This week we will review the universal and historical principles underlying livestock system design, and how management of genetics, nutrition, and the environment have advanced efficiency through their impact on the physiological processes that control animal growth, development, and production

This week we will demonstrate the link between nutrition and health at every stage of life and production by examining the science behind efficient nutritional intake, uptake, and utilization, and exploring the mechanisms by which disease can interfere with these processes.

This week we will introduce the concept of the farm and each production system as an ecosystem in which animals and microbes live in mutualistic relationships, and explain the beneficial impact of ecologically managing the microbes alongside the animals to enhance host defense, animal health, and production efficiency.

This week we consider the ravages of infectious disease on animal well-being and production system efficiency by considering disease as a war between infectious agents and their reluctant hosts, acting both at an individual and population level that can be measured and managed.

This week we will be discussing the role of caregivers in managing, preventing, and controlling infectious disease in livestock-based production systems, and help you appreciate how an understanding of the prey-predator relationship can be used in the design of management strategies to offset physical, physiological, and psychological stress.

This week we will be discussing infectious disease and its impact on food safety and security at the regional, national, international, and global level. We will also help you understand how outbreaks of important infectious diseases, such as Ebola and foot-and-mouth disease, are tracked and investigated.