ISSUE FOCUS 30 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE September 2024 “Phytogenics are additives inspired by nature for animal feed intake, performance, product quality, and environmental friendliness. Among these additives, essential oils (EO) offer vast potential in animal feed for improving feed intake, feed efficiency, supporting health status, heat stress management, and product quality.” In the past, the primary focus was on improving intake, performance, and feed efficiency in livestock for margin improvement on farms. This remains crucial for livestock viability and feeding the increasing population. Now, it’s equally important to enhance product quality (meat, eggs, milk) to meet consumer demand for food quality (nutrient levels) and food safety (no residues in products, no adverse health effects). Additionally, animal welfare and environmental impact have become key drivers due to societal pressure. Balancing these three objectives (feed efficiency, product quality, and environmental impact) is challenging. However, using plant-based feed ingredients that are inspired by nature is one of the potential tools that may offer a way to achieve this compromise. WHAT ARE PHYTOGENICS AND ESSENTIAL OILS? The term "phytogenic feed additives" (PFA) was introduced by Delacon 30 FROM NATURE TO NUTRITION: THE POWER OF ESSENTIAL OILS Thierry Aubert Phytogenic Ruminant Tech Lead Cargill Animal Nutrition Figure 1. Active compounds in phytogenics feed additives (Delacon)
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