《第七屆草食動物營養國際學術研討會文集》 is my pleasure to welcome you to The Seventh International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores （ISNH-7）. The objectives of the International AdvisoryCommittee （IAC） are "to provide a forum for development, exchange and promotionof knowledge on the nutrition of terrestrial herbivores in captive and free-livingenvironments". Managing herbivores in commercial and wildlife systems is aboutmore than simply meeting nutrient requirements or manipulating production throughnutrition, important as that is. The meeting traverses a spectrum of research whichadvances the nutritional sciences through novel molecular approaches to problemswhile promoting their application in the management of the productivity and healthof herbivores and the mitigation their impact on the environment. Increasingly, thehuman health benefits and otherwise of animal food products are a consumerconcern and special recognition of the opportunities to enhance food quality throughanimal nutrition is a new feature of the scope of the plenary programme.

In the current global environment herbivores, because of their unique digestivesystems, come under intense scrutiny for their "contribution to greenhouse" gases.What often goes unstated is their ability to harvest biomass otherwise unavailable asa human food source without inputs of fossil fuel an attribute which surely securestheir importance for the future well-being of mankind.

The breadth of scientific expertise at this conference is a unique feature of theSymposium Series. Make the most of it, and enjoy the kindness and culture of ourhosts.

In this volume, you can find the plenary papers and poster abstracts presented atISNH-7. The 6-page short papers have been published in the Journal of Animal Feedand Sciences, as special issue （Volume 16, Supplement 2, 2007）.

On behalf of the International Advisory Committee, we wish to thank TheChinese Association of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine （CAAV） fororganizing this symposium in Beijing. The committee members also express theirspecial appreciation to Dr Qingxiang Meng and his colleagues at the ChinaAgricultural University to whom we are indebted for their magnificent work duringthe last 4 years in bringing this scientific programme and conference together. Finally, we wish to thank all the participants at the symposium for theircomments, questions and criticisms. Their input has resulted in significantimprovements in the papers presented in this symposium.