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Basic Paper
Conference: Forum 8: Nutrition: Basic Paper
Invitation - call for papers: Workshop 15 - 17 June 2000
In the future, the demand for high-quality food of animal origin will continue to rise world wide as a result of population growth and increased affluence. The basis of intensive livestock husbandry remains the supply of appropriate feedstuffs to individual producers both regionally and globally. But it will hardly be possible to increase plant production, whether for human food or for animal feed, partly due to natural limits now becoming evident (decreased land area, depletion of biological soil resources), partly due to the anticipated competition between humans and animals for agricultural products (grain to make bread or to feed animals). In this context, the science of animal nutrition faces the challenge of discovering resources and strategies that permit increased animal production without escalating the competition between humans and animals for the same supplies of energy and nutrients. Therefore in future the question will be how to increase the use of those products for animal feed which cannot be used by humans, (e.g. organic substances with a high raw fibre content) or which are not desired/intended for direct human consumption, and which therefore are being used decreasingly (cf. the parts of a slaughter animal that are actually consumed by people). At the global level, the reasons to push for recycling of organic by-products and residues for animal nutrition fall into two different and complementary trends: In highly-developed industrialised regions of the world the use of such products as feed permits more economical and ecological disposal, while in the less developed, poorer countries this is a way to augment both quantity and quality of feed supply. Many by-products and waste substances from the production, processing and consumption of food and beverages can potentially be used by animals. And in related areas, where raw materials from agriculture are not used to make food but for other industrial purposes, for example starch, there is increasing interest in ways for using certain by-products as feedstuffs. As the production and processing of food becomes more and more industrialised, the sources of supply are increasingly located near large urban centres, i.e. near the demand. This in turn logistically enhances the conditions for industrialising the processing of by-products as animal feed. Thus enterprises specialised in the utilisation of food by-products and waste are settling in the vicinity of large food industry production facilities, and, in cooperation with livestock producers in adjacent rural areas, produce food of higher market value. Here, in a welcome step toward sustainability, good ecology is being practised where once waste disposal (dumps, landfills) was the norm. Such concepts are already well established in many highly-industrialised countries of the northern hemisphere, but they are also developing more and more in other regions of the world near large cities (Cairo, Rio, Sao Paulo), where a supply of food from animal sources (poultry in particular) in the desired amounts can be secured only by increasing production independent of land area. An additional challenge for the science of animal nutrition will in future be the borderline area where animal nutrition and animal welfare intersect. Concerns here include the significance of feedstuffs, rations and methods which allow species-typical behaviour patterns, the well-being of livestock and pets, and the question of the limits of intensifying feeding. In this context the workshop "Animal Nutrition: Resources and New Challenges" calls scientists from the fields of feed science, feed manufacturing, animal nutrition and animal production to respond to these new challenges. Of particular interest are new scientific investigations dealing with the opportunities as well as with the limits and risks of the increased use of by-products in animal nutrition. Scientific contributions on the following issues are invited:
- 1.1 The quantity and quality of by-products heretofore not yet used as feedstuffs from the perspective of food and beverages production and related areas
- 1.2. Examples of successful new feeding concepts in practice which target the maximal utilisation of unconventional feedstuffs or of products which could be used as feed thanks to new technologies or additives
- 1.3. Real or suspected risks (unbalanced composition, undesirable components, contaminants)in the use of by-products as feed (a prerequisite for appropriate safety assurance programmes)
- 1.4. Influence of external parameters (sociological background; legislative context; social restrictions) on the potential use of by-products and waste substances in feed
- 1.5. Significance of the local/regional spectrum of animal species for a maximal use of by-products as feed
- 1.6. Contribution of plant breeding and biotechnology toward improving the nutritional value of present plant feedstuffs and by-products or for expanding the range of available feedstuffs
- 1.7. Economic evaluation of animal production based on by-products
In addition to these issues, which are chiefly concerned with the preservation and use of resources, scientific contributions on the following questions are also of interest:
- 2.1. How can the science of animal nutrition contribute to the characterisation and ultimately the definition of "species-appropriate feed" as required by animal welfare, so that more attention can be given to these concerns in practice?
- 2.2. For which species and animal collectives has intensive feeding reached the limits determined by physiology, so that in these cases � not least for reasons of animal welfare � new feeding strategies are to be developed?
- 2.3. What are the functions of feedstuffs, ration size and feeding methods beyond considerations of energy and nutrient supply (e.g. special health effects, dietetic effects, influences on animal behaviour, well-being and behavioural disturbances)?
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