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Animal Sciences

Animal Science is the field of study involving the production, marketing, and utilization of domestic animals in agriculture, entertainment, and companionship. Due to the over inclusiveness of the field, there are numerous definitions and classifications that intersect and overlap.

Animal science incorporates anything from testing the development of new medicines and therapies on lab rats, to studying the benefits of the use of animals for human companionship, to developing better animal feed. Thirteen general divisions of Animal Sciences can be identified: They include:

A large portion of animal sciences predominately deals with animal products, specifically food products. Animals account for fifty-three percent of all food consumed in the U.S.: animal products provide seventy-six percent of protein, eighty-one percent of the calcium, sixty-seven percent of the phosphorous, and thirty percent of the energy in the average American diet. Most animal products come from: beef, swine, dairy, sheep, poultry, and equine products.

Dairy scientists, poultry scientists, animal breeders, and other scientists in related fields study the genetics, nutrition, reproduction, growth, and development of animals. Some animal scientists inspect and grade livestock food products, purchase livestock, or work in technical sales or marketing. As extension agents or consultants, animal scientists advise agricultural producers on how to upgrade animal housing facilities properly, lower mortality rates, handle waste matter, or increase production of animal products, such as milk or eggs.

The discipline of animal science is relevant to modern day activities, as animals supply a renewable resource for a wide range of uses. The application of animal science has contributed to a safer, healthier, more abundant and inexpensive food supply for people domestically and abroad. Common applications for this field include animal products, such as wool, fiber, feathers, hides, manure, and slaughter by-products, as well as draft animals, and models for humans in biomedical research. Alternative applications often include using animals for companionship, entertainment, and service.

Many of these advances have developed within the past fifty years due to the advent of computers, which have revolutionized animal production, research, and marketing capabilities. Due to this technology, alternative feed sources were identified; estrus synchronization agents were discovered; embryo transfer techniques were developed; and new growth-promoting compounds were advanced. For example, animal sciences has lead to new genetic technologies, including the genome mapping of cattle, swine, sheep, horses, dogs, mice and humans. The development of a genome map, in turn, has lead to our ability to create the field of transgenics or the insertion of DNA from one organism to another organism of a same or different species.