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Quality Assurance in Animal Feed Testing Laboratories

This article describes the the introduction for methods of analysis that are appropriate for characterizing nutritional attributes of feeds. Two approaches are used: one is biological and the other is chemical.

Biological methods have advantages where laboratory facilities are minimal since they require little more than a weigh scale and a drying oven and materials that can almost always be acquired in village and city markets. The chemical methods that are described are those considered to be most relevant in the light of developing knowledge on the characterization of tropical feed resources. They relate closely to the criteria concerning the nutritional principles underlying utilization of tropical feed resources by monogastric and ruminant livestock.

It is not intended to provide a comprehensive description of all analytical methods used in animal nutrition research. The aim is to identify those procedures considered to be more applicable and critical to the characterization of feed resources for incorporation into livestock feeding systems in developing countries. Emphasis is given to methods which are least demanding in terms of sophisticated facilities and equipment.

The measurements are the minimum needed to enable researchers to acquire the essential information for them to set up meaningful feeding trials. Observing and measuring animal response to dietary manipulation on the available feed resources are essential first steps in the development of feeding systems for application on farms. This is the correct order of priorities for allocation of resources aimed at development of animal feeding systems. Too often the research is "bogged down" in the laboratory without excursion into the field, which is a necessary prelude to any study of farmers' problems and finding possible solutions that might fit into existing farming systems.

The approach is aimed at resource persons working in national institutions and in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) but the methods are also applicable to international research centres. Obviously there is a special role for the latter and they require many more tools in their research. Their task must be to examine, in depth, the problems that arise in the field and which are generated by the pragmatic "local" approach that is advocated. Such centres should support national institutions, and NGOs, and be engaged in the more sophisticated basic studies that such research requires.


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