ISSUE FOCUS 58 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE October 2023 A UNIQUE COMBINATION OF COATED ALL-NATURAL INGREDIENTS While all-natural feed additives will often combine two, or perhaps three, ingredients e.g., essential oils and other plant extracts or probiotics and prebiotics, there are very few products that combine five ingredient groups. By-O-reg+ 360 (Advanced Ag Products, USA) is one such example, developed specifically for fattening pigs. By-O-reg+ is a combination of essential oils based on the Lamiaceae and Lauraceae families, yeast cell wall fractions, prebiotics, flavonoids and saponins. Essential oils from the Lamiaceae and Lauraceae, for example oregano, thyme, and mint, are known for their strong antimicrobial and antioxidant properties as well as their ability to drive feed intake. Yeast cell wall fragments have been documented to modulate immune responses, enhance gut integrity, and mitigate pathogen loads. Prebiotics are a nutrient source for the intestinal microbiota and have the potential to manage inflammation via their immunomodulatory properties. Flavonoids have strong antioxidant properties while saponins can disrupt microbial and protozoal cells walls, modulate immunity and lower faecal ammonia. The key to the efficacy of By-O-reg+ 360 however, is the use of a proprietary coating technology known as CF20. Within the product, a proportion of the essential oils and saponins are coated. Unlike traditional encapsulation technologies that completely seal the essential oils in a fat or polysaccharide matrix for example, or mineral carriers that function as sponges, CF20 is more analogous to a chocolate chip cookie. The essential oil and saponin droplets are trapped within the coating matrix, some droplets completely coated and some partially coated. This creates a slow release of oils down the digestive tract but the coated is not degraded until the small intestine and beyond. As well as protecting the essential oils and saponin from releasing too early in the digestive tract the coating increases the bioavailability of the oils, enhancing their efficacy. THE REAL-WORLD EFFICACY OF BY-O-REG+ 360 In the USA, ionophore based feed additives e.g., narasin, are still used in fattening pigs to increase weight gain and improve efficiency. Three grow/finish farms were selected to run a side-by-side comparison of an in-feed ionophore and By-O-reg+ 360 with over 9,000 animals used in the evaluation and average starting weight ranged from 2731kg/pig (Table 1). On average, pigs fed the all-natural feed additive combination By-O-reg+ 360, achieved target weight 6.7 days earlier than those fed narasin. Performance On all three farms, pigs fed By-O-reg+ 360 had higher final bodyweight and lower FCR than pigs fed narasin (Figure 1a & 1b). Average daily gain (ADG) was 2.514.5% higher in pigs fed By-O-reg+ 360 versus narasin while mortality was either similar between groups or up to 47% lower in those animals receiving By-O-reg+ 360 (Table 1). Farm No. pigs Narasin (0.03%) (NAR) By-O-reg+ 360 (0.025%) (BOR) Mortality (%) Days on feed No. pigs Mortality (%) Days on feed 1 2 3 1204 939 2472 125 132 125 4.6 13.4 9,0 1218 991 2498 124 113 122 4.6 6.8 4.8 Table 1. Treatment groups, fattening period (days on feed) and mortality
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