Animal nutrition food chain

Plants, in contrast to animals, have the ability to convert carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and inorganic components of the earth direcdy into high energy carbohydrates (qv), fats, and proteins (qv). These plant materials are absolutely essential to human nutrition as well as to the nutrition of other animal species. Thus consumption of plant matter, either directly or through a food chain, is essential to animal life and humans are totally dependent on agricultural endeavors, ie, the culture and harvesting of plant matter. 

Law L 794.1 created the Agency of Health Safety of Foods under the control of the Ministers of Health, Agriculture and Food. The Agency deals with health and safety issues relevant to foodstuffs and materials entering the food chain. It evaluates the health and nutritional risks of products destined for human or veterinary use, animal foodstuffs, veterinary products and health foods. 

Although iodine in oceans is only 0.8% of the total iodine on the earths crust (Muramatsu and Wedepohl, 1998), it enters the human food chain via three important processes (1) the evaporation of iodine from seawater into the air, its subsequent deposition onto soils and in fresh water, and final incorporation into terrestrial plants and animals (2) a higher incorporation into microorganisms, seaweeds, and fish, which are used as food and nutritional supplements and (3) extraction of iodine from pore water that contains no sediments and higher concentrations of iodine and using it for various purposes, e.g., as an additive to edible salt. 

As is the case with isotopic labeling of molecules, enriched levels of stable isotopes of elements can be used as tracers. Isotopes of elements can be used as nutritional supplements for plants or animals to trace absorption, assimilation, and metabolism of elements (Allen and Georgitis). Processes such as biomethylation of elements like mercury and arsenic in the environment can be studied using isotopically enriched elements. In some cases, methylated metals are more toxic than the inorganic species, and generally accumulate up the food chain. 

Of the many reagents and methods tried in the literature, aqueous or gaseous ammonia employed at ambient or elevated temperature, pressure and moisture content, remain the most practical and convenient effective means for detoxifying contaminated meals without loss of nutritive value. Effectiveness of treatment at ambient temperature and at elevated temperature and pressure is shown in Tables 15-17. Detoxification of meals not only protects the health of the animal, but also further insures against transmission of residues into the food chain especially milk. 

Eaton SB, Eaton SB III, Sinclair AJ, Cordain L, Mann NJ. Dietary intake of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids during the Paleolithic. In Simopoulos AP, ed. The Return of w3 Fatty Acids into the Food Supply. I. Land-Based Animal Food Products and Their Health Effects. World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics vol. 83. Karger, Basel, 1998, pp. 12-23. 

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