Nutrition and reproductive physiology are two independent but intertwined fields of study which cannot be looked independently. The twin aspects face a tremendous pressure to perform in demanding situations and are considered most important for the researchers and policy makers. Important topics of these two areas are incorporated in this book which would be useful and effective for postgraduate and doctoral students and the researchers. The basic concepts in the beginning of each chapter are described focusing on the development and applications in those areas at the end. Thus the book would be more appealing to those who are in forefront of applied research in these two subjects. The entire book elaborated the themes which have relevance on present day research considering 36 very important topics spreading over five sections. The book would provide knowledge necessary to understand multiple aspects of nutritional principles, biotechnological approaches to improve fiber digestibility. It also has dedicated chapters on assisted reproduction covering both males and females aspects including gamete evaluation, preservation and sexing, ovarian biology, pregnancy signaling and uterine environments. In emerging technologies stem cells technology, nanotechnology, application of next generation sequencing in ruminal microbial genome analysis, meta-analysis of research results, bioinformatics analysis of protein sequences and issues related to technology transfer are covered. Interactions between environment and livestock are dealt in a separate section. A dedicated section is kept to address the issues like feed safety and quality control and existing regulations which have relevance to human health and export of animal products and feed ingredients. The comprehensive, compact and up-to-date information offered in this book would definitely enrich people and help designing research programs in these two areas. The contributors of this book chapter have vast knowledge and research experiences in those areas therefore the quality of content is enormous. Hope the book would bring a lot of excitement to the scientific and student community.
Dr K.T. Sampath, Ph.D (Animal Nutrition) is former Director of National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology (NIANP), Bangalore. He has served as research Scientist under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in various capacities at ICAR Research for NEH region, Barapani, National Dairy Research Institute and at NIANP, Bangalore. His research works are mainly in the areas of feed and fodder resources, improvement of nutritive value of poor quality roughages, bypass nutrients, feed quality and safety and manipulation of rumen microbes for improving the digestibility of fiber. He is recipient of ICAR Team Research award, Hari Om Trust Award, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed award and CLFMA Award. He is fellows of Indian Dairy Association and National Academy of Veterinary Sciences and is associated with many policy making bodies. He has served as President of Animal Nutrition Society of India for two terms.
Dr Jyotirmoy Ghosh, Senior Scientist, National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology a graduate (BVSc & AH) of College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswa Vidhyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, Master of Veterinary Sciences and PhD in Veterinary Gynaecology and Reproduction from Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, UP. He was a national merit scholarship holder during graduation, recipient of Junior and Senior Research Fellows during post graduation and doctoral studies. During his 12 years long service he has many publications in peer reviewed international and national journals. He has conducted and associated with many training courses on various aspects of reproduction for the middle level scientists, university teaching faculties and veterinary officers. He has guided many students reviewed research and review articles for Indian and foreign journals. He has been awarded for outstanding team research by Indian Council of Agricultural Research and has been involved in technology transfer and contract research. His research interest is centered on ovarian and uterine biology especifically identification of pregnancy marker in large ruminants, uterine antioxidant mechanism and development of marker for mineral deficiency in animals. He has been the recipient of overseas fellowship from Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, under Niche areas of Biotechnology for one year during which he visited Center for Regenerative Biology, University of Connecticut, USA for learning stem cell research.
