At Cargill ANH, we pride ourselves on being a comprehensive poultry solution provider. Our MHS Biostrong™ range exemplifies this commitment, offering a complete suite of ingredients and advanced technologies tailored to the diverse needs of poultry producers worldwide. We focus on performance, nutrition, and health, ensuring our solutions are rigorously tested and continually refined to deliver optimal results across various geographies, climates, and production conditions.
Gut Health and Performance Poultry Category Lead
Cargill Animal Nutrition and Health (ANH)
Modern poultry production demands require innovative nutritional solutions that meet future needs. With poultry meat and egg consumption projected to grow by 15% by 2032, an integrated approach is essential to overcome industry challenges and help farmers achieve their production goals.
We spoke with Yann Fournis, Gut Health and Performance Poultry Category Lead at Cargill Animal Nutrition and Health (ANH), about Cargill’s Micronutrition and Health Solutions (MHS) business and its poultry line Biostrong™. He highlighted the importance of feed solutions in supporting broiler health and performance and shared some of the innovations that are at the forefront of poultry nutrition advancements.
What are the main challenges that require attention in the poultry meat production industry?
The poultry industry needs to improve production efficiency and profitability to meet growing demand. This involves optimizing feed for better growth and reduced waste, maintaining gut health for improved nutrient absorption, and minimizing disease risks. Additionally, there is a need to reduce reliance on antibiotics as growth promoters. Addressing these challenges requires an integrated approach that leverages precision nutrition and technology.
At Cargill ANH, we pride ourselves on being a comprehensive poultry solution provider. Our MHS Biostrong™ range exemplifies this commitment, offering a complete suite of ingredients and advanced technologies tailored to the diverse needs of poultry producers worldwide. We focus on performance, nutrition, and health, ensuring our solutions are rigorously tested and continually refined to deliver optimal results across various geographies, climates, and production conditions. This includes harnessing the power of additives for precise and purposeful performance.
You mentioned the power of feed additives – can you speak on how feed additives can help address industry challenges?
Feed additives have a crucial role to play in addressing challenges. Using the right ones at the right time can support:
• Feed cost and efficiency: They can make feed use more efficient and cost-effective.
• Nutrient optimization: They help in better utilization of nutrients, reducing waste and improving overall feed efficiency.
• Animal health: Feed solutions can support immune responses, helping natural defenses against disease. Feed materials like postbiotics can be part of good farm practices that help support animal health.
For example, under the Cargill MHS Biostrong™ line we have Biostrong™ Dual – a true game-changer in the poultry industry and a new way of thinking about feed products.
It combines the benefits of postbiotics and phytogenics – in the form of essential oil compounds – into a single, powerful feed solution. This innovative approach supports the intestinal microflora of chickens, enhancing their overall performance. The postbiotics, derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae promote the growth of beneficial gut microbes. Meanwhile, the essential oil compounds encourage feed intake, creating a synergistic effect that boosts consistency and stability in animal performance.
How does Biostrong™ Dual support animal performance specifically?
The gut microbiome plays a crucial role in animal performance. In well-performing birds, the gut microbiome has a higher abundance of lactic acid producers in early life, which are later replaced by short chain fatty acids producers. Biostrong™ Dual accelerates this process, supporting beneficial bacteria and managing undesirable ones.
Our trials have shown significant increases in body weight, better feed conversion ratios, and higher market weights, making Biostrong™ Dual effective across different growth stages and production conditions.
Can you share some of the trial results that prove Biostrong™ Dual’s efficacy?
Biostrong™ Dual’s performance benefits are supported by over 15 independent trials conducted under various conditions. These trials have consistently demonstrated noticeable enhancements in body weight, feed conversion ratio, and breast meat yield. For instance, birds fed with Biostrong™ Dual at 0.4kg/MT experienced body weight increase of 80g at 42 days of age, a 4-point reduction in feed conversion ratio, and a 0.5% increase in breast meat yield. This highlights the feed solution’s ability to support broiler performance throughout their lifecycle.
More recently, we had some exciting results confirming the efficacy of Biostrong™ Dual in field conditions through successful trials in Latin America and Europe. In Mexico, Biostrong™ Dual delivered exceptional results, with more than 100g extra bodyweight per broiler and a solid 4-point feed conversion ratio reduction. As it is deployed, the solution keeps its promises, whatever the production context, and we are immensely proud to have solutions that are strongly backed by research and scientifically proven.
This is exciting information for the poultry world! Can we expect more nutrition innovations from your team soon?
We are continuously working on innovations to address the evolving needs of the poultry industry, and we are at the forefront of combining different feed additives categories for better results.
In addition to Biostrong™ Dual, we are developing novel solutions like Biostrong™ H Protect and Biostrong™ C Protect, which combine postbiotics technology with other phytogenics to address distinct customer concerns. Preliminary trials have shown significant efficacy against avian pathogens in layers and turkeys. We aim to have these ready for customer trials before the end of 2025, continuing our commitment to innovation and excellence in poultry nutrition.
Thank you for your time, do you have any last thoughts that you would like to share with our readers?
You are most welcome. I would end by saying that the future of poultry nutrition lies in innovative businesses like Cargill MHS and solutions such as Biostrong™ Dual. By leveraging the right feed ingredients at the right time, poultry producers can enhance feed efficiency, optimize nutrient utilization, and support immunity and digestion. The promising results from various trials underscore the effectiveness of these solutions in improving broiler performance across different production conditions.
For more information on Cargill’s innovative offerings and to explore how they can elevate your poultry business, I encourage readers to visit us online or speak to one of our experts today.
About Yann Fournis
Yann Fournis is Additives Poultry Category Lead for CAN, the animal nutrition division of Cargill. He started this position in January 2018. In his current role, he is responsible for the deployment of three additives portfolios within Cargill Animal Nutrition businesses, and contributes to the innovation with Cargill partners to find new solutions able to answer customers’ expectations.
Fournis graduated as a zootechnical engineer in 2011 from AgroCampus Ouest in France, with main focus on animal production. From 2011 to 2018, he worked as a Layer nutritionist in Cargill France, on its domestic and export markets. In 2016 he focused on layer nutrition and management, working with on-farm mixers and feed millers in France, Sub Saharian Africa and Latin America.
