ISSUE FOCUS 44 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE December 2023 Specific citrus extracts can be an efficient tool to support animal performance. This plantbased additive has a low carbon footprint as it’s a co-product from the food industry. A recent peer reviewed article (Bui et al., 2023) assesses the environmental footprint of a citrus extract thanks to a rigorous method. This work illustrates how a citrus based feed additive can contribute to a more sustainable meat production. With the global population growth, the meat consumption is expected to increase by 14% by 2030 compared to 2018-2020 (FAO), as pork and chicken are projected to increase by 13.1 and 17.8% respectively. In 2020, poultry meat represented almost 40% of global meat production with a global chicken population over 33 billion birds, and pork meat represented 36% of global meat production with more than 670 million pigs. Today, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG in CO2 equivalent) from meat production represent more than 50% of the total emissions from agriculture in 2018-2020. It’s estimated that meat production consumes 70 percent of water use and 30 percent of ice-free surface land worldwide. These numbers clearly illustrate the coming challenge of the meat industry: how to increase meat production and limit carbon foot print impact? Many studies have been run on meat production life cycle assessment, more than 250 peer reviewed articles (PubMed) have been published on that specific topic, 80% during the past decade only. Amongst the many solutions being investigated, some feed additives are of interest as they permit to improve animal performance and thus indirectly reduce the quantity of resources needed for meat production up to 10% (Blonk et al., 2021). Feed additives based on food co-products are even more beneficial, as they permit to provide natural solutions and to reduce waste from the food industry. Citrus extract is an interesting candidate that has been widely studied for its animal performance benefits and recently for its environmental interest. The ban of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in the European Union leads to the development of many alternatives aiming to support animal health and performance. Exogenous enzymes, organic acids, prebiotics, probiotics, and plant extracts are now widely used (Huyghebaert et al., 2011). In the plant extract category, citrus extract-based feed additives are used in animal nutrition for several years to improve animal performance, thanks to their high concentration in pectic-oligosaccharides and citroflavonoids. Most of the available studies on citrus extract indicate an effect on gut microbiota leading THE USE OF A CITRUS EXTRACT IN SUSTAINABLE ANIMAL PRODUCTION Julia Laurain Marketing Director Nor-Feed
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