Increasingly our industry is evaluating the use of more circular raw materials. However, these ingredients can come with new challenges in terms of inflammation and oxidative stress. It is our belief that we can have a holistic role to play in a sustainable future by increasing the animal’s resilience against these often-underrated challenges.
By Léon Vanden Avenne, Technical Sales Manager, Impextraco
According to the FAO, about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions (about 7 gigatons CO2 eq.) come from producing animal protein, which is split almost equally between livestock production (50%) and feed production (47%), with a small contribution of post-farm transport and processing (3%)1. These and other human-induced emissions are contributing to climate change, making extreme weather events and crop failure more frequent, which puts a risk on the global food supply. As the global population continues to grow and incomes rise, we need to make sure that our industry develops new ways to ensure food security, with a least cost- and least impact philosophy.
The livestock industry has significantly optimized the animal production footprint in the last decades already, mainly driven by efficiency gains. However, purely feed-conversion rate (FCR) optimization is not the only parameter that we should consider when working towards a more sustainable future. Raw material and ingredient choice, feed processing technologies and animal rearing practices can all have a positive impact on our environmental footprint.
Increasingly our industry is evaluating the use of more circular raw materials. However, these ingredients can come with new challenges in terms of inflammation and oxidative stress. It is our belief that we can have a holistic role to play in a sustainable future by increasing the animal’s resilience against these often-underrated challenges. This topic is a key focus area in our innovation and R&D to deliver the right solutions, be it products or services, for our customers to achieve more sustainable practices while remaining profitable.
EMBRACING CIRCULARITY
Historically, animals were fed with food- and crop waste from farms. If we want to understand the future role of animals in a sustainable world, we could look at that past and learn from it in order to avoid competition for limited resources between human- and animal food as much as possible. At the moment, some circular raw materials are already widely used. According to FEFAC, side streams and byproducts are considered as such when they are obtained from a process where the main activity is to obtain consumer goods, such as beverages, food, biofuels or other industrial applications. Examples are distillers dried grains (DDGS) which are spent grains and yeast cells from bioethanol or alcoholic beverages production, hulls from legumes or nuts, potato peels, sugar beet pulp, and even processed former foodstuffs from chocolate bars or biscuits2. They are often not fit for human consumption, but nevertheless can be valuable for animals. In this sense, animals can serve as biological recycling bins by upcycling circular raw materials into valuable animal products (Figure 1).
Europe and the US are frontrunners in this field, where circular raw materials already account for an average of 35-45% of total animal feed, depending on the country and on the species. Of course, much depends on how circular raw materials are defined and what sources are included in the calculation. In other continents, also more local raw materials such as rice bran, cassava byproducts, coconut meal or palm kernel expeller are used. Next to reducing the cost for local consumers, this also cuts some of the emissions from transportation. Evaluating the different possible raw material options with open-source life-cycle assessment (LCA) tools and the Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) database will become a more standard practice throughout the industry. However, much work remains to be done to unlock the full potential of circular ingredients, including scoping their nutritional value, their availability considering feed-fuel competition and creating necessary policies to allow certain streams back into the cycle3.
SUPPORTING ANIMALS TO COPE WITH CIRCULARITY
As pressure increases to formulate feeds with a lower environmental footprint and as climate change puts a risk on the availability of conventional raw materials, a shift to less ideal raw materials can be expected. Research indicates that working with increased circular- and less ideal local ingredients increases the presence of anti-nutritional factors (ANF), fibers, protein, lipids and phytate. In addition, some byproducts such as legume hulls or DDGS come with an increased mycotoxin risk. These factors increase the risk of inflammation and oxidative stress in the gut which have consequences on feed intake, digestive processes, the microbiome, and bioavailability of nutrients. Especially when looking for alternatives for soybean meal, considerable disturbances in metabolism and intestinal structure are expected4,5. Obviously, the sector must remain profitable. Therefore, the risks of diminished production results and health problems due to oxidative stress must be avoided.
In vivo oxidation of cells in the body of humans and animals is put forward by more and more research as a major cause of suboptimal functioning6,7. However, oxidative stress to this day remains an underestimated problem. It occurs when there is an imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or free radicals and the ability of the body to counteract their harmful effects through neutralization by antioxidants. The production of ROS comes from both endogenous sources including energy metabolism, immune cell activation, inflammation, infection, and aging, along with exogenous sources such as heat, environmental pollutants, heavy metals, and antibiotics. An increased load of free radicals by working with circular ingredients will cause oxidation of intracellular DNA or key proteins and lipids, which cause a chain reaction with cell damage and -death as a consequence (Figure 2).
Just as with our research on the mycotoxin problem, it is our mission to correctly evaluate the occurrence of oxidative stress in vivo and propose the right cost-effective solution accordingly. Through our extensive knowledge of oxidation, Impextraco has developed a natural solution based on carefully selected polyphenols from different botanical sources. The hydrophilic polyphenols inside ELIFE®, that reduce cellular oxidation as early as in the gut, are effectively absorbed in the bloodstream. This allows them to act as a powerful antioxidant on a cellular level and stimulate endogenous antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and glutathione reductase (GR), thereby relieving the animals from oxidative stress on a systemic level. Our animal trials research, based on a wide range of biomarkers from different tissues, has shown ELIFE®’s effectiveness against oxidative stress and its effects on vitamin E protection, lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzymes, reproduction, and zootechnical performance, in multiple subspecies and in a dose-response manner.
By measuring oxidative stress in species who are especially prone for it, the impact of the use of oxidation-inducing byproducts can be correctly evaluated. For example, based on a sow trial with IMASDE in Spain, we have shown that increased oxidative stress occurs during the pre-farrowing and lactation period, affecting performance (Figure 3 (A), (B)). Due to the increase in energy utilization required for milk synthesis, a shift from anabolic to catabolic metabolism occurs, increasing the level of free radicals. It is because of this reason that plasma TBARS levels, which are a byproduct of lipid peroxidation, are at their highest during this period. To combat oxidation, sows will consume great levels of vitamin E because of the increased metabolic requirement of antioxidants. Because used vitamin E is lost, it is therefore more effective to combat oxidative stress on a systemic level with ELIFE®, instead of supplementing additional levels of dietary vitamin E, which will be consumed. Additionally, based on a previously published layer trial, we have indications that our natural polyphenols have a vitamin E protecting function. Old birds like laying hens after peak production are known to have a reduced endogenous antioxidant enzyme secretion. This also makes them more prone to oxidative stress. Our research showed that laying hens during phase II have increased ROS in the egg yolk, while vitamin E levels are increased in egg yolk after supplementation with ELIFE®. Our biomarker research indicated that already with conventional feed, oxidative stress is an underestimated problem. We see it as our mission to raise awareness around oxidative stress.
As pressure on the industry is rising to develop more sustainable practices, and climate change puts a risk on lower availability of conventional raw materials, using less ideal circular raw materials will become more common. These raw materials can induce inflammation and oxidative stress and lead to suboptimal performance. It’s Impextraco’s ambition to support its customers via technical services, empowering them to evaluate health problems and propose the corresponding solution, thereby supporting them in adopting sustainable production methods in a cost-effective manner.
Sources
1Gerber, et al. (2013). Tackling climate change through livestock – A global assessment of emissions and mitigation opportunities. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome.
2FEFAC (2019). Resource efficiency champions: Co-products, an essential part of animal nutrition. The European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation (FEFAC), Belgium.
3Muscat (2021). The battle for biomass: Tackling tensions and trade-offs at the science-policy interface. Wageningen University.
4Bikker & Jansman (2023). Review: Composition and utilisation of feed by monogastric animals in the context of circular food production systems. Animal, Vol 17.
5Danek-Majeska et al. (2022). Effect of Raw Chickpea in the Broiler Chicken Diet on Intestinal Histomorphology and Intestinal Microbial Populations. Animals, Vol 12.
6Pizzino et al. (2017). Oxidative Stress: Harms and Benefits for Human Health. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity.
7Lauridsen (2019). From oxidative stress to inflammation: redox balance and immune system. Poultry Science, Vol 98.
About Léon Vanden Avenne
Léon Vanden Avenne is one of Impextraco’s Technical Sales Managers. He believes Impextraco can have a crucial and holistic role to play in sustainable and profitable animal production via better nutrition and technical services, enhancing the animal’s resilience through optimizing the digestive process. With his background in Bioscience Engineering from KU Leuven and Kyoto University, he wants to leverage nature’s tools to turn one man’s trash in another one’s treasure and is currently engaged in understanding the link between byproducts and oxidative stress.
