Interdisciplinary science dealing with the biology of animals
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to animal science:
Animal science is described as "studying the biology of animals that are under the control of humankind". It can also be described as the production and management of farm animals. Historically, the degree was called animal husbandry and the animals studied were livestock species, like cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, and horses. Today, courses available look at a broader area, including companion animals, like dogs and cats, and many exotic species. Degrees in Animal Science are offered at a number of colleges and universities. Animal science degrees are often offered at land-grant universities, which will often have on-campus farms to give students hands-on experience with livestock animals.
What is animal science?
Animal science can be described as all of the following:
- an academic discipline – branch of knowledge. It incorporates expertise, people, projects, communities, challenges, studies, inquiry, and research areas that are strongly associated with a given scholastic subject area or college department.
- branch of science – systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
- branch of natural science – branch of science concerned with the description, prediction, and understanding of natural phenomena, based on observational and empirical evidence.
- branch of biology – natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, evolution, distribution, identification and taxonomy.
- branch of agricultural science – agricultural science is the broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture.
- branch of applied science – discipline of science that applies existing scientific knowledge to develop more practical applications, like technology or inventions.
- branch of agriculture – cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life.
