Animal Nutrition, Feeds, and Feed Analysis Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering animal nutrition principles, mineral and vitamin deficiencies, proximate feed analysis, Van Soest fiber testing, energy utilization systems, and feed tag regulations based on the lecture series.

Six Essential Nutrients

The six fundamental nutrients required by all animals: water, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and proteins.

Energy-Yielding Nutrients

The three nutrient classes that can be metabolized by the body to produce energy: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Copper Deficiency

A condition in livestock causing anemia and reproductive losses such as failure to settle or maintain pregnancy, with high toxicity sensitivity in sheep.

White Muscle Disease

A nutritional muscular dystrophy condition in small ruminants (especially baby lambs) caused by a synergistic deficiency of selenium and vitamin E.

Parakeratosis

A skin condition characterized by flaking and breaking skin, resulting from a deficiency in zinc.

Fat-Soluble Vitamins

Vitamins A, D, E, and K, which require dietary lipids for transport and metabolism, and are stored within body fat tissue.

Water-Soluble Vitamins

Vitamin C and the group of B vitamins, which are not readily stored in the body and have excess amounts excreted through urine.

Vitamin A

A required fat-soluble vitamin primarily responsible for eye health and vision, maintenance of epithelial cells, and bone growth.

Vitamin D

Known as the sunshine vitamin, it is synthesized via UV exposure and regulates calcium metabolism and absorption to prevent abnormal bone growth similar to rickets.

Vitamin K

A fat-soluble vitamin essential for blood clotting, synthesized by gut microbes in ruminants and avians, and antagonized by warfarin-based rat poison.

Scurvy

A vitamin C deficiency disease historically common among sailors lacking access to fresh citrus fruits like limes.

Pellagra

A specific nutritional deficiency disease caused by a lack of niacin in the diet.

Beriberi

A severe nutritional disorder resulting from a deficiency in thiamine (vitamin $B_1$).

Goiter

An enlargement of the thyroid gland caused by an iodine deficiency, largely mitigated today by iodized salt.

Proximate Analysis (Weende System)

A set of wet chemistry procedures developed over $100$ years ago in Germany to measure the crude nutrient composition of feedstuffs.

Kjeldahl Procedure

A lab procedure that measures total nitrogen content in a feed sample to estimate crude protein content.

Crude Protein Conversion Factor ($6.25$)

The standard factor derived from protein containing $16\%$ nitrogen ($\frac{100}{16} = 6.25$), multiplied by percent nitrogen to calculate percent crude protein.

Ether Extract

The component of proximate analysis that determines fat, lipid, and oil content by extracting the sample in organic ether.

Ash

The inorganic mineral residue remaining after combusting a feed sample at $600\,^\circ\text{C}$ in a muffle furnace.

Nitrogen-Free Extract (NFE)

The soluble carbohydrate portion (sugars and starches) in proximate analysis, calculated by subtracting crude protein, fat, crude fiber, ash, and water from the total sample.

Van Soest Method

A forage fiber evaluation method that categorizes structural plant carbohydrates into Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) and Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF).

Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF)

The structural plant fiber fraction containing hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin, which inversely predicts feed intake.

Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF)

The structural plant fiber residue containing cellulose and lignin left after acid detergent boiling, which inversely predicts forage digestibility.

Lignin

An essentially indigestible component of plant cell walls used as a natural marker to track passage rate and digestibility in ruminants.

Bomb Calorimeter

A laboratory instrument used to combust a feed sample to determine gross energy by measuring total heat output.

Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN)

A crude energy value calculated by adding digestible crude protein, digestible crude fiber, digestible NFE, and digestible fat.

Net Energy

The energy remaining for body maintenance and production after deducting energy losses in feces, urine, combustible gas, and heat increment.

Inorganic Minerals

Mineral supplements bound to inorganic compounds like sulfates or oxides, such as copper sulfate and zinc oxide.

Organic Minerals

Mineral supplements bound to organic molecules like amino acids or proteinates, such as copper lysine or zinc methionine.

Milk Fever

A condition in high-yielding dairy cows caused by severe systemic calcium depletion during early lactation, leading to paralysis and downer cows.

Dicalcium Phosphate

A common feed-grade mineral supplement providing both calcium and phosphorus.

Grass Tetany

A metabolic disorder characterized by hyperirritability and convulsions, caused by a magnesium deficiency when livestock graze lush spring pastures.

Pica

An abnormal depraved appetite where animals chew or consume bones and deer antlers due to a mineral deficiency, usually phosphorus.

Energy Density of Fat

Fat yields $9.45\,\text{kcal/g}$, making it $2.25$ times more energy dense than carbohydrates and proteins, which yield $4.2\,\text{kcal/g}$.

Guaranteed Analysis

The required section on feed labels that guarantees minimum levels of crude protein and crude fat, and maximum levels of crude fiber.