Herbs in a sustainable animal nutrition

Abstract

Animal has a direct impact on the quality of meat, milk and eggs in a positive and negative sense. Over the composition of a meal for animals can manipulate the quality of products of animal origin and can be achieved by a variety of nutritional, sensory, chemical, physical and physiological characteristics. The use of medicine in intensive and extensive farming is a big and risky to the quality of food and thus health. In organic farming of animals is not allowed to use medicines. Because are increasingly looking for natural healing resources. Herbs provides, in the manufacture of animal feed, a real opportunity to increase value through the use of different functional additions. Addition food for animals, really can improve its functionality in terms of a physiological effect. In developed countries in Europe is very strong trend of replacing synthetic antibiotic drugs based on medicinal herbal preparations. As herbal feed additives may be used drug (finely divided dry medicinal herbal raw materials), herbal extracts or herbal isolate (e.g. essential oil). The paper gives a short overview of the most important potential of herbal medicinal materials with antibacterial activity, antiinflammatory, digestion-stimulating, laxative, antidiarrhoeal, choleretic etc. activities that have an approved application in human medicine and which can be added to animal feed for use in different animal health disorders. The use of herbs is more current and all higher, in human and veterinary food industry.