Metabolic

The future of animal nutrition includes clean feed

When it comes to clean feed, one of the most important issues is gut health. A healthy gut can lead to healthier animals and ultimately an improved return on investment (ROI).

Good health

Clean feed is an important factor in the development of a healthy gut in young animals. Inferior feed ingredients promote inflammation through pro-inflammatory cytokines and the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria, which leads to nutritional disorders and has a negative effect on growth.

Many feed ingredients contain anti-nutritional factors (ANF) such as non-starch polysaccharides, beta-conglycinin, highly aromatic amino acids, oxidized lipids and gluten prolamines, all of which promote intestinal inflammation. In response to intestinal inflammation, the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines increases, followed by a response to oxidative stress, which leads to increased apoptosis and further upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines. If the response to inflammatory compounds in feed ingredients persists, the vicious cycle that leads to chronic inflammation and lowers ROI continues.

The gut microbiome is strongly influenced by the composition of the feed consumed by young animals. Food ingredients can promote the proliferation of symbiotic or pathogenic bacteria. ANF-containing feed components shift the intestinal microbiome from symbiotic to pathogenic bacteria and promote infectious inflammation. By shifting the microbiome towards pathogenic bacteria and further feeding the ingredients with ANFs, bacterial fermentation is made possible, which can increase the risk of diarrhea and diet-related illnesses.

An example of an ANF are trypsin inhibitors (TI) in soybean meal (SBM). A high TI is one of the largest factors that decrease the quality of SBM fed to monogastric animals, affect the digestibility of the feed, and increase intestinal inflammation. When pigs on a diet of 38% SBM were fed 8.78 mg / g TI, the digestibility of the amino acids decreased by 13 to 26%, while the digestibility of the crude protein was decreased by 23.3% (Chen et al., 2020). A similar trend was seen in broilers, where a high TI decreased protein digestibility, decreased body weight gain, and increased the feed conversion ratio (FCR) (Rada et al., 2017).

This also applies to ruminants. One of the leading causes of calf death is enteric infection. Improving the health of the calf intestine reduces the risk of developing enteric infections while improving the immune system and overall animal health. There is also evidence that changing the microbiome at a young age leads to improved milk production (Steele et al., 2016; Dill-McFarland et al., 2017).

Obviously, simply using clean ingredients promotes the development of a healthy gut, resulting in many additional benefits such as reduced procedures and a higher return on investment. This is important in preparing young animals for success from the start and in supporting their long-term health and performance.

Clean forage improves the growing conditions

Ensuring gut health through clean feed ingredients can improve overall health and reduce the need for intervention through management practices. Creating a healthy intestine through clean feed reduces the incidence of diarrhea, reduces oxidative stress, and can reduce the need for antibiotics. Responses to these forms of stress also require a lot of energy to activate the immune response. This results in energy from the feed being used for the immune response rather than for growth. Feeding clean feed ingredients supports health and promotes perfect growing conditions.

Improved ROI

Improving the immunity and general health of young animals can lead to an improved return on investment (ROI). Feeding ingredients with lower ANF early on will reduce intestinal inflammation and oxidative stress, support the development of a healthy immune system, and result in lower FCRs and thus a higher ROI. Less need for management intervention can also lower production costs as less labor is required and less is spent on antibiotics / AGPs or other drugs. While AGPs are banned in Europe, they are still used worldwide, but with clean diets, AGPs become redundant and unnecessary, which further improves ROI. Clean feed creates value for both animal health and finances.

The Hamlet Protein Difference

Hamlet Protein produces clean soy-based feed ingredients for young animals with significantly lower ANFs compared to traditional SBM. The patented production process is gentle and uses enzymatic treatment to reduce levels of the most harmful ANFs without damaging the protein or amino acids. The process is monitored very closely to ensure that customers receive the exact same high quality every time.

Feeding Hamlet Protein products in the starter diet of young animals has been shown to improve nutrient absorption, increase body weight gain, lower FCR, while reducing the incidence of metabolic disorders and the need for treatment. The difference between Hamlet Protein is in providing feed ingredients for young animals that help create healthy intestines to improve performance and ultimately increase ROI.

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