Herbal Feed Additives and Supplements for a Sustainable Ruminant Production
摘要
Herbs have been known since ancient times for their medicinal properties in traditional knowledge systems. Exhaustive range of herbal feed additives exert multifarious actions on animals by modulating immunity, antioxidant status, feed efficiency, anti-methanogenic action, galactagogue function, etc., thereby enhancing milk production, growth and reproduction. Due to this nature, now-a-days, herbal feed supplementation is gaining popularity, which also has the additional benefits over chemical products leaving toxic residues in livestock products as well as antimicrobial resistance. In this direction, the present chapter comprehensively summarizes the beneficial effects of various herbs exploited in ruminant production, their multifaceted role and a brief insight on their ethno-veterinary applications.