Provimi symposium during Victam well attended

Wim Troost from Provimi opened the symposium by highlighting some of the issues that the feed industry is currently facing. He addressed the importance of local research, because different farmers around the world need different research.


Provimi currently has 13 research stations worldwide, and with this amount the company tries to cover the need for this local research.


Alternatives
Troost also mentioned that companies are now working closer on new research than what they used to. This is particularly seen in new research in finding alternatives to antimicrobial growth promoters and finding new solutions to cut down methane emission from agriculture.


Troost ended his introduction by saying that the real challenge at the moment lies in exploring new quality replacements for costly ingredients (such as fish meal).


“Finding new replacements and tools are constantly required by the sector, and we as an industry have to live up to these demands”, he concluded.


FEFAC opinion
Alexander Döring, secretary General of the European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation (FEFAC) spoke about the current status of the European feed industry.


Döring addressed the key topical dossiers for FEFAC at the moment. These are: feed labelling, sustainable feed production, codes of good practice, contaminants, GMO, animal proteins and other issues (including AGP alternatives, future status of coccidiostats, by products and re-evaluation of additives).


Legislation
Döring mentioned that FEFAC is currently working to review the animal by-products legislation, meaning that options are reviewed to reintroduce by products (such as blood products and meat and bone meal) in certain animal diets.


Regarding the future status of coccidiostats FEFAC has a clear view. They should be registered as medicines and not as feed additives (which is done at the moment). However, Döring questions whether animal health companies are willing to pay for the registration dossiers needed for this.


Fingerprinting technique
Wim van Haeringen from the Dr Van Haeringen Laboratory in the Netherlands updated the audience on the work they are currently conducting.


At the lab, they use the Microbial Community Profiling and Characterization (MCPC) technique. With this technique they try to find and characterise new bacteria species, which are found in the digestive tract.


By typing micro-organisms (MO’s), finding correlations between MO’s and infections and between MO’s and animal diets the aim is to improve the quality and formulation of the feed for better performance and health, Van Haeringen said.


NIR infrared
Paul Gerardy from Research and Technology Centre gave a presentation about the benefits of using near infrared (NIR) in feed analysis.


According to Gerardy, NIR has very low costs compared to wet chemistry, can measure several nutrients at the same time, does not need expert skills, has results within minutes, requires no hazardous chemicals and produces no pollutants.


Gerardy says that a customer with 2 silos for 300 million tonnes of soy can save around €2.42 per ton soy (€0.48 per tonne feed).


Related website:
• Provimi


For the latest pig news, subscribe here