Ruminal acidosis can be prevented by controlling the ph in the rumen of cows. Meal frequency appears to be an important factor in regulating rumen ph. A recent study showed that supplementation of live yeast significantly increases the frequency of feed consumption and therefore helps in preventing acidosis.

Knowing what an animal needs is one thing, but predicting how it will respond to the nutrients in the diet is far more difficult. This area has long been recognised as an unresolved issue in nutritional science, and it was also a focus area at the latest bsas conference. Feed mix was there and highlights some of the challenges still to be faced.

The concept of feeding sugars to dairy cows to improve milk production is becoming more popular. According to the company Al Khaleei Sugar in Dubai using 'sugar syrup', a sugar byproduct, is preferable to using molasses. George john even suggests that this syrup could be the best source of energy for dairy cows.

The concentration of indigestible protein in the intestinal tract is an important predisposing factor for the occurrence of post weaning diarrhoea. By increasing the viscosity of the feed, the bowel stays longer in the digestive system, giving the enzymes more time to break down the proteins. Jan Ledderus, Jeannette Kluess and Paul Bikker from Schothorst Feed Research confirmed this hypothesis.

It is well established that the birth weight of a piglet is one of the most important factors in determining its growth rate and chance of survival. A little extra effort in the form of attention and nutritional care can alleviate the disadvantage of being born small or late, explains Jens Villadsen.

How do you reconcile the high performance required of broiler breeder hens and their offspring with high welfare standards without resorting to severe feed restriction? Sara Mellor highlights the results of five European partners' work pooled into a single resource.

Delivering low doses of biologically active ingredients in the right place at the right time takes an expert knowledge of process chemistry. Sarah Mellor visited Soda Feed Ingredients' production plant in Italy, where delivery systems are custom made to get the best out of the products.

Today's high yielding cow is commonly accepted to be less fertile and more susceptible to metabolic and infectious disease than her ancestors. It is important that we look at the logic and fact behind this, says John Newbold and reflect on some of the evidence that highlights the role of nutrition in improving these vital management factors.

The conversion factors for biological activity of natural vitamin E seriously underestimates its true biological value. Yueming Dersjant-Li and Manfred Peisker review the large body of evidence that natural vitamin E has at least twic that of the synthetic forms in many different species.

The idea of taking into account parameters such as the costs and benefits of a natural biological activator (live yeast) in formulation models is fairly new and sounds an exciting concept; as more research centres and companies follow suit, a new generation of models and formulation tools is emerging...