics integration analysis;
  • Deciphering the mechanism underlying dietary components on sustainability, welfare and safety.

Dr. Xihong Zhou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • animal health
  • animal welfare
  • farm animal
  • feed components
  • gut microbiota

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 20655 KiB  
Article
Dietary Isatidis Root Residue Improves Diarrhea and Intestinal Function in Weaned Piglets
by Zhong Chen, Zenghao Yan, Siting Xia, Kaijun Wang, Qi Han, Miao Zhou, Deqin Wang, Jie Yin and Yulong Yin
Animals 2024, 14(19), 2776; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14192776 - 26 Sep 2024
Abstract
Weaning stress can trigger diarrhea, cause intestinal damage, and disrupt the intestinal flora of piglets, ultimately resulting in retarded growth or even the death of the animals. Traditional Chinese medicine residues encompass numerous bioactive compounds and essential nutrients; however, their efficient utilization remains [...] Read more.
Weaning stress can trigger diarrhea, cause intestinal damage, and disrupt the intestinal flora of piglets, ultimately resulting in retarded growth or even the death of the animals. Traditional Chinese medicine residues encompass numerous bioactive compounds and essential nutrients; however, their efficient utilization remains a challenge. Consequently, our study sought to explore the impact of traditional Chinese medicine residues, specifically Isatidis Root residue (IRR), on the growth performance, intestinal function, and occurrence of weaning diarrhea in newly weaned piglets. Forty healthy, castrated Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire males, weaned at 21 days old and exhibiting similar body conditions, were randomly allocated into five groups, with eight piglets in each group. The results indicated that the dietary inclusion of IRR at concentrations ranging from 0.5% to 4.0% notably decreased the incidence of diarrhea in weaned piglets compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Serum LDL-C and globulin (GLB) contents were reduced in response to dietary IRR concentrations (0.5% to 4.0%), while serum albumin (ALB) and albumin/globulin (A/G) contents were enhanced (p < 0.05). Dietary 0.5%, 1.0%, and 2.0% IRR resulted in significant increases in villus height (VH) and villus height/crypt depth (V/C) ratios in the jejunum, V/C ratios in the ileum, and the number of villi goblet cells both in the jejunum and ileum. IRR also led to a significant decrease in the crypt depth (CD) of the jejunum and ileum (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the expression of IL-6 in the jejunum was significantly increased in IRR-fed piglets (0.5% to 4.0%) (p < 0.05). IRR demonstrated inhibitory effects on harmful bacteria in the gastrointestinal microbiome, including Campylobacter, Actinobacillus minor, and Ralstonia pickettii, indicating its broad-spectrum bacteriostatic properties. In conclusion, dietary IRR alleviated diarrhea in weaned piglets and improved gut function and microbial compositions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dietary Components in Animal Nutrition: Favoring Sustainability, Welfare and Safety)
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