Journal of Fisheries & Livestock Production
Open Access

A good range of other species like horse, water ox, llama, rabbit and guinea pig are used as livestock in some parts of the planet. Insect farming, also as aquaculture of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans, is widespread. Modern farming relies on production systems adapted to the sort of land available. farming is being superseded by intensive animal farming within the more developed parts of the planet, where for instance beef are kept in high density feedlots, and thousands of chickens could also be raised in broiler houses or batteries. On poorer soil like in uplands, animals are often kept more extensively, and should be allowed to roam widely, foraging for themselves. Most livestock are herbivores, apart from pigs and chickens which are omnivores. Ruminants like cattle and sheep are adapted to prey on grass; they will forage outdoors, or could also be fed entirely or partially on rations richer in energy and protein, like pelleted cereals. Pigs and poultry cannot digest the cellulose in forage, and need other high-protein foods. Part of the animal–industrial complex, animal agriculture, which kills quite 60 billion non-human land animals per annum , is liable for global climate change, ocean acidification, and biodiversity loss, ultimately resulting in the Holocene extinction.

Animal health

Good husbandry, proper feeding, and hygiene are the most contributors to animal health on the farm, bringing economic benefits through maximised production. When, despite these precautions, animals still become sick, they’re treated with veterinary medicines, by the farmer and therefore the veterinarian within the European Union, when farmers treat their own animals, they’re required to follow the rules for treatment and to record the treatments given. Animals are vulnerable to variety of diseases and conditions which will affect their health. Some, like classical swine fever and scrapie are specific to at least one sort of stock, while others, like hoof-and-mouth disease affect all cloven-hoofed animals. Animals living under intensive conditions are susceptible to internal and external parasites; increasing numbers of sea lice are affecting farmed salmon in Scotland. Reducing the parasite burdens of livestock leads to increased productivity and profitability.

Where the condition is serious, governments impose regulations on import and export, on the movement of stock, quarantine restrictions and therefore the reporting of suspected cases. Vaccines are available against certain diseases, and antibiotics are widely used where appropriate. At just one occasion, antibiotics were routinely added to certain compound foodstuffs to market growth, but this practice is now frowned on in many countries due to the danger that it’s going to cause antimicrobial resistance in livestock and in humans. Governments are concerned with zoonoses, diseases that humans may acquire from animals. Wild animal populations may harbour diseases which will affect livestock which can acquire them as a results of insufficient biosecurity. an epidemic of Nipah virus in Malaysia in 1999 was traced back to pigs becoming ill after contact with fruit-eating flying foxes, their faeces and urine. The pigs successively passed the infection to humans. Avian flu H5N1 is present in wild bird populations and may be carried large distances by migrating birds. This virus is definitely transmissible to domestic poultry, and to humans living in close proximity with them. Other infectious diseases affecting wild animals, livestock and humans include rabies, leptospirosis, brucellosis, tuberculosis and trichinosis.