Introduction: Nanobiotechnology for the livestock industry

Abstract

Nanotechnology started gaining significant attention in the late 1990s and has now found its utilities in almost every domain such as biomedical, veterinary, pharmaceutical, agricultural, environmental, sensor, electronics, aeronautics, etc. However, these nanomaterials possessed certain disadvantages such as high toxicity, expensive techniques, and low biocompatibility, limiting their broad applications. Therefore, nanobiotechnology was found to be a suitably advanced technique that utilized biotechnological methods to enhance biocompatibility and decrease the cytotoxicity of nanomaterials. Nanobiotechnology uses bionanomaterials, which are synthesized from different biological materials, and therefore showed less toxicity, high biocompatibility and was economical. Further, nanobiotechnology found its broad-spectrum role in maintaining livestock and livestock-based products such as packaging, drug and gene delivery, therapeutics, diagnostics, genetic engineering, etc. It has been suggested that good livestock health can result in increasing public health and increase the country's economy. Therefore, this chapter tends to highlight the various utilities of nanobiotechnology in maintaining the health of livestock, producing transgenic animal products, and increasing the market value of veterinary products. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.