Sustainable Animal Agriculture

In order to meet increasing global demand for meat and animal by-products increasingly intensive animal production is necessary. Creating a sustainable system in animal agriculture that works in different production environments is a major challenge for animal scientists. This book draws together themes on sustainability that have emerged as the most pressing in recent years. Addressing practical topics such as air quality, manure management, animal feeds, production efficiency, environmental sustainability, biotechnology issues, animal welfare concerns, societal impacts and an analysis of the data used to assess the economic sustainability of farms.

1. Sustainability: A Wicked Problem

2. Production Efficiency of Ruminants: Feed, Nitrogen and Methane

3. Production Efficiency of Monogastric Animals

4. Animal Welfare: An Integral Component of Sustainability

5. Genetics and Sustainable Animal Agriculture

6. Minimizing Environmental Impacts of Livestock Production Using Diet Optimization Models

7. Sustainable Manure Management

8. Water-related issues in sustainability: Nitrogen and phosphorus management

9. Air quality issues in sustainability: Greenhouse gases and volatile organic compounds

10. Integration of Air and Water Quality Issues

11. The Environmental Sustainability of Food Production

12. Economic Sustainability in Animal Agriculture

13. Achieving Social Sustainability in Animal Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities to Reconcile Multiple Sustainability Goals

14. Life-cycle Assessment in Ruminant Production

15. Quantitative Measurements of Ammonia and Methane Loss from Livestock

16. Manipulation of Microbial Ecology for Sustainable Animal Production

17. Emerging contaminants in livestock manure: Hormones, antibiotics, and antibiotic resistance genes

18. Animal Agriculture: How Can It Be Sustainable in the Future?