Animal Nutrition Division is one of the oldest seat of systematic research and post-graduate education in the field of animal nutrition in India. It was started in 1921 as a Laboratory of Physiological Chemist at the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, Bihar. In 1923, it was transferred to Bangalore (now Bengaluru) where it formed one of the two wings of the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry and Dairying. In 1928, on the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Agriculture in India, it was transferred to Izatnagar, and the status of the laboratory was raised to a full-fledged Division. In 1939, Lord Linlithgow, the then Viceroy and Governor General of India, inaugurated the new building of this Division. Later, four Regional Animal Nutrition Research Laboratories at Anand, Bangalore, Haringhatta and Palampur were started which were subsequently developed into full-fledged centers. Radio isotope tracer techniques used in research under the United Nations Development Programme were carried out for the first time in India in this Division. Respiration calorimeter facility was established in 1980-84 with the help of Swedish International Development Agency to study energy metabolism in farm livestock.
The Division has been instrumental in conducting both fundamental
and applied research. The research outcomes of the division have
benefited the farmers through applications of the findings in lab
to land program. Beside this, post-graduate education and transfer
of technologies in the area of animal nutrition are the basic responsibilities of this division.
As a Centre of Advanced Faculty Training (formerly known
as Centre of Advanced Studies), this division imparts advanced
trainings to the teachers and scientists of State Veterinary/Agricultural
Universities and Research Institutes under National Agricultural Research
and Education System in India for human resource development.