Novus Shows Customers how it is Pushing Boundaries during Special Forum at VIV A
On 11th March 2019, Novus International, Inc. held an exclusive knowledge forum in Bangkok, Thailand for its customers titled “Pushing Boundaries: Performance Through Gut Health”.
The forum highlighted discussions on issues facing poultry producers in Asia like maintaining and promoting health and performance without the use of antibiotics and optimizing performance in a tropical environment. Speakers included Dr. Billy Hargis [Professor from the University of Arkansas], Dr. Vivek Kuttappan [Novus research scientist], Dr. Yuwares Ruangpanit [Professor of Animal Science at Kasetsart University], Dr. Suk Hyeon Cho [Novus Regional Technical Services Director], Dr. Dexter Abrigo [Novus Regional Marketing Director] and Mr. Rohan Bahl [Novus Asia Methionine Manager]. The event was well attended with more than 70 delegates from the region.
Dr. Billy Hargis, whose focus area of research lies on alternatives to antibiotics for health, performance and reduction of food-borne pathogens in poultry, led discussions on promoting enteric health without antibiotics. One of the major issue in the industry is necrotic enteritis due to poor coccidiosis control and loss of anti-inflammatory antimicrobial growth promoters (AGPs). Control of coccidiosis is crucial as it leads to malabsorption, local and systemic inflammation, as well as costly vaccines. Lesions occur both microscopically and macroscopically and Dr. Hargis suggested that control is highly dependent on controlling oocyst numbers at appropriate times. Proper vaccination is also critical for cost-effective control or for the displacement of resistant coccidiostats. According to Dr. Billy Hargis, “In the urgent search for AGP alternatives, some alternatives may be more likely to promote recovery of the enteric epithelium whereas others may be more protective for the inflammation-induced shock and high acute mortality associated with the more virulent challenge”. Without antibiotics, controlling gut inflammation/leaky gut is extremely important. Protease consideration becomes crucial and microbiota management using selected essential oils and organic acids can have meaningful impacts, he said.
Dr. Yuwares Ruangpanit tackled optimizing performance in a tropical environment where she emphasized feeding strategies after hatching to optimize performance through gut health. She said that it is important to provide animals with quality feed and feeding to obtain balanced microbiota, as well as to reduce stress and inflammation in the gut. Various research studies suggest that chickens subjected to acute heat stress have reduced ileal crypt depth, while some research additionally demonstrate that villus height is also affected under heat stress. Growth performance of animals can be maximized in tropical conditions without antibiotic supplementations by using precision feeding formulation and effective nutrition use among other management and health strategies, she said.
Other topics discussed during the forum included global methionine updates, enhancing meat quality as well as addressing food safety in a post-AGP environment. Dr. Vivek Kuttappan shared the latest researches on the benefits of organic trace minerals in poultry. Copper is important for iron transport, red-blood-cell formation, antioxidant system function as well as for structural integrity. Dr. Kuttappan introduced MINTREX® Cu trace mineral to the audience and presented research on its successful use in optimizing weight gains and feed conversion to improve broiler growth performance.
Novus understands the importance of nutrition to support health and the performance of animals, and this forms the basis of its Pushing Boundaries program to do more with nutrition under AGP-free or antibiotic-free production.