The Role of Natural Polysaccharides in Livestock and Poultry Production
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 1128
Special Issue Editor
Interests: livestock; probiotics; pathogens
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the global pursuit of sustainable animal production, enhancing animal welfare, health, and food safety has become a central focus. Dietary intervention is a key strategy for simultaneously improving these aspects. Among various dietary components, natural polysaccharides, as a class of safe, renewable, and biologically active polymers, are attracting increasing attention for their vast potential. These compounds, originating from algae, plants, microorganisms, and fungi, possess diverse chemical structures and biological activities that form the basis of their multifunctionality. While inappropriate diets can induce stress and health crises, natural polysaccharides demonstrate a remarkable capacity to mitigate these challenges. Their application is thus considered crucial for ensuring sustainable production, welfare, and safety in livestock and poultry.
This Special Issue invites contributions on the roles of various natural polysaccharides—such as dietary fibers, plant-derived polysaccharides, seaweed polysaccharides, and microbial polysaccharides—as functional feed additives. The submission of original research papers and review articles that provide deep insights into the underlying physiological and molecular mechanisms by which natural polysaccharides influence animal health, production performance, and product quality is encouraged.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Effects of natural polysaccharides on improving growth performance, gut health, immune status, and stress resilience in livestock and poultry.
- Roles of natural polysaccharides in enhancing the quality and safety of meat, eggs, and milk.
- Elucidation of the mechanisms of action of natural polysaccharides using multi-omics technologies and molecular biology approaches.
- Exploration of novel polysaccharide resources, efficient preparation strategies, and efficacy-enhancing methods.
Prof. Dr. Jie Yin
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 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. 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
- natural polysaccharides
- animal health
- nutrition
- gut health
- gut microbiota
- livestock
- feed additives
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