Veterinary Physiology-III

INTRODUCTION

• Growth is an irreversible increase in the metabolically active protoplasm. Two fundamental components of growth are hyperplasia (increase in number of cells) and hypertrophy (increase in cell size). These processes cause change in body weight and body size (daily fluctuations like feed and water intake and disease conditions are not considered as growth). Monitoring of growth is essential to provide proper quality and quantity of feed economically for a viable animal industry.
• Growth in animals can be measured quantitatively by plotting a growth curve which indicates the rate on increase of mass or length over a period of time