Since in-feed antibiotics (IFAs) are being taken out of broiler diets around the world, beginning in Sweden in the year 1986, the search for alternatives to replace IFAs has gained increasing interest in animal nutrition. Gut microflora appears to be the target for IFAs and alternatives to exert health benefits and some growth-promoting effects. In this review the effect of six kinds of alternatives to IFAs on gut microflora is discussed and their working mechanisms and growth-promoting effects are reviewed.

Producing beef for the table has a surprising environmental cost: it releases prodigious amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

Published: January 14, 2008

GUNNISON, Colo. (AP)

Chinese regulators said over the weekend that they had confiscated and destroyed more than 3,600 tons of animal feed tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical that has been blamed for contaminating food supplies in China and for leading to global recalls of Chinese dairy products.

Livestock sector plays a significant role in the rural economy of India. It contributes about 5 per cent of the total gross domestic product (GDP) and one-fourth of the agricultural GDP. The sector is unique in terms of employment opportunities as two-thirds of female workforce in rural India is engaged in livestock rearing.

Poultry and starch industries

in the face of looming global food crisis, the Maharashtra government has decided to dispose of over 30,000 tonnes of imported red wheat saying that much of it is unfit for consumption. The

Nuevo Laredo: Elderly foreign tourists are tapping Mexican pet shops for a drug used by veterinarians to put cats and dogs to sleep that has become the sedative of choice for euthanasia campaigners. Tourists from as far as Australia have travelled to Mexico to buy liquid pentobarbital, which causes a painless death in humans in less than an hour, right-to-die advocates say.

India carries a huge livestock population. Small ruminants, namely, goats and sheep, play a vital role in securing the livelihood of small and marginal farmers and landless labourers. Such animals should not be blamed for the ecological degradation, soil erosion and desertification caused by human activities.

Stray cows in adjoining Sidhwan Khas air shelling range of the Indian Air Force (IAF) have been dying unnatural deaths. Villagers and IAF personnel on duty in the range, confirm the death of five cows a week. A visit to the range reveals several cows having been reduced to skeletons. Cows, chewing grass thrown inside the range boundary by concerned people from villages around, can be seen looking for meagre green with their snouts. "We often see stray dogs feasting on weak stray cattle and calves," Jagdev Singh, a farmer from Janetpura village said.

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