NUTRITIONAL STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE RUMINANT PRODUCTIVITY: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

It has a two fold dilemma of producing more ruminant livestock to meet the growing protein demand in the world market and to minimize the adverse effect on the environment such as the enteric production of methane. It was a systematic literature review, which involved evidence in control trials, meta-analyses and genomic studies published after 2000 and 2026 respectively, to establish the effectiveness of nutritional interventions to enhance productivity and methane efficiency in the ruminal. These interventions were categorized into ionophores, phytogenic feeds, probiotics and enzymes, rumen-protected amino acids, precision feeding system, optimum forage quality, alternative sources of proteins, methane inhibitors and mineral vitamin supplementation. Research has shown beneficial impacts of moderate/extreme positive to productivity and they included improvement in feed efficiency, milk production, rate of growth and nutrient utilization. Ionophores and rumen sheltered amino acids did not only improve the feed ratio and lactation but probiotics and phytogenic supplements improved the fermentation dynamics of rumen. An individualization diet formulation was also identified to lead to the improved nutrient partitioning and feed waste reduction in the form of precision feeding strategies. Asparagopsis-compounds, 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP), tannins, saponins, high-sugar forages strategies were also found to be relevant in order to lower the generation of the methane in the enteric system without having any adverse effect on the animal performance. Additional support on breeding-based mitigation in the long term would be offered by new genomic selection applications and the resulting residual phenotypes of methane. Even though variability of the studies was a measure of variability in the composition of the diet, species and the stage of production, the net effect is that, integrated nutritional management can be used as a measure to not only increase productivity, but also environmental sustainability. The results have shown the pivotal role as taken by the advanced nutrition strategies in determination of the climate smart and economically viable ruminant production systems.