Issue Focus

Trouw Nutrition researchers found that adding hydroxychloride copper (IntelliBond®) to swine diets could help improve growth performance and reduce negative interactions between copper and added vitamins or enzymes. The use of high levels of copper also was found to limit the overgrowth of unwanted bacteria helping to manage gut health, increasing average daily gain (ADG) throughout production and improving hot carcass weight.

Sustainability and safeguarding the environment are key issues for the poultry industry. The industry is proactively managing its environmental obligations in the face of toughening environmental legislation and governmental initiatives, particularly where ammonia and nitrogen output is a focus.

About 40 percent of livestock emissions consist of enteric methane. Nitrous oxide and methane from fertilizer management are other emissions from livestock. Although it seems very difficult to control these two resources that arise as a result of a natural process, alternative solutions are also developing rapidly. Some studies are showing that changes to be made especially in the nutritional diets of animals decrease this rate.

The Covid-19 pandemic was the main agenda for 2020. Like every sector, livestock and feed sectors have had their share of this outbreak. At the beginning of the pandemic, with the effect of panic purchases, the demand for meat, milk and fishery products increased. However, disruptions in raw material supply, logistics, and labor resources due to restrictions made it difficult for the industry to respond to consumer demands at the same pace.