Basic Terminologies in

Animal Production
•Zootechnics
-the scientific art of maintaining and improving animals
under domestication that includes breeding, genetics,
nutrition, and housing.
•Husbandry - refers to raising production and proper care of
livestock and poultry animals.
•Soundness - health or physical integrity of an animal or some
of its parts.
•Acclimatization - adaptation to environment over a period of
time to allows animals time to stabilize (physiological,
psychological, nutritional) in a new environment.
•Biosecurity- planned
system/measure to prevent
entry and spread of diseases
in the flock/herd.
•Comfort Zone (thermoneutral
zone) - range of temperature
at which animal performance
is maximized or a healthy
adult animal can maintain a
normal body temperature
without needing to use
energy beyond its normal
basal metabolic rate.
•Cannibalism - tendency
or vise of animals in
herd/flock to bite/ peck
others causing injuries.
•Coprophagy - eating or
consumption of feces.
•Creep feeding - refers to
the use of supplemental
feed for the nursing
young animals
•Conformation - the shape or proportionate dimensions
especially of an animal.
•Castration - removal of the
testicles of male animals. Also
called neuter/neutering.
•Spay - to remove the ovaries
or sever the oviducts leading
to the uterus.
• Fattening – deposition of unused energy in the form of fat within
body tissues.
• Flushing – Increase in nutrition to promote ovulation and conception
in females and improve semen characteristics in males.
• Feedlot – Confined area for cattle where animals are fed and
“fattened up” before going to slaughter.
• Stall – Small compartment to house an animal.
•Carcass - animal body
less viscera, head, skin
and over legs after
slaughter.
•Marbling - the
interspersion of fat
particles in lean meat
•Lard - pig fat produced
from rendering process.
•Tallow - refers to the fat
of cattle, buffalo or
sheep.
• Offal – Non-edible products from slaughter;
internal organs and entrails of butchered
animal.
• Veal – Meat of calves; Calves fed only milk
to produce tender meat.
• Mutton – Meat obtained from adult sheep.
• Chevon – Meat from an adult goat.
• Cabrito – Meat from a young goat.
•Litter
-bedding/flooring materials
such as sawdust, rice hulls,
wood shavings.
-a group of piglets/ puppies
born of a sow/ bitch at the
same parturition.
• Ad-libitum - as desired by the animal;
self-fed
• Palatability - property of being
pleasing to taste.
• Mastication- chewing.
• Deglutition- swallowing
• Eructation- a belching/ burping;
expulsion of accumulated gastric
gases.
• Regurgitation - act of voluntary
vomiting of swallowed food.
• Cud - a bolus of previously eaten
food which has been feed provided
to young animals within an enclosure
that is regurgitated for further
chewing.
•Concentrates – high in energy value,
including fat, cereal grains and their
by-products (barley, corn, oats, rye,
wheat), high-protein oil meals or
cakes (soybean,
canola, cottonseed, peanut, and
by-products from processing of sugar
beets, sugarcane, animals, and fish,
and
•Roughages – feed low in digestible
energy and high in fiber. It includes
pasture grasses, hays, silage, root
crops, straw, and stover (cornstalks).
•Silage - succulent feed
produced from anaerobic
storage and fermentation
of forages.
•Silo - a semi-airtight to
airtight structure for use
in the production and
storage of silage.
•Fertility – the capacity to reproduce successfully (both male
and female).
•Infertility – refers to temporary loss of fertility.
•Sterility – the permanent loss of fertility.
•Prolificacy (Fecundity) – is the degree of reproduction
usually for polytocous species (i.e. sow, bitch, queen, etc.
giving birth to a litter) indicating relative litter size, usually
applied/deserved to or for the female.
•Puberty – the time at which estrus,
accompanied by the ovulation of a
dominant follicle, occurs; the time
when the male or female gonads
become capable of releasing
gametes. It is the onset of
reproductive capacity.
•Sexual Maturity – time/age
reached when the gametes become
capable of fertilization. State of full
reproductive capacity.
•Estrous Cycle – rhythmic sexual behaviour patterns
develop in female animals during puberty. Also known
as the ‘heat cycle’ or the time from one heat to the next.
•Polyestrous refers to animals which have several estrous
cycles per year or breeding season.
•Receptivity – the readiness of a female animal to mate.
•Estrus – period of sexual receptivity which allow the female to
be mated (from Greek, oistos, meaning ‘mad desire’ also
referred to by a lay term ‘heat’) and occurs with each estrous
cycle in non-seasonal breeders unless pregnancy intervenes.
• Copulation (or Coitus) – the act
of sexual intercourse where
semen of the male is deposited
in the reproductive tract of
female during mating of
breeding or service.
• Ovulation – the rupture of a
ripe/matured follicle as a
response to LH surge, shedding
or releasing the ovum.
• Conception – fertilization of the
ovum (egg); union of ovum and
sperm: formation of the zygote.
•Libido– male sex drive
•Semen– a mixture of sperm
(from testicles) and accessory
gland fluids
•Flehmen– behaviour of male
animals associated with
courtship and sexual activity
such as dog, bulls or rams
smelling the urine of female
in heat or stallion curling its
upper lips.
•Gestation - the period of time
between conception and birth.
•Parturition – the process of
act of giving birth to young
(calving, farrowing, lambing or
foaling)
•Postpartum– time or period
after giving birth
•Insemination
-The deposition of semen in
the female reproductive
tract.
-Natural Insemination –
during copulation or coitus.
-Artificial Insemination (Al) –
done by human technicians.
•Afterbirth – layman term for expelled
uterine membranes or placenta after
giving birth.
•Lactation – the period of milk
secretion. Usually begins
parturition and ends when
offspring are weaned or when
milking is stopped (in case of
dairy cattle).
•Colostrum– first milk secreted
postpartum containing high
nutrients and antibodies for
passive immunity of newborn.
•Wean – To physically separate
young from the nursing dam.
•Offspring (or Progeny) – animals
born to a parent
•Neonate – refers to a newborn
animal or a young
•Fetus – refers to prenatal stage after
fetal membranes (placenta) become
functional or beyond the embryo
stage
•Sib or siblings – animals with the
same parents like a brother/sister.
•Cull/Culling
-To reduce or control the size of (something, such as a
herd) by removal (as by hunting or slaughter) of especially
weak or sick individuals.
-Culling can be due to disease, age, or a failure to
reproduce.
Terminologies in Poultry
•Clutch
-The group of eggs produced by
birds, amphibians, or reptiles
-Poor layers have shorter
clutches and have longer rest
period between clutches
compared to good layers.
•Broodiness - tendency of hen to nest; incubating behaviour.
•Brooding - raising and caring for chicks in protective environment.
•Brooder - an enclosure or other structure, usually heated, used for
rearing young chickens or other fowl
•Pecking order - a hierarchy of status; the tendency of animals
to behave in order of social dominance.
•Photoperiod - the length of daylight or artificial light
provided.
•Broiler - young meat type of chicken of either sex (usually up
to 6-8 weeks of age) weight 1.3-2.2 kg. also referred to as
fryer chicken.
•Roaster - meat type of chicken of either sex (typically 3-5
months of age) weighing about 2.95 kg average live weight.
•Squab - young immature pigeon, usually up to 30 days old
(also refers to its meat)
•Squab broiler - meat type chicken sold at 0.9-1.1 kg (2-2.5 lb)
live weight. Usually smaller than boiler, and sold whole-body
and never cut.
•Gamefowls - type of chicken of both sexes especially bred to
produce fighting cocks.
•Stag - refers to young but sexually mature (~ 7mos. – 1 year)
fighting cock.