Nutritional and Management Approaches to Enhance Growth, Health, and Immunity in Beef Calves
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Cattle".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2026 | Viewed by 137
Special Issue Editors
Interests: beef cattle; physiology; welfare
Interests: ruminant; production; physiology
Interests: beef cattle; production; physiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The pre- and post-weaning phases are critical periods in beef production systems that profoundly influence calf health, growth performance, and long-term productivity. Nutritional interventions and management practices during these stages can mitigate stress, enhance immune competence, and improve overall efficiency and sustainability. This Special Issue aims to gather relevant research addressing innovative strategies to optimize calf development and resilience under diverse production environments.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Nutritional approaches to support growth and immune function during pre- and post-weaning;
- Use of feed additives, functional ingredients, and alternative forages systems to improve calf growth performance and health;
- Management strategies to reduce stress during weaning and transition periods;
- Interactions between nutrition, immunity, and metabolic biomarkers in beef calves;
- Sustainable practices to enhance performance and welfare in cow–calf and backgrounding sys-tems;
- Precision livestock farming or omics technologies applicable during the pre- and post-weaning phases of beef calves.
This Special Issue welcomes original research articles that advance knowledge and provide practical solutions for improving calf health and productivity in modern beef production systems.
Dr. Luciana Navajas Rennó
Dr. Cristina Mattos Veloso
Dr. Matheus Fellipe de Lana Ferreira
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. 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
- Heifer
- post-weaning
- pre-weaning
- steer
- weaning
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