Zinc is an essential micromineral for pigs, playing a critical role in various physiological reactions. Although multiple nutritional guides provide recommendations for dietary zinc, the swine industry commonly uses higher dietary zinc levels to improve growth performance in post-weaning diets, a practice that has been increasingly questioned in multiple countries.

Water is a vital nutrient for beef cattle, but we still lack accurate tools to predict how much water an individual animal needs each day. This matters because cattle are raised in a wide range of climates, and water availability is becoming less predictable with climate change.

Meeting the growing global demand for animal protein requires improving livestock productivity. However, diets designed to increase cattle performance can sometimes upset normal digestion and create environmental challenges. This study evaluated feed additives, including buffering agents and plant extracts (tannins and saponins), as tools to improve nutrient use and reduce digestive disturbances in cattle.

Zinc is an essential mineral added to livestock diets to support growth and efficient nutrient use. This study compared a novel zinc oxide product with zinc sulfate, a commonly used zinc supplement, to evaluate how effectively each source would be utilized by wethers.

Determining the available energy content of feed for animals is critical; however, in vivo methods are time-consuming, costly, and technically complex. This study evaluated an automated computer-controlled simulated digestion system (CCSDS), designed to simulate the digestive processes of growing pigs under laboratory conditions. The system was used to analyze 20 common pig feed ingredients.

The nutrition of sows during late pregnancy and lactation can influence the gut microbiota colonization of their piglets, which is important for their future growth performance. This study examined whether supplementing short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (scFOS), a prebiotic fiber, in the diet of sows during the last weeks of gestation and the lactation period could improve the quality of the milk and support the growth of their piglet.

During the transition from milk to solid feed, the digestive system of young pigs is not yet fully developed. At this stage, the provision of highly digestible protein sources is critical, as inadequate protein digestion can disturb gastrointestinal function. Eggs contain high-quality protein, but raw eggs contain natural trypsin inhibitors that interfere with protein digestion.

On April 23rd, USDA announced the restructuring of the Research, Education and Economic Mission Area. The Mission Area is home to the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Economic Research Service (ERS), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

Taking Stock - Special Edition, Foundation Week
May 22, 2026

The global livestock and poultry farming systems are navigating an unprecedented paradigm shift. Faced with the compounding pressures of rising global protein demand, climate change, labor shortages, and increasing societal scrutiny regarding animal welfare, the agricultural sector is rapidly turning to digital solutions.

Animal husbandry is currently undergoing an unprecedented structural transformation, driven by the growing adoption of advanced digital technologies and, in particular, artificial intelligence (AI). The urgency of tackling global challenges—such as environmental sustainability, animal welfare, economic competitiveness, and food security—requires a profound revision of traditional management models, making it necessary to take a major leap in the collection, analysis, and use of data.

Precision livestock farming (PLF) is undergoing a profound transformation, with its core driver shifting from traditional data collection to intelligent decision-support systems powered by artificial intelligence (AI). While early-stage PLF relied on simple sensors for discrete tasks like estrus detection, rapid advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT), sensor technology, and computing power now enable modern systems to gather vast, multidimensional data covering animal behavior, physiology, and their micro-environment (Alexy & Haidegger, 2022; Kaur et al., 2023).

Animal science is at a critical juncture, faced with the challenge of providing sustainable nutrition for a growing global population. Against this backdrop, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful transformative force, offering the potential to enhance efficiency, improve animal welfare, and reduce environmental footprints (Distante et al., 2025).

Health management of livestock and poultry production is critical for ensuring food safety, animal welfare, and production sustainability. Farm scales expanded rapidly in China over the last two decades. As such, the prevention and control of animal diseases have become increasingly complex.

Animal science has become a data-rich field, particularly within the area of animal breeding and genetics, where millions of phenotyped and genotyped animals are now available across livestock species databases. Genomic selection is now routinely used for genetic evaluations in many livestock species. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a major focus in recent years, appearing in nearly every aspect of our daily lives.

Taking Stock - Special Edition, Foundation Week
May 20, 2026

Taking Stock - Special Edition, Foundation Week
May 19, 2026

Taking Stock - Special Edition, Foundation Week
May 18, 2026

Mammalian stress hormones influence the composition and activity of bacteria, which may be important to ruminants such as cattle that rely on these microorganisms for nutrient digestion. Therefore, two experiments were completed to determine if stress hormones such as cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine impact fermentation and digestion characteristics of rumen microbes in an in vitro system.

Death loss associated with bovine respiratory disease (BRD) has continued to rise in recent decades, and as such, new approaches should be sought to mitigate BRD. Research suggests that the predisposing factors of gut barrier dysfunction (GBD) are like BRD in that they can both be triggered and aggravated by stress events, thus, they may occur simultaneously.