Contribution of Professor Chyrvynskii Mykola Petrovych to the development of zoocultural science

    May 10 this year marks the 174th anniversary of the birth of Chyrvynskii Mykola Petrovych, the one of the founders of zoocultural science. He has developed lots of theoretical aspects being still relevant. Let us focus on some most significant of them on the eve of this important date.

    M.P. Chyrvynskii was born on May 10, 1848 in Chernihiv. He studied at the St. Petersburg agricultural institute (1868 to 1872). Yet he was an external student at the Military medical academy. He was buried on January 5, 1920 in Novocherkassk.

   Periods and basic directions of M.P. Chyrvynskii's scientific activity must include the following: namely St. Petersburg's (1872 to 1877) "Justification of scientific basics of feeding farm animals based on knowledge of chemistry, anatomy and physiology"; Moscow's (1879 to 1894) "Issues of animal growth and physiological procedures of fat formation in their organism"; Kyiv's (1898 to 1919) "Development of theories of feeding and ontogenesis of animals and development of techniques for studying various breeds of sheep, both wool and lamb fur science".

    Between 1872 and 1877, Mykola Petrovych has studied the digestibility of feed in animals of various ages as well as the effect of mineral nutrition on their organism, especially on the fat content therein. He has concluded that the animal organism requires balanced feeding for the purpose of its proper physiological development.

    On 13.02.1883, the scientist defended the thesis "On the fat formation in a living organism". There he has scientifically disposed of the then Voigt's prevailing hypothesis regarding the denial of the participation of carbohydrates in the fat formation, where he proved by testing pigs that in addition to proteins, excess carbohydrates and minerals in feed participate in the fat formation. In 1883 to 1884, he has participated in an expedition together with Professor Middendorf concerning the study of the cattle breeding status in the country.

      Based on the expedition M. Chyrvynskii Chyrvynskii concluded that in order to improve domestic animal husbandry, one should create conditions, but not run mad after importing foreign livestock and crossing it with local ones; he also raised an issue of feed research. He proposed a technique of experimental study of growth, development and metabolism in animals as well as age-related variations in their organism.

     Between 1898 and 1919, he has studied the ontogenesis of animals in the second half of the embryonic and post-embryonic period. He has developed tables for comparing linear growth, variation of proportions and structure of bones of the skull, trunk and limbs when satisfactory and poor feeding. He has introduced the concepts of infantilism, embryonalism, and neoteny.

    He has suggested a provision that during temporary starvation, first of all, those parts of the skeleton that are characterized by the highest growth rate for this period are delayed in growth (M.P.Chyrvynskii's law), but insufficient feeding of animals negatively affects their growth both at an early age, and in subsequent periods while never being compensated.

    He has also concluded that the variability of animals must be studied under the impact of environmental conditions, which allows to monitor their ontogenesis, but various regimen of their feeding at a young age affects the formation of digestive organs. He has developed a classification of sheep of domestic coarse-wooled breeds and conditions for the formation of lamb fur.

    M.P.Chyrvynskii's studies are of great practical importance for the production. He has applied training students on living biological objects. Author has prepared and published a textbook called "General animal husbandry" (1888), which had four editions that have been the main in educational institutions for more than 30 years; he also published the monograph called "Coarse-wooled breeds of sheep bred in Russia" (1915); "Selected works" - Volume I (1949) and Volume II (1951) have been published resulted from M.P.Chyrvynskii's scientific papers

    Thanks to Professor M.P.Chyrvynskii, scientifically justified approaches to effective feeding of farm animals and their rearing in order to obtain wool, milk, meat and lard and other types of livestock products have appeared in the expanses of domestic science.

Ugnivenko Anatolii, a Head of Department
for milk and meat production technologies