Feeding and management strategies to improve livestock productivity, welfare and product quality under climate change
Options méditerranéennes SERIES A : Mediterranean seminars Series, Vol. 107

Most of world’s rural population depend on livestock for their livelihood, especially in the Mediterranean, African and many Asian countries. To reduce poverty, fight hunger and ensure global food security, there is an urgent need to increase livestock production in sustainable ways. However, livestock production systems in those areas are constrained mainly by low genetic potential, feed shortage, nutrient deficiency, inappropriate husbandry, and zoonotic and other emerging infectious diseases. Climate change is also expected to exacerbate the vulnerability of livestock systems and to reinforce existing factors that simultaneously challenge livestock production such as rapid population and economic growth, increased demand for food and products, and increased conflicts over scarce resources (e.g. land, water, and feed). Scientific advances in animal nutrition and new strategies in livestock feeding may undoubtedly contribute to this aim, as nutrition is one of the main factors driving the functioning, efficacy, efficiency and evolution of livestock systems. This volume presents 42 articles selected among the contributions to the 14th Seminar of the FAO-CIHEAM Sub-Network on Sheep and Goat Nutrition, organised by The National Institute of Agricultural Research of Tunisia (INRAT) and the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza (IAMZ-CIHEAM) in Hammamet (Tunisia) in June 2012. The Seminar provided the opportunity to present and discuss scientific advances and approaches in animal nutrition and feeding sciences, covering the topics of nutritional efficiency, use of local feeding resources, rumen manipulation, animal welfare, products quality, and proposing potential alternatives for coping with climate change and mitigation its effects on the farming systems.