Advances in Nutrition and Bovine Disease

Abstract

The relationship between nutrition and livestock production has been recognized for centuries. Gradually, more specific disease syndromes were associated with specific feeding practices (eg. grass staggers in early pasture, alkali disease in arid climates). However, only in the last 60 to 70 years has animal agriculture attained an understanding of the nutritional mechanisms that contribute to the pathogenesis of many disease syndromes. In particular, we have recognized the diseases resulting from dietary deficiencies and excesses. Nonetheless, as the need for production efficiency in animal agriculture increases, and the reliance on chemical methods to enhance disease resistance decreases, progress in the understanding of nutritional disease relationships will need to integrate complex mechanisms of metabolism, pathophysiology, and toxicology. It is the purpose of this paper to outline selected topics that epitomize the complex role of nutrition in bovine metabolic and infectious disease.