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Here’s how the EU dairy cow herd looks now

Written by c001os on . Posted in Cattle, Nutrinfo.

Two European Union countries – Germany and France – have more than a third of all the dairy cows across member states. Between them, they had more than 7 million cows in 2022 out of a total of 20.1 million, according to Eurostat figures. Germany had the largest dairy cow population within the EU, recording 3.8 million animals, accounting for 17% of the total EU dairy population. France had 3.2 million animals while Poland had the third-largest national herd with just over 2 million animals.

The majority of EU countries recorded an annual decline in cow numbers in 2022, with France recording the largest loss with 91,720 (2.7%) fewer animals than in the previous year. One country to buck the trend was Austria, which recorded the largest expansion within the EU last year. The population reached 551,000 head, up 24,090 (4.6%) on 2021. At the other end of the scale, Malta continued to be the smallest milk-producing nation within the EU, with just 6,120 recorded in 2022. There are likely to be further falls in cow numbers this year. In its short-term dairy outlook, the European Commission forecasted a drop of 0.2% in milk production for 2023. With a forecasted 1% increase in slaughtering, there will be less milk available in 2023 due to a declining dairy herd.

China aims to reduce soymeal use in animal feed

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo.

China’s agriculture ministry has issued a three-year action plan to reduce the inclusion rates of soybean meal in animal feed in an effort to reduce the country’s dependence on soybean imports. According to a Reuters report, the new plan calls for soybean meal inclusion in animal feed to be reduced to less than 13% by 2025 from 14.5% in 2022.

The plan would “guide the feed industry to reduce the amount of soybean meal, promote the saving and consumption reduction of feed grains, and contribute to ensuring the stable and safe supply of grain and important agricultural products”, according to the document, published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Similar guidelines were already published in April 2021, recommending a reduction in the amount of corn and soybean meal in pig and poultry feed. The guidelines also recommended feed formulations based on the country’s regions, such as reducing corn in pig rations by at least 15% in the Northeast using rice and rice bran, and using sorghum, cassava flour, rice bran meal and barley in the southern region. China’s soybean imports in March were up 7.9% year-on-year, as Chinese buyers stocked up ahead of expected strong demand. Imports in the first three months of the year totalled 23 million tonnes, up 13.5% from a year earlier, the data showed. Much larger volumes are expected in the coming months, according to traders and analysts, but demand has proven weaker than expected.

Meatball from woolly mammoth cultured in the Netherlands

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo.

A giant meatball made from flesh cultivated using the DNA of an extinct woolly mammoth was unveiled at the Nemo science museum in the Netherlands, Reuters reported. The meatball was created by the Australian in vitro meat company Vow, with the aim of bringing cultured meat into the public debate as a more sustainable alternative to real meat. “We wanted to create something that was totally different from anything you can get now,” Vow founder Tim Noakesmith told Reuters, adding that another reason for the choosing mammoth is that scientists believe the animal’s extinction was caused by climate change. The meatball was made from sheep cells into which a single gene from the mammoth, myoglobin, has been inserted.

“When it comes to meat, myoglobin is responsible for the aroma, the colour and the taste”, James Ryall, Vow’s Chief Scientific Officer explained. Since the mammoth’s DNA sequence obtained by Vow had a few gaps, African elephant DNA was inserted to complete it. “Much like they do in the movie Jurassic Park”, Ryall said, stressing the biggest difference is that they were not creating actual animals. While creating cultured meat usually means using blood of a dead calf, Vow used an alternative, meaning no animals were killed in the making of the mammoth meatball. The meatball, which is said to have the aroma of crocodile meat, is currently not for consumption. “Its protein is literally 4,000 years old. We haven’t seen it in a very long time. That means we want to put it through rigorous tests, something that we would do with any product we bring to the market,” Noakesmith said.

French insect protein producer Ynsect pulls out of feed production

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo.

French insect-based ingredients producer Ynsect will refocus its strategy on high-margin markets such as pet food, close a production plant and cut jobs after raising €160 million from investors, Reuters reported, citing the company’s CEO. The company, which is negotiating additional funding, will use the money to expand the world’s largest vertical insect farm in Amiens in northern France, as well as for new projects, Antoine Hubert told Reuters in an interview. Farmed insects, such as mealworms, are ground down to produce proteins for aquaculture, livestock, pet food, fertiliser and human nutrition. They are considered environmentally friendly proteins because they require less land and water than crops and emit fewer greenhouse gases. But the technology is costly, making insect meal much more expensive than its plant-based alternatives. “In an environment where there is inflation on energy and raw materials but also on the cost of capital and debt, we cannot afford to invest loads of resources in markets which are the least remunerative (animal feed), while you have other markets where there is a lot of demand, good returns and higher margins,” Hubert said, referring to pet food, human nutrition and fertilisers.

Testing of four bird flu vaccines starts in the US

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Poultry.

The US government has begun testing vaccines against avian influenza for poultry after a record-breaking outbreak forced the slaughter of more than 58 million chickens, turkeys and other poultry. The trials carried out by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service are a first step towards the possible use of vaccines. The USDA is testing 2 vaccines developed by its Agricultural Research Service, 1 each from Zoetis and another from Merck Animal Health. Zoetis previously supplied its vaccine to a USDA stockpile in 2016, following the massive outbreak in the US a year earlier, but it was never used. Initial data from the animal study with a single dose of the vaccine are expected to be available in May, with researchers hoping to have 2-dose vaccine challenge studies with results in June. If the trials are successful and USDA elects to continue development, it would take at least 18-24 months for a vaccine that matches the current virus to be commercially available.

DNA helps understand pig muscle development

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Pig.

Analysis of pig DNA has offered insights into important correlations with muscle growth. This can provide tools to help predict piglet growth and support pig breeding programmes. Researchers from the Roslin Institute and the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health sought to find and examine regions of DNA that regulate muscle development in piglets. The team used a technique to study DNA in frozen tissue, which is advantageous because it can help limit the numbers of animals used for research. They applied this technique to samples from muscle in piglets at various stages of development, to pinpoint regions of DNA that control activity in genes linked to muscle growth, and to study activity in these genes. Variations in regions of DNA were observed between small and large piglets. These variations suggest a difference in how DNA is regulated – which in turn governs muscle growth – between large and small piglets. Researchers hope to explore their data further to identify variations in the genetic code of pigs that are linked to growth, and better understand how these differences regulate the activity of key genes involved in muscle development, to inform pig breeding programmes.

Hemp products high in THC can contaminate milk

Written by c001os on . Posted in Cattle, Nutrinfo.

Cows fed hemp silage high in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) produced contaminated milk and showed signs of intoxication in a study that has garnered attention for making cows “get high” on hemp. But the study also showed that other forms of hemp silage did not have the same effect, suggesting concentrations of cannabinoids like THC will be critical to determining which hemp products should be approved for use in animal feed. In the study, led by researchers at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, lactating dairy cows initially received a diet in which corn silage was partially replaced by a hemp silage made from the whole hemp plant. The initial silage was intentionally selected to contain lower concentrations of THC in order to provide the cows with an “adaptation” period, according to the researchers.

After this adaptation period, the researchers switched the cows to a diet containing hemp silage comprised exclusively of the leaves, flowers and seeds of the hemp plant. This silage intentionally contained a higher concentration of of THC, the cannabinoid known to be responsible for most of the intoxicating effects associated with cannabis, with the researchers estimating that the cows ingested up to 86 times more THC than would be required to trigger negative health effects in humans. Cows developed symptoms including increased salivation and nasal secretion after they began eating the high-THC diet. The study also observed that feed intake, and therefore milk production, decreased significantly two days after the high-THC silage was administered. These symptoms abated after the high-THC diet was removed, according to the researchers, and did not occur during the initial adaptation period. Researchers also observed that the milk from the cows in the study contained detectable levels of multiple cannabinoids, including THC, during the adaptation period where the cows received the low-THC hemp, and when they were fed the high-THC hemp. The amount of THC that accumulated in the milk exceeded the acute reference dose at which negative health effects may occur in humans. However, the researchers noted that the acute reference dose is a hypothetical limit and that the study did not test whether the milk had any actual effect on humans. The results of the study indicate that “livestock farmers should only feed components of commercial hemp plants that are approved as feed or components of feed,” said the spokesperson for the German Federal Institute for Risk Management.

Can pig behaviour be used to predict the development of stomach ulcers?

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Pig.

Research carried out by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Northern Ireland and Queen’s University, Belfast has found that stomach ulcers may cause changes in the way pigs rest, or may be the result of such changes. Therefore, changes in behaviour may allow an ulcer to be detected before more serious damage occurs. Also, pigs with stomach ulcers have been shown to be less prone to harmful behaviours such as tail biting. Stomach ulcers are an important pathological condition in pig farming. Research in several European countries suggests that approximately 20% of slaughtered pigs have mild ulcers, whilst another 10% have severe ulcers. The researchers from the two institutions identified pigs with and without stomach ulcers at slaughter, and then compared their behaviour using video recordings taken in the two weeks prior to slaughter.

The most obvious difference was the side they chose to rest on. Pigs with stomach ulcers (even mild ones) were much less likely to lie on their right side than those without ulcers (on average 12% of the time, as compared to 25% of the time for those without ulcers). The research team also observed that pigs with stomach ulcers showed less harmful social behaviour than those without ulcers; tail biting occurred only a third as often as in pigs without ulcers, and ear biting half as often. Both ulcers and harmful social behaviour are increased by stress, and it is conceivable that some pigs respond to stress by adapting their behaviour, while others that do not act upon it may suffer more physical consequences.

Fungi-based postbiotic may improve layers’ performance

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Poultry.

Aspergillus oryzae (AO) is a multi-cellular filamentous fungus, largely used to ferment rice and soybeans in East Asia. Its genome contains dormant metabolic pathways that are activated when the organism is under certain stressors.

This results in the production of unique metabolites that can improve animal health and gut health. While many strains of Aspergillus produce toxins, AO has lost the capacity to produce toxins through genetic mutations, making it a safe organism to work with. Feeding a postbiotic derived from it can improve layer performance and egg quality, as well as reduce mortality. “Feeding postbiotics will help satisfy the global industry’s growing consumption of eggs and egg products,” Dr César Ocasio, BioZyme Business Development and Innovation Manager, said at the 2023 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE).

According to Ocasio, the AO-derived postbiotic called AO-Biotics EQE is the first that has been developed specifically for layers and has been shown to increase the number of saleable eggs and egg mass, while allowing producers to keep their layers in production for longer periods of time. In BioZyme’s studies, layers from 15 to 43 weeks of age fed 50 grams of postbiotic per ton showed a 39% fewer incidence of shell-less eggs and 26% fewer mortalities, compared to layers fed a control diet. Improvements were also observed in egg mass, shell thickness and feed conversion ratio.

Chinese pork production at eight-year high

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Pig.

China’s pork production in 2022 rose 4.6% from 2021, to the highest level since 2014, according to official data released in mid-January that contradicted expectations of lower growth, reported Reuters. Pork output from the world’s top meat producer reached 55.41 million tons, the highest since 56.71 million tons eight years ago. Output was boosted by a high fourth-quarter production of 13.91 million tons, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics. This was 0.87% higher than the same quarter a year earlier, despite labour shortages in slaughterhouses due to the COVID outbreaks. Farmers have raised heavier hogs in the hope of benefiting from an expected recovery in demand and prices, which could have boosted output. However, demand remained subdued as the resurgence of the COVID-19 epidemic in China caused many to stay at home, causing prices to fall.

“Feed production has been weak throughout 2022 and we have also seen this reflected in the lower yearly soybean import number. It is difficult to reconcile this higher meat production number with the declines seen in feed production and soybean imports,” said Darin Friedrichs, co-founder of Shanghai-based agriculture consultancy Sitonia Consulting. The data shows that China’s pork production has increased every quarter year-on-year for the last two years despite weak demand. China’s beef output rose 3% last year to 7.18 million tons, the data also showed, while poultry output rose 2.6% to 24.43 million tons and lamb and mutton increased 2% to 5.25 million tons.