Evidence-Based Rabbit Housing and Nutrition.

Because most research on rabbit husbandry, welfare, and nutrition was performed on production animals, evidence for best practices in pet rabbits is scarce, and guidelines must be based on transfer of results, deduction, and common sense. Rabbits benefit from being kept with at least one conspecific; from large enclosures and multistory hutches; from drinking water offered ad libitum in open dish drinker systems; and from receiving hay ad libitum, with restricted amounts of fresh grass, herbs, or green leafy vegetables, and a high-fiber complete diet. Offering hay ad libitum bears several advantages and should be considered a matter of course.

[Nutrition consultation in small animal practice - a field for specialized veterinarians]. / Ernährungsberatung in der Kleintierpraxis - ein Arbeitsfeld für spezialisierte Tierärzte.

OBJECTIVE AND AIM: The study aimed to identify barriers to the implementation of nutrition consultation in veterinary practice. Differences between individual veterinarians in their problem-solving strategies in nutrition consultation were investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Representative online survey of 214 veterinarians (female/male) using a standardized questionnaire. Statistical analysis by correlations, t-test, analysis of variance and factor analysis as well as cluster analysis of types of veterinarians. RESULTS: Over 90% of vets had seen an increase in owners' questions on feeding pets. Forty-one percent estimated the percentage of patients suffering from nutrition-related diseases in their practice to be 20-30%. At the same time, 70% of vets agreed that nutrition consultation was neglected in every-day practice. Vets estimated that only 30% of owners complied with recommendations on nutrition. Over 80% of vets presumed that pet owners gave false information on feeding. For other sensitive questions, including domestic and financial situations, the percentage of presumed false information was below 60%. Approximately 50% of the vets did not feel sufficiently competent with regard to nutrition consultation. Less than 50% asked for payment of nutrition consultation. Only 18% had taken part in continuing education in animal nutrition. The cluster analysis identified five different strategies to cope with nutrition consultation, four of which were based on a low priority for nutrition in their own practice. Some vets referred nutrition problems to specialized colleagues (7.2%), others consulted with representatives of pet food companies (28.2%), another group offered free, quick tips (23.4%), and a small percentage ignored nutrition (13.4%). There was one group with a strong interest in nutrition (27.8%). It is remarkable that this group felt the least competent in small-animal nutrition. Conclusion and practical relevance: The study demonstrates that sound nutrition consultation in small-animal practice requires a high degree of specialization. In addition, special coping strategies to obtain a sound nutrition history and a fair payment are necessary. Vets fulfilling these conditions may find a wide field of work.

COMPANION ANIMALS SYMPOSIUM: Rendered ingredients significantly influence sustainability, quality, and safety of pet food.

The rendering industry collects and safely processes approximately 25 million t of animal byproducts each year in the United States. Rendering plants process a variety of raw materials from food animal production, principally offal from slaughterhouses, but include whole animals that die on farms or in transit and other materials such as bone, feathers, and blood. By recycling these byproducts into various protein, fat, and mineral products, including meat and bone meal, hydrolyzed feather meal, blood meal, and various types of animal fats and greases, the sustainability of food animal production is greatly enhanced. The rendering industry is conscious of its role in the prevention of disease and microbiological control and providing safe feed ingredients for livestock, poultry, aquaculture, and pets. The processing of otherwise low-value OM from the livestock production and meat processing industries through rendering drastically reduces the amount of waste. If not rendered, biological materials would be deposited in landfills, burned, buried, or inappropriately dumped with large amounts of carbon dioxide, ammonia, and other compounds polluting air and water. The majority of rendered protein products are used as animal feed. Rendered products are especially valuable to the livestock and pet food industries because of their high protein content, digestible AA levels (especially lysine), mineral availability (especially calcium and phosphorous), and relatively low cost in relation to their nutrient value. The use of these reclaimed and recycled materials in pet food is a much more sustainable model than using human food for pets.

Digestibility, fecal characteristics, and plasma glucose and urea in dogs fed a commercial dog food once or three times daily.

Digestibility, fecal characteristics, and levels of glucose and urea in the plasma were determined in 8 dogs that received 2 different dog foods once or 3 times daily. One dog food (A) was 5 times more expensive than the other (B). Fecal pH and consistency, digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), and crude fiber (CF) were determined. Blood samples were taken from 30 min before to 60 min after a meal. Digestibilities of DM, OM, and CP, and fecal consistency were higher, and daily fecal excretion and fecal pH were lower when dogs were fed food A (P < 0.001). The feeding schedule had no effect on plasma glucose and urea. Neither feeding X frequency nor food 3 frequency interactions was significant for the parameters studied.

Open- and closed-formula laboratory animal diets and their importance to research.

Almost 40 y ago the scientific community was taking actions to control environmental factors that contribute to variation in the responses of laboratory animals to scientific manipulation. Laboratory animal diet was recognized as an important variable. During the 1970s, the American Institute of Nutrition, National Academy of Science, Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, and Laboratory Animals Centre Diets Advisory Committee supported the use of 'standard reference diets' in biomedical research as a means to improve the ability to replicate research. As a result the AIN76 purified diet was formulated. During this same time, the laboratory animal nutritionist at the NIH was formulating open-formula, natural-ingredient diets to meet the need for standardized laboratory animal diets. Since the development of open-formula diets, fixed-formula and constant-nutrient-concentration closed-formula laboratory animal natural ingredient diets have been introduced to help reduce the potential variation diet can cause in research.

ASAS centennial paper: Landmark discoveries in swine nutrition in the past century.

During this centennial year of the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS), it is of interest to look back over the history of our Society and, in particular, to the many contributions made by researchers in the area of swine nutrition. A great number of basic and applied research studies involving the nutrition of weanling, growing, and finishing pigs, and gestating and lactating sows have been conducted by swine nutritionists during the past 100 yr. Most of these studies were conducted at universities by animal scientists or by the graduate students under their leadership. Others were conducted by nutritionists in the feed and pharmaceutical industries and government scientists at ARS/USDA research centers. Contributions were also made by animal scientists beyond our borders. Much of the research was published in the Journal of Animal Science during its 66 yr of existence. Before the first issue of the journal was published in 1942, some of the earlier studies were reported in the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Society of Animal Production, the forerunner of ASAS. These research studies have progressively led to a better understanding of the role and utilization of dietary energy, protein, AA, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and vitamins by pigs and have helped to quantify the nutrient requirements of pigs for various stages of growth, for sows during gestation and lactation, and to a limited extent, for boars. Determining the nutritional value of a wide array of feedstuffs, evaluating feeding strategies, and assessing the value of growth-promoting and carcass-enhancing agents have been important research contributions as well. To identify the particular studies that were among the most instrumental in contributing to our present knowledge of swine nutrition is, to say the least, a daunting assignment. To aid in this task, a survey of swine nutritionists was conducted in which they were asked to identify and rank the 10 most significant findings in swine nutrition during the past 100 yr. The results of that survey are presented in this paper.