A Guide to the Principles of Animal Nutrition

Reviewed by Natalie Tucker, Assistant Professor, Ancilla College of Marian University on 3/5/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This textbook is easy to understand, use and read. The content is well organized. Animal nutrition (any nutritional topic) can be challenging to learn but the author does a great job of taking the complex issues surrounding animal nutrition (processes and systems) and is able to help break them down, beginning to end, with solid content and excellent visuals.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

This text has great accuracy when utilizing other college animal nutritional books and comparing them to this text. There have been times that I have been supplementing my current text with this one because of the accuracy and better content. And the content is more up-to-date then many of the animal nutritional textbooks that have been published.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The content in this textbook is easy to read, comprehend and implement into a course. The text was published in 2019 and is still current in content and visuals. At the end of each chapter, there are helpful summaries/key points and review questions which are a great tool for students to use and for faculty to implement into the course to show the application of the content.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is straightforward, easy to read, and visually easy to understand and comprehend. Nutrition is a complex topic with many layers of complexity within each topic (such as proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates), and this text takes these topics and breaks them down in well-organized, easy-to-comprehend content. The visuals are simple, helpful, and uncomplicated.

Consistency rating: 4

The text is organized and written in a consistent manner which makes the text uncomplicated to move through. All chapters are consistent in organization and use of terminology.

Modularity rating: 5

This is one of the great strengths of this text is the manner in which the text is laid out and organized visually which allows for ease of reading without being overwhelmed with text. There is the use of white space and well-organized blocks of text. This provides students with the ability to read the material without straining to make sense of the organization. Subheadings, bold text, and smaller paragraphs provide students with the ease of reading visually online.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Each chapter is organized with a listing of terms, objectives, and well-outlined text with various use of headings, outlined text, and bolded text to help guide the reader through the chapter/topics. The chapter ends with a summary and review questions which are well-written and easy to utilize by students for review purposes. Explanations are brief but provide an introduction to the topic. The overall content is well organized.

Interface rating: 4

Text is virtually easy to move through and interface with due to the simplicity of the online text. The charts, graphs, and text boxes are easy to see, read and engage with. There are no interface challenges and the navigation is easy to use. There are no printing issues as the text prints easily if needed print copies.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

No grammatical errors and the quality of the text is good.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text does not focus on cultural topics due to the subject matter.

Comments

I have implemented parts of this text for years into my animal nutrition course and students have found it helpful and easy to read and comprehend. Very excited to use the whole text as an OER this fall.

Reviewed by Ali Hussein, Assistant Professor, Eastern New Mexico University on 10/29/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This chapter discusses all the necessary information about basic animal nutrition and how nutrients are important for normal body function. The information in the book matches what Land-Grant Universities cover in their Principles of Animal Nutrition classes.

Chapters are concise and have useful diagrams. However, there are some chapters such as the one on Lipid Digestion that require visuals and diagrams to complement the text.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

As an animal nutritionist, I agree that the information described in the book is scientifically accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The concepts discussed are still the same and not violated by modern research results.

Clarity rating: 5

The chapters are shorter than I expected for a textbook but the information is described in a clear and concise way. In cases like this, less is more because students do not have time to read long chapters with excess filler information.

Consistency rating: 5

Terms are clearly defined in earlier chapters. If the reader looks at the beginning chapters first, they will be able to understand the latter chapters.

Modularity rating: 3

I gave a 3 just because of the question being asked. I do not believe the module organization method is appropriate for classes like this. Every topic is different and does not need to be discussed in a certain order.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

After talking about the anatomical differences between ruminant animals and non-ruminants, every other topic is different and does not need to be discussed in a certain order.

Interface rating: 5

I did not have interface issues during my review.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

There were no obvious grammatical errors in the text. Other people might get overly picky about the use of commas or semicolons.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The only reason I gave a 4 is because this topic talks a lot about science and students who lack the background might feel overwhelmed and panicked. Many students who study agriculture get upset that they have to learn science even though it is necessary for their college education. This issue is not the fault of the textbook writer.

Comments

I would be very happy to adopt this book in my Principles of Nutrition class in the future. I was very pleased to see that the topics covered were almost a 100% match to what I have been teaching.