Management and Nutrition Introduction: Introduction

Proper management and nutrition are essential to the health and well-being of domestic animals, particularly agricultural species that are expected to maintain a high level of production while relying on their managers to meet all their physiologic and behavioral needs. As livestock production becomes more intensified, the need to ensure that management and nutrition do not limit animal health or productivity increases.

Management and nutrition are also central to the prevention and control of many infectious and noninfectious diseases. Although infectious diseases require the presence of a specific infectious organism(s) (eg, a bacterium, virus, parasite), the mere presence of the causal microbe is not usually sufficient to assure that disease will develop. Other environmental and host factors influence whether the infected animal develops clinical disease or has reduced productivity as a result of the infection.

The most effective method of preventing infectious disease is to eradicate and exclude the organism(s) causing the disease. Often, this is impossible or impractical. It becomes necessary to control the infectious disease by minimizing circumstances that favor the spread of the infectious agent, mitigating the environmental circumstances that contribute to development of the disease in the presence of the infectious agent, and minimizing circumstances that increase the host’s susceptibility. These circumstances that contribute to the development of a disease are termed risk factors for the disease. They can be grouped into several categories: microbe risk factors, environmental risk factors, and host risk factors. Identifying and mitigating the impact of these risk factors is the goal of a management strategy to prevent specific diseases and maintain productivity.

This multifaceted approach of using management to control and prevent disease is particularly important in dealing with many of the diseases that commonly are seen in food animal production (eg, pneumonia in young animals, GI disease in neonates, bovine respiratory disease complex of feedlot cattle) as well as in companion animals (eg, respiratory disease in catteries, kennel cough in canine boarding facilities). These diseases have either a complex etiology involving the interaction of several microbes or are caused by pathogens for which there are no reliable treatments (eg, viruses, some parasites). Prevention and control of these diseases often depends on implementing management practices to mitigate recognized risk factors for disease and impaired productivity. Often these are general management practices, but effective control of many diseases requires the implementation of management practices to address specific risk factors for individual pathogens.

The need to identify and implement multifaceted management strategies that can maintain health and enhance productivity is likely to increase and will be driven by forces from both within and outside the industry. Recognizing and making these management changes will require the collaborative efforts of all groups working in livestock production including veterinarians, animal scientists, and nutritionists.

Animal agriculture is under pressure from consumers and public interest groups to address concerns arising from current industry practices. These concerns include the potential link between antimicrobial resistance in human pathogens and drug use in animals, the relationship between environmental contamination and disposal of animal waste, the role of agricultural practices in human foodborne illness, and the impact of current management practices on animal welfare. Even if there is no conclusive evidence linking livestock production to these public health issues, livestock production practices will likely change in response to the perceived or potential link. Animal agriculture will need to change current management practices while developing and adopting new approaches to deal with health and production problems. Making these changes will require a substantial investment in research.

Animal agriculture is also under pressure from within the industry to change many current management practices. Recent well-publicized outbreaks of disease such as the epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in several species have focused the industry’s attention on biosecurity as a disease prevention and control strategy. A biosecurity program is a series of management practices with the objectives of preventing the introduction of infectious or other disease causing agents and preventing the further spread of agents that are introduced or are already present (see also biosecurity, Biosecurity: Introduction).

Many in animal agriculture also support on-farm food safety initiatives. These programs are often HACCP-based (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) and are developed and implemented by the commodity group involved. They emphasize the central role of management in ensuring the quality and safety of food produced on farms. Developing, implementing, and auditing these management programs is seen as essential to maintaining consumer confidence. These programs require the implementation and documentation of management practices to reduce the risk of physical, chemical, or microbial hazards entering the human food supply through production on farms.

Proper nutritional management is essential to animal health and productivity. Nutrition plays a role in influencing the animal’s susceptibility to disease (eg, feline lower urinary tract disease) as well as in managing certain diseases (eg, diabetes, hyperlipidemia). Rations/diets must be formulated to provide for the basic physiologic needs (eg, energy, protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals) of the animal and to ensure optimal growth and productivity. Ration formulation must consider the age, sex, breed, lactation and gestational status, and physical activity of the animal. In agricultural production systems, feed preparation and delivery are often as important in ensuring animal health and productivity as the actual nutritional value of the ration.

Nutritionally related diseases include diseases associated with a nutritional excess (eg, direct toxic effect, digestive upset), nutritional deficiency (either primary or secondary deficiency), or nutritional imbalance. In animal agriculture, health is heavily influenced by feeding management. Inadequacies in nutritional delivery can directly cause disease (eg, ruminal acidosis, laminitis) or increase susceptibility to disease (eg, type D Clostridium perfringens enterotoxemia). Nutritionally related diseases in small animals include both diseases of excess (eg, developmental orthopedic disease in dogs related to excess calcium and energy) and diseases of deficiency (eg, blindness in cats related to taurine deficiency). Feeds and feeding management also influence animal health if feeding results in exposure to foodborne physical hazards (eg, sharp objects), chemicals (eg, mycotoxins, toxic plants) or microbes (eg, molds, Salmonella spp ). Nutritional and waste management practices are also important in preventing and controlling infectious diseases that are spread through fecal-oral transmission (eg, salmonellosis, paratuberculosis in ruminants, toxoplasmosis in cats).