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Agriculture
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Valorization of Agri-Food Waste Bioresources for Sustainable Livestock Feeding—2nd Edition
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Valorization of Agri-Food Waste Bioresources for Sustainable Livestock Feeding—2nd Edition

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Farm Animal Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 284

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sonia Tassone

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Turin, 10095 Grugliasco, TO, Italy
Interests: animal nutrition; alternative feeds; in vitro degradability; microplastics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Khalil Abid

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
DISAFA, University of Turin, 10124 Torino, TO, Italy
Interests: agri-food waste valorization; aternative feed; feed additives; ruminal digestibility; ruminal fermentation; microplastics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Abdelfattah Salem

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca C.P. 50000, Estado de México, Mexico
2. Dipartimento di Scienze del Suolo, Della Pianta e Degli Alimenti (Di.S.S.P.A.), Università Degli Studi di Bari, Via Giovanni Amendola, 165/a, 70126 Bari, Italy
Interests: feed additives; digestion; fermentation; greenhouse gas emission; ruminant
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of bio-waste from agriculture for sustainable livestock feed is an important strategy for tackling environmental problems, optimizing resource use and securing feed supplies. With a high portion of the global agri-food produced being wasted, reusing this biomass as animal feed offers a promising way to mitigate its ecological impact and promote a circular economy. This eco-friendly approach improves the economic viability and competitiveness of farms, diversifies feed sources, bridges the gap between demand and supply, and reduces the competition between feed and food. Recent studies have highlighted the nutritional richness of agri-food waste, which has many bioactive compounds that can increase animal productivity and the quality of their products, strengthen disease resistance, promote animal welfare and reduce the environmental footprint associated with methane emissions from ruminants.

This Special Issue (SI) is a continuation of the previous SI, aiming to explore the potential benefits and challenges of using agri-food waste bioresources in animal feed, investigate the way they are incorporated into the diet, and explore innovative approaches to improve their use in animal nutrition and promote the sustainability of the livestock sector. We welcome interdisciplinary studies from different research areas, including agriculture and animal science, and invite contributions in various formats, including original research and reviews.

Dr. Sonia Tassone
Dr. Khalil Abid
Prof. Dr. Abdelfattah Salem
Guest Editors

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Agriculture 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 2600 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

  • agri-food waste
  • agricultural structures
  • animal production
  • bioactive compounds
  • greenhouses
  • circular economy
  • environment
  • livestock feed
  • sustainability
  • waste management

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 393 KB  
Article
Effects of Dietary Cauliflower Leaf Meal Supplementation on Growth Performance, Nutrient Utilization, Rumen Fermentation, and Methane Emission in Goats
by Ashvini Pundalik Bansod, Subodh Kumar Saha, Mani Saminathan, Rajeshwar Manohar Khandare, Sobharani Vineetha, Madhulina Maity, Theerthesh Mahesh and Hari Om Pandey
Agriculture 2026, 16(3), 378; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture16030378 - 5 Feb 2026
Abstract
Feed stress is a very critical factor impacting livestock health and productivity. One of the major contributors to quantitative feed deficiency is the continued adherence to conventional diets and feeding practices, which renders livestock populations vulnerable to environment-induced scarcity events as well as [...] Read more.
Feed stress is a very critical factor impacting livestock health and productivity. One of the major contributors to quantitative feed deficiency is the continued adherence to conventional diets and feeding practices, which renders livestock populations vulnerable to environment-induced scarcity events as well as shortages arising from supply-chain bottlenecks. These challenges occur in the face of the ever-expanding demand from a continuously growing livestock population. In a world increasingly experiencing qualitative and quantitative resource constraints due to rising demand and increasing pollutant concentrations in the environment, conventional dietary compositions require timely modification and supplementation with alternative feed ingredients. These may include the hitherto unutilized by-products of agricultural production, which are often discarded as agricultural waste, in order to mitigate the stress induced by feed availability shortfalls. Cauliflower leaf meal is one such by-product whose suitability as a feed supplement was evaluated in the present study, with results that can be reliably described as promising. The present study assessed the impact of dried cauliflower leaf meal (CLM) on growth performance, nutrient utilization, rumen fermentation, and methane emission in goats. Fifteen non-descript male goats, aged 6–8 months, were randomly allocated into three groups of five animals each and housed separately in identical pens within the same shed for the duration of the experiment. Three dietary treatments were administered: T0 (control; concentrate, hybrid Napier, and wheat straw); T20 (20% replacement of wheat bran with CLM in the concentrate, along with hybrid Napier and wheat straw); and T30 (30% replacement of wheat bran with CLM in the concentrate, along with hybrid Napier and wheat straw). The results indicated that the goats in all groups achieved a similar body-weight gain with a comparable dry-matter intake (DMI). The feed conversion ratio (FCR), nutrient digestibility, and mineral balance were also comparable across treatments. However, the methane emission rate was significantly lower (p < 0.05) in the T30 group compared with the other groups. CLM supplementation did not cause deviations in rumen pH, NH3-N concentration, volatile fatty acid production, or bacterial and protozoal populations. The hematological parameters remained unaffected by the increased dietary inclusion of CLM, while both cell-mediated and humoral immune responses showed an improvement in the CLM-fed groups. Notable reductions in methane emission were observed in goats fed diets containing 20–30% dried CLM, highlighting the positive environmental implications of such a dietary inclusion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Valorization of Agri-Food Waste Bioresources for Sustainable Livestock Feeding—2nd Edition)
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