In 2007 Cliff established Anozene Nutritional Sciences to focus on research and writing in the further development of nutritional strategies for animals and humans. He has a particular interest in the relationship between nutrition and health through the interaction of bioactive food ingredients, nutricines and nutrients. This impacts upon the efficiency of animal production and feed and food safety.
Dr Adams lives in Antwerp, Belgium, and speaks English, French and Dutch. He has published many peer-reviewed scientific papers and magazine articles and has also published four books on animal nutrition and two books on technical writing. Two of his nutrition books have been translated and published in Chinese (www.anozene.eu).
I grew up in a small village in South Wales in the UK. During my school years I worked on the local farms and was always attracted to agriculture. Consequently, my university studies
in the UK, Canada and the USA, were focused on agricultural biochemistry, soil science, crop science and agronomy. This included work on forages and soyabeans, important feed
ingredients - although at this time I was not directly involved in animal nutrition.
What was your first job in animal agriculture and the feed sector in particular?
After my university time I spent several years in academic and industrial research and then I joined the American company Kemin, at their operation in Belgium. Kemin
were, and still are, developing and selling a range of feed additives. This was my first direct exposure to feeds and animal nutrition. At Kemin, I was part of the international research team and
our mission was to find nutritional solutions to improve feed quality and animal performance. My background in crop science and biochemistry allowed me to readily adapt to the new demands of animal nutrition.
Can you identify one or two highlights regarding product development in animal feeding that you consider has had a significant impact?
The introduction of feed enzymes was a major step forward in monogastric nutrition. In the early days this was not an easy project as enzymes were more associated with washing powders than with animal feeds. Fortunately, we were able to develop the energy sparing effect of enzymes and later phytase became available with a phosphorus sparing effect. Nowadays feed enzymes are considered as a normal part of feed production. The widespread use of organic acids both for mould and bacterial control has also had a major impact upon animal health and performance. The discovery that a range of organic acids are toxic to moulds and bacteria but essentially non-toxic to animals and avian species was a major step forward in improving feed safety, and animal health, without the use of antibiotics.
You have authored many papers and publications and continue to do so. Please tell us what the key focuses of your work are and why?
After I started working in the feed industry with the Kemin organisation, I became increasingly interested in the relationship between nutrition and health. In these early days nutrition and health was not so closely intertwined. Nutrition was focussed mainly on animal growth and animal health was supported by antibiotics. It became evident to me that many feed ingredients such as antioxidants, organic acids, carotenoids and lysophospholipids were able to support animal health as well as being important feed ingredients. These components I described as nutricines in order to differentiate them from the classical nutrients. This subsequently led me into the concept of designing feeds for health maintenance and disease avoidance expressed as Total Nutrition, where feeds must support both health and growth.
You have worked many years in animal nutrition and the feed industry. What are the key challenges ahead for the industry in your view?
A key challenge is to explain more forcefully the great benefits the modern feed industry and how improved animal production has brought benefits to the general population. Food of animal origin has a very high nutritional value for humans and nowadays this food has the lowest cost ever. Food security is taken for granted in the developed countries. Moreover, the feed industry plays a major role in the Circular Economy, recycling many by-products from the human food and biofuel industries. Improved forage management can have benefits by increasing soil carbon capture. The feed industry provides large volumes of low cost food and is becoming a sustainable system. Unfortunately, many of these aspects are overshadowed by consumer concerns about the use of antibiotics. Therefore, the second major challenge is to seriously reduce the use of antibiotics and focus on a Total Nutrition approach for health maintenance and disease avoidance. If animals can be kept healthy through nutrition then the need for large scale use of antibiotics falls away.
While the feed industry is still being driven by leastcost, finding alternative protein sources and reducing antimicrobial usage to name just a few factors, what might we be overlooking in your view, and where we should focus our efforts if we are to feed a growing world population successfully by the mid-21st century?
A major problem in animal nutrition is that only a portion of the feed ingredients is actually absorbed and used for growth and productivity. Generally, less than 50 percent of feed protein is actually absorbed by the animal. Digestibility of feed ingredients is quite high, but absorption of the digested nutrients is much less efficient. This low rate of nutrient absorption leads to environmental pollution and increases feed costs. There needs to be more focus on nutrient absorption. Quite possibly the microbiome has a role to play here in terms of supporting gastrointestinal health which may in turn lead to more efficient nutrient absorption.
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
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