'Sustainability Vision 2020' published by Nutreco

Global animal nutrition and fish feed company Nutreco has issued its Sustainability Vision 2020. Making sustainability an integral part of everyday business will ensure Nutreco can contribute to the Feeding the Future challenge: feeding nine billion people sustainably in 2050.

The Nutreco Sustainability Vision 2020 is organised in four areas:
    1.    Ingredients: creating a sustainable base for feed;
    2.    Operations: ensuring our own house is in order;
    3.    Nutritional solutions: enabling the farmer and animal to perform best;
    4.    Commitment: involving people in the Feeding the Future challenge.
Each area sub-divides into three practical themes. For example,
    •    ingredients includes sustainable sourcing,
    •    operations includes reducing environmental impact in our own operations,
    •    the area nutritional solutions e.g. includes animal & human health, and
    •    commitment includes employee and stakeholder engagement.
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Conference on Probiotics and Prebiotics to be held in Kosice, Slovakia

An international science conference on Probiotics and Prebiotics (IPC2012) will be held in Kosice, Slovakia from June 12 to 14.  It is the goal of IPC2012 to further explore the potential of already used and novel probiotics by disseminating current insights and new approaches in probiotic and prebiotic research.

The conference program will focus on current advances in the science and research of probiotics, prebiotics and their present and future role in maintaining health and preventing diseases. IPC2012 aims to highlight evidence-based benefits as proven in clinical trials and scientific experiments.

Webpage: www.probiotic-conference.net
Contact e-mail:  info@probiotic-conference.net

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DSM, strong in animal nutrition products, reports strong 2011

Chemical company DSM, producer of a range of feed additives for use in the pig, poultry and livestock business, reported a strong 2011 as well as good figures in the fourth quarter of 2011. The company, headquartered in Heerlen, the Netherlands, reported full year EBITDA from continuing operations that had increased 12 percent to €1,296 million. Feike Sijbesma, CEO/chairman of the DSM managing board, said: “2011 was another strong year for DSM despite the challenges of the global economy, adverse currency movements and high raw material costs.”

Animal nutrition
The Nutrition cluster, which includes the animal nutrition business, did not suffer from adverse market conditions. The division achieved a strong profit and revenue growth in 2011  and more growth is expected in 2012. Sales grew 12 percent from €3.0 billion in 2010 to €3.4 billion last year. DSM has been particularly busy in the acquisition market in 2011 and briefly summed up its additions. Some were related to the animal nutrition business. Read more ...

Conference to focus on healthy, sustainable food

Farmers are being encouraged to produce more food to feeding a growing global population. But what role can livestock production play in offering healthy, nutritious and sustainable food? That is this year's theme of the annual BSAS conference.

Held at the University of Nottingham on  April 24-25, 2012, the conference will also consider how to ensure animal health remains at the forefront of any developments in food production. With much debate about the healthiness of food from livestock particularly red meat and dairy it is crucial public health policy is based on factual, up-to-date information. Read more ...

Practical short course on feeds & pet food extrusion

A one week Practical Short Course on Feeds & Pet Food Extrusion will be presented Jan. 29- February 3, 2012 at Texas A&M University by staff, industry representatives, and consultants. The program will cover information on designing new feed mills and selecting conveying, drying, grinding, conditioning and feed mixing equipment.

Current practices for production of pet foods, preparing full-fat soy meal; recycling fisheries by-products, raw animal products, and secondary resources; extrusion of floating, sinking, and high fat feeds; spraying and coating fats, digests and preservatives; use of encapsulated ingredients and preparation of premixes, and least cost formulation are reviewed. Practical demonstration of pet food, vacuum coating, and several others are demonstrated on four major types of extruders - (dry, interrupted flights, single and twin screw), using various shaping dies.

Reservations are accepted on a first-come basis. For more information, programs and application forms, contact:

Dr. Mian N. Riaz                                                               
Food Protein R&D Center; 2476 TAMU
Texas A&M University; College Station, Texas 77843-2476
Phone: 979/845-2774; Fax: 979/845-2744
E-mail: mnriaz@tamu.edu; 
www.tamu.edu/extrusion

Perfection Pet Foods plant meets all food safety standards

The new site of Perfection Pet Foods in Visalia, California, USA may be more advanced than a human food plant in terms of food safety, according to Ed Cooper, VP of operations for PPF. The standards required of pet food in the United States, and about 75 other countries, are rapidly moving toward the standards PPF will implement when it starts producing what it soon expects to be 140,000 tons of dry pet food by March.

Cooper said that even during the financial crisis the demand for quality pet food continues to grow at a rapid pace. “The importance of the family pet has grown so much, the phrase 'pet owners' is now evolving into 'pet parents’,”he said. Read more ...

World Nutrition Forum October 2012

On October 10-13, 2012, top international animal health specialists and feed industry experts will gather in Singapore for the World Nutrition Forum to exchange knowledge on trends in animal production and to debate the major scientific, environment and leadership issues concerning the industry. More than 700 delegates form all over the world will attend to discuss animal health, nutrition and feed issues. Read more ...

Foot and mouth disease found in Chinese pigs

China has reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), that foot and mouth disease (FMD), has been found in the province of Hubei, foot and mouth disease was found in 24 pigs in Badong county, however, all 24 affected pigs including the 71 also present have been culled. According to the ministry, the epidemic, is under control. The pigs were first discovered to have foot and mouth disease on the December 27, 2011. The source of the outbreak is currently unknown. Read more ...

Soy from the US to feed Pakistan Aquaculture program

The American Soybean Association’s (ASA) World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) program and the Pakistan Fisheries Development Board have started the "FEEDing Pakistan" program. "FEEDing Pakistan represents another milestone for WISHH," said WISHH Chairman David Iverson, an Astoria, S.D. soybean grower. "Our farmer-led 2011-2015 strategic planning identified aquaculture and livestock development as an important opportunity where WISHH can fulfill its mission. Read more ...

FDA restricts antimicrobial drug use in animals

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an order to restrict the use of cephalosporin antibiotics, which are given to some cattle, swine, chickens and turkeys before slaughter. Under the new restrictions the drug will only be allowed to be used to treat or control, but not prevent a disease, and must be used as the labeled dose instructs. The new ruling is a significant revise of the 2008 rules by the FDA. Read more ...

Bacteria still resistant after two and a half years

A Canadian study showed that two and a half years after stopping the administration of antibiotics on farms, bacteria was still showing resistance to antibiotics. The study report said that farms quitting antibiotics may still be a breeding ground for drug resistance germs. Ecologist Martin Chénier and his colleagues of McGill University, Canada, wanted to know whether drug resistant bacteria would, when their exposure to antibiotics ceased, throw out the genes that code for antibiotic resistance, the team plan to publish their work in Microbial Ecology. Read more ...

AY-carotene displays a unique combination of immunological properties

Chemaphor Inc presented its new growth promoting alternative OxC at the Antimicrobial Stewardship in Canadian Agriculture & Veterinary Medicine Conference held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr Graham Burton, President & Co-Founder of Chemaphor spoke about Pathways to Complementary Medicines, providing an overview of Chemaphor’s proprietary compound, OxC-beta, and its potential as a natural alternative to antibiotics currently being used for growth promotion in feed animals. “Unlike traditional antibiotics used in livestock agriculture, OxC-beta provides productivity gains without causing antibiotic resistance, because its action does not involve killing bacteria directly”, commented Dr. Burton. Read more ...

Gene exchange encouraged by antibiotics in swine feed

A study by Heather Allen and her colleagues at the USDA National Animal Disease Center (NaDC) in Ames, Iowa published in an online journal called mBio showed that by adding antibiotics to swine feed causes microorganisms in the guts of the pigs to share genes that could spread antibiotic resistance. “Induction of the prophages is showing us that antibiotics are stimulating gene transfer,” says Allen. “This is significant because phages have previously been shown to carry bacterial fitness genes such as antibiotic resistance genes.” Read more ...

Improved barley distillers grain

Researchers at Virginia Tech and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed a strategy that reduces barley toxins that are sometimes present in distiller grains used for animal feed. The strategy modifies the ethanol fermentation process and focuses on deoxynivalenol (DON), the most common barley mycotoxin. Researcher Piyum Khatibi, doctoral student at Virginia Tech, said "the team decided to see if the toxin could be modified to a less toxic product during fermentation". Read more ...

Nutreco planning for the future driving sustainable growth

Nutreco Animal nutrition and fish feed company has just announced its strategy for the next five year "Ambition 2016 - driving sustainable growth". “Our strategy for animal nutrition will be enabled by our Application and Solution Center (ASC) in Canada as well as the establishment of a new European ASC in the Netherlands in the first quarter of 2012. Read more ...