Table of Contents

-: Foreword 1: General Principles of Designing a Nutrition Experiment 1.1: Introduction 1.2: Nutrient Requirements Research 1.2.1: Environment 1.2.2: Cage versus pen and stocking density 1.2.3: Feed and water form and quality 1.2.4: Energy – amino acids, carbohydrates and fat 1.2.5: Fibre 1.2.6: Other nutrients 1.2.7: Age 1.2.8: Breed and sex 1.2.9: Disease status 1.3: Ingredient Nutrient Contents Research 1.3.1: Cereals 1.3.2: Oilseed meals 1.3.3: Fats 1.3.4: Vitamins and minerals 1.3.5: Additives 1.3.6: Digestibility studies 1.4: Summary 2: Most Common Designs and Understanding Their Limits 2.1: Introduction 2.2: What is the Goal of Simple Research Trials? 2.3: Typical Interpretations of Response Data 2.4: Choosing an Adequate (or the Best) Model to Use 2.5: How Much of a Good Thing is Too Much? 2.6: Variation in Bird Growth and Morphology 2.7: The Choice of an Experimental Unit 2.8: Experimental Power 2.9: More Complex Designs for More Complex Questions 2.10: Summary 3: Practical Relevance of Test Diets 3.1: Introduction 3.2: Commercially Relevant Animal Performance 3.2.1: Indices for measuring animal performance 3.2.2: Presentation of animal performance results 3.3: Feed Formulation 3.3.1: Nutritional considerations for feed formulation 3.3.2: Health considerations for feed formulation 3.3.3: Processing considerations for feed formulation 3.4: Summary 4: Characterization of the Experimental Diets 4.1: Introduction 4.2: Designing Diets: the Semi-synthetic Conundrum? 4.2.1: Sugars and starch 4.2.2: Fibres 4.2.3: Non-feed ingredients and phytate 4.3: Designing Diets: Describing Test Ingredients and an Appropriate Basal Diet 4.3.1: Trial design to compare one additive with a control 4.3.2: Trial design to compare two different additive products 4.4: Summary 5: Measurements of Nutrients and Nutritive Value 5.1: Introduction 5.2: In Vitro Measurements 5.2.1: Proximate analyses 5.2.2: Fibre and carbohydrates in feed 5.2.3: Summary 5.3: Determining Nutritive Value of Ingredients 5.3.1: In vivo experiments 5.3.2: Determining the digestibility of specific nutrients 5.3.3: Indirect measurements of digestibility 5.3.4: Summary 6: Designing, Conducting and Reporting Swine and Poultry Nutrition Research 6.1: Introduction 6.2: Planning the Experiment 6.2.1: Defining objectives 6.2.2: Written protocol 6.2.3: Review of facility capabilities 6.2.4: Statistical plan 6.2.5: Animal care standards and pig management 6.2.6: Data integrity 6.3: Interpreting Experimental Outcomes 6.4: The Experiment Report 6.4.1: Introduction 6.4.2: Materials and methods 6.4.3: Results 6.4.4: Discussion 6.4.5: Conclusions 6.4.6: Literature cited 6.5: Summary 7: Extending the Value of the Literature: Data Requirements for Holo-analysis and Interpretation of the Outputs 7.1: Introduction 7.2: Holo-analysis – Minimum Requirements 7.2.1: Considerations in use of data for holo-analysis 7.2.2: What makes a good model? 7.2.3: Model types 7.2.4: Modelling considerations 7.2.5: Outputs and interpretation 8: Presentation and Publication of Your Data 8.1: Publication Is Not the End of Your Research 8.2: Scientific Style – a Myth Laid Bare 8.3: Telling a Scientific Story 8.4: Structuring the Scientific Story 8.4.1: The Title 8.4.2: The Introduction 8.4.3: The Materials and Methods 8.4.4: The Results 8.4.5: The Discussion 8.4.6: The Summary 8.5: Scientific and Political Correctness 8.6: Which Journal Is Best for My Article? 8.7: Scientific Publication in the Future 8.8: Will New Forms of Publication Change the Way We Write?

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Suitable for researchers in animal science, veterinary science, biomedical science, the feed industry, poultry and pigs.

About the Author

Helen Masey O'Neill (Edited By)
Helen, known as Nell, graduated from the University of Nottingham with a BSc in Nutritional Biochemistry before going on to do her PhD, researching the influence of storage and temperature treatment on nutritional value of wheat for broilers. She progressed to postdoctoral research along with undergraduate teaching in equine science and animal nutrition at Hartpury College and later the University of Nottingham. This included supervising undergraduate and postgraduate projects which lead to her gaining accreditation with the Higher Education Academy in 2010. Teaching commitments continued into 2010-11. Nell's postdoctoral research at Nottingham included involvement in two DEFRA Link funded projects in feedstuff evaluation for pigs and poultry. Nell joined AB Vista in June 2010 as Research Manager where she is involved in managing research and development and regulatory trials for various AB Vista products.