R&D for premixes and specialties

R&D for premixes and feed specialties is focused at the Ingredient Research Centre established in 2008 in the Netherlands. It has two sections, to study main (macro) ingredients and those present at micro levels. As R&D with a focus on premixes and feed specialties was only brought together as a distinct group in 2009, the research portfolio continues to be developed. In general these R&D teams conduct research in feed additives, functional ingredients and young animal feeds, and in premixes and concentrates. An Ingredients Discovery Team assesses potential new ingredients and nominates the most promising for screening to ensure they meet the necessary safety and functional requirements to go further as feed ingredients.

Feed additives and functional ingredients, an emerging area of research, are used across several species. In contrast, the young animal feeds, premixes and concentrates are species-specific and research into these products is conducted in cooperation with the Nutreco agricultural research centres. Communication protocols ensure the Nutreco compound feed businesses are continually updated on research in premix and specialty products so that they can quickly implement relevant results in their products.

Research in feed additives and functional ingredients is revealing benefits in areas such as the functioning of the gut. The right combination of ingredients can stimulate uptake of nutrients from the feed both directly and by influencing gut microbiota (the microbiological population of the gut). These functions can also deliver benefits in animal health. Further research is expanding knowledge of the ways in which ingredients can support immune systems and influence the expression of genes to improve animal health and performance.

In a separate discipline, researchers are investigating the control of deleterious microbes and the toxins they produce. The resultant products can help preserve feed raw materials and finished feeds, for example from mould growth, while others can protect animals from infections, for example by inhibiting the proliferation of microbes in drinking water supplies. The demand for such products may well increase as a consequence of climate change leading to warmer and more humid conditions in previously temperate regions.

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