Gut health critical to achieving ongoing production efficiencies

by Roger Gilbert, Publisher, Milling and Grain

Where animal agriculture is concerned, one ill pig, chicken or cow can have catastrophic results on a producer’s bottom line, particularly now when more countries are requiring low or antibiotic-free production environments.

This on-going concern has led scientists at US-based Novus International, Inc. to focus on two areas of research to achieve production efficiencies: address emerging intestinal and structural health challenges through nutrition and promote the development of the progeny by optimising the nutrition of the mother.
 

Gut health
Producers and researchers can agree that managing gut health is a multifaceted process that requires a holistic approach. Dr Mercedes Vázquez-Añon, a senior fellow and Director of Novus Animal Nutrition Research and Facilities, says that in trying to understand the etiology of gut health problems, Novus researchers were forced to compartmentalise the problems into several areas. That resulted in three specific avenues of focus to develop a programme for managing gut health.

First there’s the ingredients themselves. Improving the quality and reducing the variation of main feed ingredients -- especially protein sources like soybean meal- via the use of proteases and monitoring the content of anti-nutritional factors such as trypsin inhibitors, is an ongoing process for producers but a worthwhile one.

“Spending time understanding the quality of the ingredients we feed can only improve our chances to reduce enteric health problems,” Dr Vázquez-Añon says.

For example, studies show that excessive indigestible protein arriving at the cecum (the beginning of the large intestine) leads to enteric problems and overgrowth of clostridium. Dr Vázquez-Añon says feeding an enzyme additive like Novus’s CIBENZA® DP100 has been shown to reduce excessive indigestible protein in the cecum and improve gut health.

Second is being proactive. In poultry, necrotic enteritis can be devastating to a flock, but there are ways to boost immunity. Studies have shown that reducing dysbacteriosis and overgrowth of pathogens in the small intestine that could lead to necrotic enteritis can be achieved through compounds that act at the site of the problem, Dr Vázquez-Añon says.

“We have found this to be the case with protected blends of organic acids that can deliver the organic acid to the small intestine where the problem is active. In addition, essential oils have been shown to modulate the microbial population and support the host immune system to fight coccidia.”

Read more HERE.

 

The Global Miller
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