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Animals
Special Issues
Advances in Farm Animal Feed and Nutrition
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Advances in Farm Animal Feed and Nutrition

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 August 2026 | Viewed by 1487

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Don Viet Nguyen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Interests: animal nutrition; meat science; fatty acid profile; meat sensory properties; intra-muscular fat; sustainable livestock production

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The global livestock sector is facing growing challenges in its efforts to meet demand for high-quality animal products while ensuring environmental sustainability, resource efficiency, and animal welfare. In this context, nutrition has come to play a pivotal role in improving feed conversion, reducing emissions, and enhancing the nutritional value and safety of animal-derived foods, and recent scientific advances in feed formulation, nutrient utilisation, and precision feeding technologies have created new opportunities to optimise livestock production systems for both economic and ecological benefits.

This Special Issue, Advances in Farm Animal Feed and Nutrition, aims to gather together high-quality research that aligns with the scope of Animals by promoting sustainable animal production and improving livestock health and product quality. We seek to showcase novel findings that advance our understanding of feed innovation and nutrient metabolism, and the consequent implications for animal performance and product traits.

We welcome original research papers, reviews, and short communications on topics including feed evaluation, ruminant and non-ruminant nutrition, feed additives, alternative feed resources, fatty acid metabolism, nutritional physiology, precision feeding, and sustainable nutrition strategies. Studies integrating animal nutrition with meat, milk, or egg quality, greenhouse gas mitigation, and circular economy approaches are particularly encouraged.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Don Viet Nguyen
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

  • animal feed
  • ruminant nutrition
  • non-ruminant nutrition
  • feed efficiency
  • fatty acid profile
  • sustainable livestock production
  • feed additives
  • alternative feed resources
  • animal performance
  • meat quality

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 391 KB  
Article
Canola Meal in Poultry Diet: Impact on pH, Color, Drip Loss, Nutritional Composition and Oxidative Status of Fresh and Stored Meat
by Marta del Puerto, María Cristina Cabrera, Ayrton da Silva, Roberto Olivero, Alejandra Terevinto and Ali Saadoun
Animals 2026, 16(9), 1297; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16091297 - 23 Apr 2026
Viewed by 203
Abstract
Canola meal, with environmentally friendly attributes, lower cost, and previous studies, is an interesting proteic source to partially replace the soybean meal for poultry nutrition. For that, in this work we aimed to investigate canola meal as a partial replacement of soybean meal [...] Read more.
Canola meal, with environmentally friendly attributes, lower cost, and previous studies, is an interesting proteic source to partially replace the soybean meal for poultry nutrition. For that, in this work we aimed to investigate canola meal as a partial replacement of soybean meal in finishing poultry diets (21 to 49 days) on the productive performance, also including the impact on the quality, nutritional attributes and antioxidative status of valuable cuts of meat. Ninety-six 21-day-old chickens were assigned to four experimental diets (24/diet), with increasing doses of canola meal (CM 0, 2.5, 5 and 10%). Daily consumption, weekly live weight and post mortem carcass weight and yield were determined. At 24 h post mortem, pH, color (CIE L, a*, b*) and drip loss were measured in the breast, drumstick and thigh cuts. Fatty acid composition and health lipid indexes were also determined in the fresh cuts. The oxidative status of lipids and proteins, polyphenol and flavonoids content in fresh and in stored (7 days-display at 4–6 °C) in vacuum packaged cuts were determined. Including CM, up to 10%, the feed intake and growth of birds was not affected (p = 0.74 and p = 0.87 respectively). In meat, CM significantly decreased the drip loss (p < 0.05), the pH in breast and thigh (p = 0.01 and p = 0.05 respectively), a lower L and b in thigh and increased PUFAs in more oxidative cuts, with a strong interaction between dose and muscle type. There was no effect on lipid oxidation while carbonyls decrease at a 2.5% dose in fresh and stored cuts but there is an increase with higher ones. Flavonoids raise the maximum deposition in meat at 5% CM. In conclusion, CM can be included in finishing poultry diets, but high doses must to be adequately managed if performance and quality of meat criteria are considered together. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Farm Animal Feed and Nutrition)
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15 pages, 1663 KB  
Article
Reducing Protein Content with and Without Yeast Probiotic Actisaf Sc 47 Supplementation in the Diet of Dairy Cow: Effects on Nitrogen Use, Digestibility, and Rumen Microbial Protein
by Nizar Salah, Brigitte Gestes, Pauline Ly, Axel Blancou, Kheira Hadjeba, Julie Schulthess, Julie Duclos and Eric Pinloche
Animals 2026, 16(8), 1277; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16081277 - 21 Apr 2026
Viewed by 214
Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the effects of lowering crude protein (CP) levels in the diet of dairy cows alone or in combination with a yeast probiotic on nitrogen utilization, digestion, and rumen microbial protein synthesis. In total, six cows were included in [...] Read more.
This study aimed to evaluate the effects of lowering crude protein (CP) levels in the diet of dairy cows alone or in combination with a yeast probiotic on nitrogen utilization, digestion, and rumen microbial protein synthesis. In total, six cows were included in a 3 × 3 Latin square design. Each study period consisted of 23 days of diet adaptation and 5 days for sampling and data collection. Cows were randomly assigned to one of the three diets according to protein level and supplementation: control diet with 16.5 CP%DM (CTR), a diet with 14.5 CP%DM without Actisaf Sc 47 supplementation (LCP), and a diet with 14.5 CP%DM with Actisaf Sc 47 supplementation at 5 g/cow/day (LCPActisaf). Reducing protein content from 16.5 to 14.5 CP%DM alone or in combination with Actisaf Sc 47 significantly reduced nitrogen intake. Regarding fecal nitrogen (FN), no difference was observed between the CTR and LCP groups. However, FN was significantly lower in the LCPActisaf group compared with that of the CTR group. There was a tendency for lower FN in the LCPActisaf group compared with the LCP group. Compared with CTR, urinary nitrogen (UN) was not impacted by LCP but tended to decrease with LCPActisaf (p = 0.1). Compared with CTR and LCP, supplementation with Actisaf Sc 47 increased nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) (p < 0.05). A tendency for higher NUE was observed in the LCP group compared with the CTR group (p = 0.07). Crude protein digestibility was similar between the CTR and LCP groups and tended to increase with Actisaf Sc 47 supplementation. Compared with CTR, neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestibility was not impacted by LCP but increased by LCPActisaf (p = 0.05); LCPActisaf did not impact NDF digestibility compared with LCP. Organic matter (OM) digestibility was similar among treatments. Although there was no difference between the three groups on rumen microbial protein synthesis (RMP), supplementation with Actisaf Sc 47 increased RMP. Reducing protein content in combination with Actisaf Sc 47 appears to be a good strategy, enabling both the environmental footprint linked to nitrogen losses to be reduced, and fiber digestibility and rumen microbial protein synthesis to increase. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Farm Animal Feed and Nutrition)
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22 pages, 1946 KB  
Article
Comparative Evaluation of High-Throughput In Vitro Digestion Methods for Predicting In Vivo Digestibility and Fecal Odor Emissions in Pigs
by Ching-Yi Chen, Ruei-Yang Huang and Han-Tsung Wang
Animals 2026, 16(6), 918; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16060918 - 14 Mar 2026
Viewed by 407
Abstract
Accurate and physiologically relevant in vitro models are needed to predict nutrient digestibility and hindgut fermentation in pigs, as conventional in vivo trials are resource-intensive and raise animal welfare concerns. This study evaluated and compared the predictive performance of three in vitro digestion [...] Read more.
Accurate and physiologically relevant in vitro models are needed to predict nutrient digestibility and hindgut fermentation in pigs, as conventional in vivo trials are resource-intensive and raise animal welfare concerns. This study evaluated and compared the predictive performance of three in vitro digestion approaches—shaking (S), dialysis (D), and a combined shaking plus dialysis (SD) method—for estimating in vivo apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) and fermentation characteristics across weaning, growing, and finishing pigs. Commercial diets were subjected to simulated gastric and small-intestinal digestion using S, D, or SD, followed by fecal inoculation to model hindgut fermentation for 12 and 48 h. During the gastrointestinal phase, crude protein digestibility was highest with D (>75%), intermediate with SD, and lowest with S (50–60%), indicating that product removal by dialysis mitigated enzyme inhibition from metabolite accumulation. After 48 h of fermentation, all methods showed strong linear correlations with in vivo ATTD (r > 0.93), but only D achieved high absolute agreement (Lin’s CCC > 0.95 for dry matter and crude protein). Moreover, D and SD at 48 h closely reflected in vivo fecal profiles of skatole, indole, and microbial enzyme activities, with D at 12 h showing an especially strong correlation for protease (r = 0.98). While D provided the most precise predictions of absolute values, the SD method offered an optimal balance between physiological relevance and operational efficiency, supporting its use as a robust, high-throughput platform for porcine feed evaluation and fecal nitrogenous odorant prediction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Farm Animal Feed and Nutrition)
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