[Current trends in the field of animal husbandry]

The progress achieved over the past 30 years in the areas of nutrition, physiology, genetics and prophylaxis has lead to the intensification of animal production. Feed additives have been one of the factors involved in this evolution often wrongly accused of being at the origin of a so-say degradation of the quality of the products. Where nutritional quality is concerned, it must be observed that the genetic determinism and the homeostasis of the organisms maintain practically constant the proportions of the elementary constituents (amino acids, fatty acids) and the composition of the basic components (proteins, phospholipids) of the living matter. However, the relative proportions of these components (proteins/lipids) can be modified by genetic and nutritional factors. If the quantitative modifications of composition are easily balanced by the diversity of the human diet, they can heavily influence the technological and organoleptic properties of the individual animal products. The on-going evolution, namely the incidence of the new biotechnologies, should not modify this situation, if only to lead to the production of animals whose tissue and product composition would be adapted to the technological and dietetics demand. The nutritional balance should then be assumed by a better educated and informed consumer.