**8. Conclusion**

Properly managed livestock can play a role in addressing malnutrition. Greater integration between the livestock and nutrition sectors is necessary to ensure livestock livelihoods and animal-sourced foods contribute to fighting malnutrition. The contribution of the livestock sector to a sustainable food system cannot

be overlooked as it converts a significant million tons of useless by-products from agro-industrial sectors into livestock feeds, thus reducing waste and environmental pollution while contributing to food production alongside. These aspects are often overlooked in discussions about livestock and sustainability [67] that received global attention and unfortunately catalysed widely-circulated non-scientific media calling for less ASF consumption in order to save the planet [68]. This highlights the fundamental problem of advocating dietary change towards less ASF consumption [69] —it is an unbalanced view of sustainability that does not adequately address the needs of the most vulnerable. This emphasises the need for significant additional investments in research and development to curtail greenhouse gas emissions from livestock systems, particularly from the ruminant production systems that contribute the most emissions. Infectious diseases at the animal-human interface are highly dynamic and livestock are a major source of zoonotic diseases. Minimal success has been achieved in the control of these infectious diseases in developing countries especially, resulting in a high burden of human gastrointestinal disease [70]. The risks of zoonotic diseases like environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, highlight the need for improved management practices to increase food safety and mitigate disease risks from livestock. Finally, overconsumption of certain ASF may increase the risk of developing chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes [71]. Thus, while efforts should be made to increase consumption of ASF among the poorest, the general goal needs to emphasise moderation in ASF consumption and adherence to recommended daily intakes [72].

## **9. Way forward**

Though the importance of livestock in the human nutrition domain is a wellestablished fact, the major attention and focus have been on the adverse effect of livestock production in recent studies, which skews the current discussion. But the other side of the coin is that these studies focus on the livestock production systems in high-income countries that cater the overconsumption there. This neglects global attention on the outlook and necessities of a large number of undernourished people in developing and underdeveloped countries, among whom adequate ASF consumption could prevent malnourishment, health, and development problems. The impact of low ASF consumption on the lives and futures of nutritionally vulnerable people, women, and children, must be considered for the planet's sustainability—a point of view that is sometimes overlooked or underrepresented in scientific studies or heated debates over the effects of livestock production on sustainability. What is also missing is an understanding of how low the consumption of ASF is among the poor, particularly in low to middle income country (LMIC), where starch-based diets are typical. Nutritional, genetic, health, and management measures have been developed by animal scientists to cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30%. Hence, one of the important answers for guaranteeing the sustainability of animal production systems is to develop sustainable diets that are lucrative, ethically and socio-culturally appropriate, and ecologically responsible. Consequently, future research on sustainable ASF diets should focus on both animal physiology and farmer behaviours in order to establish a holistic, dynamic, and adaptable conceptual framework [73].

### **Acknowledgements**

We thank the head of the department of dairy extension, ICAR-NDRI, and colleagues who provided insights and expertise that greatly assisted the completion of this chapter.

*Leveraging Livestock Production Systems for Human Nutrition in Developing Countries DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101399*
