ISSUE FOCUS 40 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE March 2022 PHYTOGENICS: NATURAL ADDITIVES TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE IN DAIRY Meeting consumers' expectations for sustainable agriculture while providing animal-derived products, such as milk, to feed the growing global population has become a new challenge for the industry. These two objectives seem somewhat challenging to conciliate. Yet, there are ways to use natural plantbased feed additives to improve the performance of the animals and reduce their environmental impact. WHAT ARE PHYTOGENICS? Today, “phytogenic feed additive” (PFA) represents an established and technical term. Analyzing its etymology reveals that “phytogenic” consists of the Greek words “Phyton,” which stands for “plant,” and “genes,” meaning “creating, yielding.” Thus, phytogenics consist of plant-derived, bioactive substances. When thinking about phytogenics, especially in animal nutrition, the most wellknown substances are essential oils (EOs), consisting of a wide range of potent active ingredients. However, PFAs do not restrict to EOs, representing only a sub-category, and should not be used instead of phytogenics. This explains the broad spectrum of PFA modes of action in animal production. Saponins, flavonoids, mucilages, tannins, pungent substances, bitter substances… also belong to PFAs (Figure 1), each with their specific modes of action. Delphine Lacombe Global Technical Manager Ruminants Delacon Biotechnik GmbH Figure 1. Overview of the phytogenic universe available for animal nutrition and related modes of action (©Delacon)
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