Selecting Potential Woody Forage Plants That Contain Beneficial Bioactives

Abstract

Current viewpoints on animal production systems are being challenged in many parts of the world by the importance of safeguarding their long-term environmental stability and improving productivity. Pressure for change is arising from a range of environmental problems including dryland salinity, degradation of rangeland grazing systems and desertification; the need to address growing resistance to chemical anthelmintic drugs [3] and pressure to reduce the use of antimicrobial drugs in livestock production [8]. Plants with anthelmintic properties are of special interest because of a growing problem of nematode resistance to the chemical anthelmintics. There is also concern that antibiotics used in stock feed will lead to development of resistant organisms that could harm human health. The European Union has applied a total ban on antibiotics in stock feed and producers in other countries will be under pressure to follow suit to gain entry into European markets. Global warming is also an important issue where we need to adapt to maintain productive capacity while contending with more variable rainfall patterns while reducing greenhouse gas release into the atmosphere, a particular issue with methane production from ruminant animals. These various pressures have led to an increase in the interest in exploring global plant diversity for solutions to these issues and “natural” alternatives to the chemicals used in livestock production. Financial and human resources determine the extent to which we can explore our plant diversity, which means we have to make a choice about which to include in a screening programme. In this Chapter, we have used our research programme as an example of an approach that can be taken to selecting plants for a large-scale screening programme. We acknowledge that ours is just one approach of many that can be taken and is shaped by the goals of our programme, but the principles behind our approach can be applied to more broadly to any screening programme.