Animal Nutrition: Essential Nutrients, Feeding Strategies, and Dietary Deficiencies

What are the three main categories of animals based on their diet?

Herbivores (eat plants/algae), Carnivores (eat other animals), Omnivores (consume both plants and animals).

What are the three main requirements of an animal's diet?

Chemical energy for cellular processes, organic building blocks for macromolecules, and essential nutrients.

What are essential nutrients?

Materials that an animal cannot synthesize from simpler organic molecules and must obtain from their diet.

What are the four classes of essential nutrients?

Essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals.

How many amino acids do animals require and how many can they synthesize?

Animals require 20 amino acids and can synthesize about half from dietary molecules.

What are complete proteins and where can they be found?

Complete proteins provide all essential amino acids and are found in meat, eggs, and cheese.

What are essential fatty acids?

Fatty acids that must be obtained from the diet, including certain unsaturated fatty acids.

What are vitamins and how many are essential for humans?

Organic molecules required in small amounts; thirteen vitamins are essential for humans.

What are minerals in the context of nutrition?

Simple inorganic nutrients usually required in small amounts, with excessive intake potentially disrupting homeostasis.

What is malnutrition?

A failure to obtain adequate nutrition, which can negatively impact health and survival.

What can deficiencies in essential nutrients cause?

Deformities, disease, and death.

What is undernourishment?

A condition resulting from a diet that does not provide enough chemical energy.

What are the consequences of undernourishment?

Use of stored fat and carbohydrates, breakdown of proteins, loss of muscle mass, and potential brain damage.

What is epidemiology in the context of nutrition?

The study of human health and disease in populations that has provided insights into nutritional needs.

What are the four stages of food processing in animals?

Ingestion, digestion, absorption, and elimination.

What is ingestion?

The act of eating or feeding.

What is digestion?

The process of breaking food down into molecules small enough to absorb.

What is absorption in the context of nutrition?

The uptake of small molecules by body cells.

What is elimination in the digestive process?

The passage of undigested material out of the digestive system.

What are filter feeders?

Aquatic animals that sift small food particles from the water.

What are substrate feeders?

Animals that live in or on their food source.

What are fluid feeders?

Animals that suck nutrient-rich fluid from a living host.

What are bulk feeders?

Animals that eat relatively large pieces of food.