Dairy Animal Nutrition and Welfare

This section is intended to be a platform for scientific communication and to provide and spread current knowledge about nutrition and welfare of dairy animals. Understanding animal welfare as an interplay between physical and mental well-being requires feeding strategies that meet the needs both for nutrients and feeding behavior of the animals kept in various production systems. In addition to feeding behavior, there are many more links between welfare and nutrition that require further investigation, aiming to improvement of welfare in general. These aspects concern all stages of life for dairy animals, including suckling and rearing animals. Consequently, nutrition, feeding, and welfare of rearing dairy animals might largely affect their later life, including milking performance and health status.

Thus, the focus of this section lies on all areas of nutrition and feeding, as well as on welfare of all types of dairy animals, including large and small ruminants, Camelidae and Equidae. Manuscripts on all dairy animal categories are welcome.

Keywords

• feeding methods
• production systems and welfare issues
• welfare and nutrition
• nutritional physiology and metabolism