Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry: Digestion, Nutrition, Health and Breeding
Core concepts
Start with species differences in digestion. Ruminants (cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats) have a four-compartment stomach - rumen, reticulum, omasum, abomasum - and rely on rumen microbes to ferment cellulose. Monogastrics (pigs, poultry, horses as hindgut fermenters) digest differently. Know the terms rumination, eructation, bloat, and volatile fatty acids as the main energy source for ruminants.
Nutrition: differentiate maintenance from production ration; know the roles of energy, protein (crude protein, bypass protein), minerals (calcium, phosphorus, selenium, copper) and vitamins (A, D, E, K fat-soluble; B-complex water-soluble, synthesised by rumen microbes). Deficiency signs are exam favourites: rickets/osteomalacia (vitamin D, Ca:P), night blindness (vitamin A), white muscle disease (selenium/vitamin E), anaemia (iron/copper).
Health and breeding: distinguish infectious from contagious and zoonotic diseases; know classic examples such as foot-and-mouth disease, anthrax, brucellosis (zoonotic, causes abortion), mastitis and rabies. Vaccination versus treatment. Reproductive terms: oestrous cycle, gestation length (cow ≈ 280 days, buffalo ≈ 310, sheep/goat ≈ 150, pig ≈ 114), artificial insemination, and crossbreeding for heterosis.
Traps
Questions mix ruminant and monogastric facts, or confuse zoonosis with a merely infectious disease. Do not attribute rumen fermentation to horses. Gestation lengths are frequently swapped, especially buffalo versus cow.
Rule of thumb
When asked 'which deficiency', link the sign to the nutrient: bone problems → Ca/P/vitamin D; night blindness → vitamin A; white muscle → selenium/vitamin E; poor clotting → vitamin K.