Publisher's Synopsis
The thirtieth conference started with an update on legislation for feed compounders covering a broad spectrum of new and amended regulations. This was followed by a lively debate on the use of antibiotics in farm animals. It was acknowledged that the general public is badly informed on the use of antibiotics, particularly on their benefits in promoting animal welfare. However, the increase in resistant strains of bacteria causes serious concerns for human health and great care needs to be exercised when using antibiotics for animals. Refinements in the feeding of poultry were discussed in papers covering amino acid profiles and phosphorus nutrition. The availability of synthetic amino acids has greatly improved our ability to balance the supply of amino acids to broilers and turkeys for optimum performance. Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for poultry but increasing requirements for pollution control mean that excesses can no longer be tolerated and phosphorus nutrition needs to be evaluated with more accurate systems, such as that presented here. Quality control is very important for feed manufacturers at all stages of production from raw materials to finished product. Traditional methods of laboratory analysis are no longer acceptable for analysing the number of samples and range of parameters required today. Near-infrared spectroscopy has the potential to meet the requirements of speed, reliability and cost-effectiveness for modern quality assurance. In addition to its role as a replacement for traditional methods, novel applications of near-infrared spectroscopy were also reviewed. The papers on ruminant nutrition focused on dairy cows. Firstly, milk analysis was considered as a simple, non-invasive method for determining nutritional and disease status. Secondly, the importance of grass availability for cows of high genetic merit was emphasised. Thirdly, supplementation of maize and wholecrop silages was reviewed. These three papers may not be directly related to the sale of compound feed by feed manufacturers, but they do remind us of the importance of considering the cows response to the whole diet. The nutrition of pigs is reaching new levels of sophistication. Energy evaluation systems are now robust enough to be able to formulate rations to meet net energy requirements. New data show that modern genotypes partition energy and protein differently, so it is necessary to re-evaluate their amino acid requirements. Further evidence suggests that we need to alter allowances when the immune system of pigs is activated by exposure to antigens.
