Nanoparticles are, in simplified terms, all particles with a size of 1 to 100 nm. Nowadays, nanoparticles are widely used in medicine, especially in diagnostic imaging. In the pharmaceutical industry, they serve as excipients or carriers of active substances in pharmaceuticals. Nanoparticles also serve as biocides with some potential to become an alternative to antibiotics. In the food industry, they are used to identify pathogens and contaminants.
This paper is limited to metal nanoparticles with potential for use in livestock nutrition. The aim is to describe the effect of administering metal nanoparticles to different species of livestock and to highlight the problems associated with the use of nanoparticles in animal nutrition based on recent scientific and technical studies.