Recently, a renewed edition of the famous ruminant digestion textbook ‘Quantitative Aspects of Ruminant Digestion and Metabolism’ has been published. Wageningen researcher Jan Dijkstra (Animal Nutrition Group) is senior editor. The book is aimed at advanced students and research workers in animal nutrition. It brings together quantitative approaches, concerned with elucidating mechanisms, used in the study of ruminant digestion, metabolism and related areas. The first edition was received with enthusiasm.
The first edition of the book provided a comprehensive review of the digestion and metabolism of ruminant animals. Since its publication in 1993, much new research has been conducted in the subject and knowledge has increased. The results are incorporated in this second edition through the addition of five completely new chapters. These cover the gas production technique in feed evaluation, calorimetry, the relationship between pasture characteristics and animal performance, feed processing, and the integration of data in feed evaluation systems. Other chapters have been fully expanded and updated as appropriate and Dr Dijkstra has also been enrolled as the lead editor. This book brings together quantitative approaches used in the study of mechanisms of ruminant digestion and metabolism.
Ruminant animals account for almost all of the milk and about one third of the meat consumed worldwide. They have evolved a set of stomachs harbouring micro-organisms which are capable of digesting fibrous materials, such as cellulose, in plants. Therefore a great deal of research has been conducted on the digestive system of ruminants and the metabolism of products of digestion. As qualitative knowledge increased, it became possible to develop quantitative approaches, initially using complex statistical analyses but more recently by constructing mechanistic mathematical models. The expansion of quantitative research is essential as world human food supply relies increasingly on production of high-quality food from low-quality resources.
This book describes the latest knowledge in quantitative aspects of digestion and metabolism in ruminants. This new edition of a highly successful text has been thoroughly revised and expanded. The editors have retained chapters imparting strength to the first version by extensive updating and have introduced chapters on new topics. The book is thematically structured and includes chapters with quantitative applications and perspectives to a wide range of ruminant nutrition hierarchies, from molecular to herd level.
The book is a an co-editorial product of J.M. Forbes of the University of Leeds, UK, J. France of the University of Guelph, Canada and Jan Dijkstra of Wageningen University. Publisher is CABI Publishing, Wallingford, United Kingdom. The 2nd edition of Quantitative Aspects of Ruminant Digestion and Metabolism contains 736 pages; the price is £125.00 or $240.00.