**Introduction**

I would like to express my gratitude to all the contributors of this book including the au‐ thors of the accepted chapters. My special thanks go to the Publishing Process Manager, Ms. Romina Rovan, and other staff of IntechOpen publisher for their kind support and great ef‐

I am also thankful to my colleagues,

**Dr. Muhammad Abubakar** National Veterinary Laboratory

Islamabad, Pakistan

forts in bringing the book to completion. In addition,

VIII Preface

friends, and family for all their support in the fulfilment of this project.

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Ruminants—The Husbandry,**

**Introductory Chapter: Ruminants—The Husbandry,** 

Ruminants have a valuable role in sustainable agricultural systems and provision of food to human beings. They play a pivotal role in converting vast renewable resources from rangeland, pasture, and crop residues and/or other by-products into food edible for humans. Grazing ruminant animals is an efficient way to produce food for humans. The need to maintain ruminants to utilize these humanly inedible foodstuffs and alter them into high-quality foods for human consumption has been a characteristic for several thousand years. In fact, dairy cattle and goats are quite exceptional in being extremely efficient in converting plantbased protein/energy sources into high-quality animal fats and proteins. It is convincing that ruminants are essential components in food production systems now and in the future.

Livestock is an important asset throughout the world, with a value of at least \$1.4 trillion. This sector is subdivided in long market chains that provide employment for almost 1.3 billion people worldwide and livelihood of 600 million poor smallholder farmers in the developing world directly depends on livestock [1]. Ruminants fulfill numerous roles, ranging from providing manure, milk, meat, and draught power. Animal protein is one of the major parts of the daily food supply. Globally livestock products contribute 33% of daily protein consumption in the shape of eggs, meat, and milk. The demand of livestock products is increasing day

by day due to rapid urbanization and population growth [2].

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.76064

**Economic, and Health Aspects**

**Economic, and Health Aspects**

Muhammad Abubakar, Abdullah Iqbal, Abdul Kabir and Shumaila Manzoor

Muhammad Abubakar, Abdullah Iqbal,

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76064

**1. Introduction**

**2. Livestock value**

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Abdul Kabir and Shumaila ManzoorAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

#### **Introductory Chapter: Ruminants—The Husbandry, Economic, and Health Aspects Introductory Chapter: Ruminants—The Husbandry, Economic, and Health Aspects**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.76064

Muhammad Abubakar, Abdullah Iqbal, Abdul Kabir and Shumaila Manzoor Muhammad Abubakar, Abdullah Iqbal,

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Abdul Kabir and Shumaila ManzoorAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76064
