Microbial Solutions for One Stomach or Four

MORE than 50 leading pork and poultry nutritionists, veterinarians and consultants attended three full-day seminars conducted by Lallemand Animal Health in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane recently.

The “Gut instinct: Microbiology’s role in producing healthier pigs and poultry” seminars addressed the role of microbiology in improving the health and performance of monogastric species.

The program featured a panel of global experts, who shared their in-depth knowledge of energy systems, digestion kinetics, biofilms and the power of data in modern animal nutrition.

Dr Jean Noblet, a retired Research Director at the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), addressed recent advances in ration formulation.

“Digestible energy (DE) or metabolisable energy (ME) remain the standard predictions of energy when formulating pork and poultry rations,” he says.

“In practice, the DE or ME values of feed ingredients are often insufficiently adjusted for the effect of stage of production, ration processing or the inclusion of feed additives that adjust the microbial population in the gut.

“The use of net energy (NE) is a far better predictor of the response of different animals and feed ingredients.

“The Australian livestock industry relies on the use of home-grown ingredients and by-products when feeding monogastric animals.

“The chemical characteristics of these feeds can be quite variable.

“Given that energy represents more than 75% of total feed costs for monogastric animals, it’s important to use systems that more accurately predict the true energy value of feeds.

“Moving from DE or ME systems to NE systems allows rations to be carefully adjusted to the requirements of animals at different stages of production.

“Implementing a NE system can incur additional costs but the potential savings and health benefits can more than offset this.”

Dr Noblet says maintaining gut health is an emerging challenge in pig and poultry production throughout the world.

“Gut health is the major limiting factor of feed conversion efficiency and productivity in both pigs and poultry,” he says.

“The mandatory or voluntary phasing out of antibiotics increases the importance of nutrition and management for maintaining healthy and productive animals.”

Dr Noblet was supported by Lallemand Animal Nutrition staff, Global Category Manager – Monogastrics, Pierre Lebreton (France) and Director of Data Science, Dr Petra Deane (USA).

Dr Deane discussed the use of advanced tools, including genome sequencing, cloud computing, code development and statistics, in Lallemand’s genomic research program.

Lallemand’s microbial genome library contains more than 100 terabytes of data, which is continuously mined to inform scientific studies on the modes of action, efficacy and safety of different probiotic strains.

“Our research emphasises the functional diversity present within different microbial species due to variability in the ‘accessory’ genome (genes that are only present in certain strains of a species,” she says.

“Ultimately, we’re using data science to glean insights from genomic data to unlock the full potential of microbial diversity for smarter, safer and more innovative animal nutrition solutions.”

Another international visitor, Lallemand Animal Nutrition Global Category Manager – Monogastrics, Pierre Lebreton (France), addressed nutrient kinetics and fibre interactions in monogastric nutrition.

“Genetic improvement, reduced use of antibiobitics and increased emphasis on sustainability present new challenges for nutrition and how to increase predictivity,” he says.

“Physio nutrition is one just example for nutritionists when modulating digestive efficiency and gut health.

“Considering the kinetics of amino acid and glucose absorption is different from digestibility.

“We must create global approaches from outside to inside the animal in order to create a good resilience and a natural optimal sequencing of absorption process and management of non-digestible fractions.”

Other speakers included University of New England Director, Dr Tamsyn Crowley, who addressed the role of biofilms in creating a stable environment in the gut, feed and livestock premises.

Lallemand Animal Nutrition Country Manager, Alex Turney, says the monogastric seminars build on the success of four ruminant health and nutrition seminars the company has delivered to Australian audiences over the past seven years.

“We make a concerted effort to identify speakers who can present scientifically-based innovations that address emerging challenges and opportunities in livestock production, rather than just talk about our technology,” he says.

“We received extremely positive feedback from this approach and it invariably leads to more detailed discussions afterwards.

“Monogastric species represents the next chapter of growth for us in Australia.

“We already have a solid base in silage production and ruminant nutrition, but many people don’t realise that Lallemand has incredible global depth in the provision of microbial feed additives and environmental solutions used in the pork and poultry industries.”

This push is being led by Technical Services Manager, Dr Alison Leary, who joined the Australian team five years ago.

Alison has more than 25 years’ experience in poultry, swine and dairy nutrition in Australia and Asia via sales, technical and management roles with premix and feed manufacturers.

Lallemand Animal Nutrition now employs 10 customer-facing Technical Services Managers, making it one of the largest and most experienced teams of nutrition service agents serving the Australian livestock industry.