Preface

This e-book is the result of a long felt wish to provide up-to-date teaching materials regarding pig nutrition and physiology for bachelor and master students at Aarhus and Copenhagen Universities. We also expect that the book will serve as a reference work for advisors in the extension service. 

The e-book consists of 22 chapters covering different aspects of nutrition and physiology of pigs with special emphasis on the quantitative aspects of the current Danish production conditions. The book is published as an e-book, which enables the readers to download just the chapters they need. The chapters are provided free of charge. By publishing it in this way, it is possible to update chapters when new knowledge becomes available.

The chapters were written by current and former experts on nutrition and physiology of pigs at Aarhus University, University of Copenhagen and Pig Research Centre, and were supplemented by external experts. The editors express their sincere thanks to all the involved authors for their commitments during the writing process. A special thank is expressed to translator Linda Brix, Pig Research Centre, for her great and conscientious work of correcting and laying out the chapters of the book.

We would like to thank the involved institutions for their kind support of the book project. A special thank you is given to Pig Research Centre for their financial contribution to the project.

Foulum, April 2012

Knud Erik Bach Knudsen
Niels Jørgen Kjeldsen
Hanne Damgaard Poulsen
Bent Borg Jensen