Ufac-UK appoints Egypt distributor

Ufac-UK has appointed Unitrade Egypt Company as a new distributor for its dairy and poultry supplements for the whole of Egypt.
Unitrade, a specialist feed and medicines marketing company, based at Tanta, has a sales team of ten veterinary surgeons who will provide on-farm advice on the use of energy supplements. "Britain has a good reputation and the Unitrade Egypt team were looking for a better product to improve fertility, production and butterfat levels which can be a problem in high-yielding cows under an intensive system coupled with high temperatures," said Vijay Nigdikar, Ufac's export director. "Our Dynalac high-energy supplement can help them with that."

New supplement may improve weanlings pigs gut health

Research on adding chitooligosaccharide (COS) to a piglet’s diet was conducted to investigate the effects of supplementing different molecular weights (MW) on intestinal morphology, selected microbial populations, volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations and the immune status of the weaned pig.
In the study, 28 piglets (24 days of age, 9.1 kg (± s.d. 0.80) live weight) were assigned to one of four dietary treatments for eight days and then were sacrified. The treatments were (1) control diet (0 ppm COS), (2) control diet plus 5 to 10 kDa COS, (3) control diet plus 10 to 50 kDa COS and (4) control diet plus 50 to 100 kDa COS. The COS was included in dietary treatments at a rate of 250 mg/kg. Tissue samples were taken from the duodenum, jejunum and ileum for morphological measurements. Digesta samples were taken from the proximal colon to measure lactobacilli and Escherichia coli populations and digest samples were taken from the caecum and proximal colon for VFA analysis. Gene expression levels for specific cytokines were investigated in colonic tissue of the pig.
Supplementation of different MW of COS did no show significant effect on pig performance during the post-weaning period (days 0 to 8; P > 0.05). The inclusion of COS at all MW in the diet significantly reduced fecal scores compared with the control treatment (P < 0.01). Pigs fed the 10 to 50 kDa COS had a higher villous height (P < 0.05) and villous height:crypt depth ratio (P < 0.05) in the duodenum and the jejunum compared with the control treatment. Pigs fed the 5 to 10 kDa COS had a lower lactobacilli population (P < 0.05) and E. coli population (P < 0.05) in the colon compared with the control group. Pigs offered the 5 to 10 kDa COS had significantly lower levels of acetic acid and valeric acid compared with the control group (P < 0.05). The inclusion of different MW of COS had no significant effect on the expression of the cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α, Interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8 and IL-10 in the gastrointestinal tract of the weaned pig.
The current results indicate that a lower MW of 5 to 10 kDa COS possessed an antibacterial activity, while the higher MW of 10 to 50 kDa was optimum for enhancing the intestinal structure.

AM Walsh, T Sweeney, B Bahar, B Flynn, JV O’Doherty. 2012. The effect of chitooligosaccharide supplementation on intestinal morphology, selected microbial populations, volatile fatty acid concentrations and immune gene expression in the weaned pig. Animal, 6(10):1620-1626. doi:10.1017/S1751731112000481.

Jules Tournut Probiotics Prize awarded at EuroTier 2012

Peter de Schryver is this year’s recipient of the Jules Tournut Probiotics Prize. Awarded at the trade show EuroTier, the prize recognized his work in evaluating a new microbial-based approach to improve aquaculture practices.
His study looked at applying poly-B-hydroxybutyrate, or PHB, as a feed supplement in aquaculture. At levels of 2 percent and 5 percent in the diet, PHB seemed to significantly enhance the growth performance of juvenile European sea bass with a factor of 2.4 and 2.7, respectively. The richness and genetic diversity of the intestinal microbial community in terms of the range-weighted richness seemed to be closely correlated with the growth performance of the fish, suggesting a host-microbial interaction that was steered by the presence of PHB.
Supplementation with PHB had a steering effect in juvenile sea bass, resulting in converging microbial community similarities between treated fish. PHB induced more equal abundances between the various bacterial species, and higher PHB levels resulted in a higher degree of evenness.
To increase the efficiency of PHB treatment, PHB depolymerising probiotics were isolated for the first time from the intestinal environment of juvenile sea bass, sturgeon and giant river prawns. These were combined with PHB in a symbiotic strategy. This approach increased the survival of Artemia franciscana nauplii with a factor of 2 to 3 when challenged with a pathogenic Vibrio strain, compared to an approach with PHB or the isolates alone.

FEFANA calls for regulation of EU feed supplements

The European Union (EU) Association of Specialty Feed Ingredients and their Mixtures (FEFANA) is working with members to complete dossiers on feed products to ensure their permanence on the EU market.
FEFANA set up a task force in 2005 calling for the regulation of the use of certain micronutrients and feed supplements that have been on the market for years under multiple member states and regulatory conditions. In response to this task force, the European Commission (EC) announced a regulation stipulating that such products could only be placed permanently on the market if they fulfill the conditions of a particular nutritional purpose. The EC has requested dossiers on the products to help determine their status.
To assist with the new regulation, FEFANA is helping members complete the dossiers. The first due date was set at Sept. 1, 2010.

Weak ruminant market hits supplement sales at Westway

Westway Group Inc in the US produces approximately 1.5 million tons of liquid feed supplements annually at 37 facilities through its subsidiary Westway Feed Products.
In an earnings statement for the six months to June 2010, it says the tonnage sold by its liquid feed supplement business declined by 3% because of continued weakness in the dairy and cattle markets, to 771,000 tons from 792,000 tons for the same period of 2009.
This included a 2% drop to 355,000 tons for the three-month period ended June, compared to 362,000 tons in April-June 2009, although the gross profit margin (net revenues minus cost of sales) remained constant at US$9.6 million.