NATURAL CHINESE HERBS AS FEED ADDITIVES TO IMPROVE THE SAFE ANIMAL PRODUCTION

摘要

Natural Chinese herbs used as feed additives can promote the animal growth and improve the animal health. Since the 1950s, synthetic feed additives has been extensively used in intensive animal production system all over the world. The findings of newgrowth promotional effects of some antibiotics and chemicals make the additives more popular use in animal production, but it also led to overdosing of these additives in animal feeds in the last 10 years. It is very important to find a new way to prevent animal disease and to improve animal performance more safely and naturally and kindly with environment in animal feeds and feeding. Traditional Chinese medicine has a*long history reaching back thousands of years. About 2000 years ago, China had usednatural herb as feed additives. During the 2000 years history of herbal medicine many practices and prescriptions have been developed and used. Chinese medicinal herbs used as feed additives come from nature, and active ingredients such as essential micronutrients, unknown growth factors, hormone-like agents have been demonstrated by modern techniques. Through more than 2000 years of selection and screening, Chinese medical herbs have proven to be a kind of ideal feed additives that are natural, less toxic, residue-free and resistance-free in the animal's food products compared with the synthetic antibiotics and the inorganic chemicals. This paper dealt with the characteristics, the functions, the classification, the practical application and the problems in applications of Chinese herbal additives.