ISSUE FOCUS FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE May 2023 33 challenges facing food and feed producers today, as it can cause illness in both animals and humans. Salmonella can be found in raw ingredients, finished feeds, and as legacy bacteria in mills and subsequent contamination can have serious consequences, leading to product recalls and economic losses. Research has found that feed contributes to 4.8% of the Salmonella prevalence within poultry production systems (Wang et al, 2023). This is significant because feed has the unique ability to introduce pathogens into animal gastrointestinal tracts, which in turn leads to higher prevalence in feces and litter, increasing horizontal transmission within the breeding and grow out facilities, a phenomenon that has eluded most published works to date. However, work has been done to evaluate the impact of feed sanitation and reduced feed microbial loads on broiler breeder hen performance. Avila et al found that breeder hens fed sanitized feed produced cleaner eggs with reduced eggshell microbial loads (2023). In today's world, we, as an industry and consumers, have more visibility than ever on the safety and quality of food. Because of this, ingredient sourcing and microbial risk management play a crucial role in animal feed and food production. Effective feed hygiene programs that reduce microbial loads and provide continued protection against microbial recontamination are essential to producing high-quality animal feed. Feed sanitation remains to be one of the industry’s most impactful tools. Studies have repeatedly shown that utilizing a feed sanitizer in raw ingredients and finished feed reduces overall microbial loads and pathogen prevalence while providing continued protection for at least 14 days post-application. Within feed production systems, feed sanitizers can also be used as a flushing agent that aids in keeping facilities free of legacy bacteria. Figure 1. Impact of Feed Sanitation with Termin-8® on Feed Microbial Loads *Indicates significant difference between treatments (P<0.05) Source: Avila et al,2023 Figure 2. Impact of Feed Sanitation with Termin-8® on Eggshell Microbial Load *Indicates significant difference between treatments (p<0.05) Source: Avila et al, 2023
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