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Not a smooth road ahead for insect use in feed

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Poultry.

Livestock feed containing insect products is currently relatively expensive compared to conventional feed, as insects are currently mainly processed in pet food and fish feed. In these two markets a higher margin can be achieved and consumers are willing to pay higher prices than livestock farmers can afford. Christiaan Buitink, ForFarmers poultry product manager and nutritionist, said legislation is still a problem:

“Insects are now equal to pigs, chickens and cows by law. As a result, you are only allowed to feed them certain raw materials that are also suitable for these other animals. Many residual streams that could be suitable as insect food do not qualify as such.”

Dr Pattanapong Tiwasing, researcher at Scotland’s Rural College, is calling on the UK’s Food Standards Agency to urgently introduce a new “UK-specific transitional measure” to allow the insect sector to survive in the country. Pattanapong, who comes from Thailand, where eating insects as a snack is commonplace, said:

“The introduction of new and evolving EU regulations to edible insect products has muddled the waters, leading to confusing procedures for those looking to trade and export edible insects. This has been particularly impactful following Brexit because it means there are currently no regulations for the edible insect (for human consumption) industry, and it is therefore illegal to sell insects for human consumption in the UK. Policymakers need to take urgent action in order for the insect industry to survive in Europe and the UK,” said the researcher.

FEFAC: Among the current crises, let’s not forget climate change!

Written by c001os on . Posted in Cattle, Nutrinfo, Pig, Poultry.

Last year has brought more unexpected turmoil in the feed industry. But even with the effects of COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the importance of combating climate change has not diminished. If anything, these crises have only highlighted the need for more sustainable feed production practices, said Asbjørn Børsting, president of the European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation (FEFAC).

The events of the past year have highlighted the need for the EU feed industry to continue and expand its environmental efforts, according to a progress report published by FEFAC on its progress this year towards the associations’ 2030 sustainability goals. Shortages and rising prices highlight the need to integrate resilience into sustainability goals. While sustainability goals could potentially fall by the wayside in the face of crisis, it’s important to note that climate change has contributed to some of the difficulties the feed industry faces, said Børsting.

The progress report highlights the publication of a handbook on circular feed in June 2022 as an area where current conditions could accelerate progress towards sustainability. The use of circular feeds not only contributes to sustainability goals by reducing waste and carbon emissions, but also increases the EU’s feed autonomy by creating a more resilient, localized supply chain, Børsting said. Hopefully, he said, legislative measures will improve the industry’s ability to implement circular feed concepts.

Automatic reports on mastitis from a digital development

Written by c001os on . Posted in Cattle, Nutrinfo.

Dairy farmers are now receiving somatic cell count and clinical mastitis results after each milking through the Mastitis Pattern Analysis Tool (MPAT). The MPAT analyses individual herd data to determine whether the predominant infection patterns is environmental or infectious during the lactation or dry period, as well as the seasonality of infection and heifer infection.

This will allow farmers and veterinarians to work together to identify the pattern of mastitis in their herd and to take the most effective targeted control measures. The stakes are high, as mastitis causes greater economic losses than any other disease affecting dairy cattle production. Speaking about the tool, which was developed at the University of Nottingham with the help of a research team from the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB) and with significant government funding, Jake Thompson, from LLM Farm Vets, part of the VetPartners group, said:

“The great thing about this tool is that both the farmer and myself are sent a report automatically after each milk recording. It allows us to have a targeted conversation about udder health as soon as we have their latest data available. If the mastitis pattern shows there is more of a problem in early lactation from infections picked up from the environment during the dry period, we will then look more closely at how the dry cows are being managed. On other farms, the main current problem may be completely different.”

Audio monitoring can provide broiler health insights

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Poultry.

Audio analytics, sensors and other new tools assess bird behaviour and vocalizations to provide early warning of potential problems related to broiler health and welfare, explained Tom Darbonne, CEO at AudioT Inc. at the International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta, Georgia, about AudioT’s technology.

The use of sounds to monitor the health and welfare of broilers is nothing new, it’s just that in the old days, farmers had to sit in the barn and listen. Audio-based assessments help automate this process. “It’s not an entire solution, but it’s a part of the solution,” added Darbonne. “The two technologies that track behaviour really well are visual and auditory.” The system uses a combination of acoustic signal processing techniques and machine learning to track and analyse sounds heard in poultry houses.

When an unusual event (e.g. coughs) or an anomaly (e.g. dry auger or fan motor failure) occurs, farmers are alerted. Darbonne said that in addition to assessing behaviour, welfare and health, the audio technology can also detect potential environmental issues, including feed shortages, disruption to sleep cycles, instances when water pressure in the lines are too low, when ventilator fans are about to fail and other unseen or otherwise undetectable issues.

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.

Breeding cows with lower methane emissions

Written by c001os on . Posted in Cattle, Nutrinfo.

Genetics company Semex UK believes it can reduce methane emissions by 20-30% by 2050 through breeding cows with lower methane emissions. The company is working with Canadian dairy testing and genetic evaluation company Lactanet and the University of Guelph to find a genetic solution to reduce methane emissions.


Over the past 5 years, Canadian milk-recording organisations have taken mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy records of more than 13 million milk samples, of which 700,000 have been analysed by Lactanet geneticists to predict methane emissions from cows tested across Canada.
The results showed that genetic selection can significantly reduce methane emissions. Scientists found an 85% correlation between actually collected methane and predicted methane emissions based on genetics, concluding that there is a genetic way to reduce methane. This is because the genetics of the cow also affect methane production in the rumen, as well as the microbes.


This genetic trait is 23% heritable, which is comparable to production and immune response with 70-80% reliability with no impact on yields or fat and protein levels. Dr Michael Lohuis, Semex vice president of Research and Innovation, said: “We already knew that genetics has a big role to play in reducing output, as it is the main way dairy farmers can produce more product with less input and less output. But this technology takes the role of genetics to a higher level.” He claimed at Semex’s annual conference in Glasgow that methane production from cows could be reduced by 20-30% by 2050, depending on the intensity of selection.

Revealing why vaccination failed to control avian influenza

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Poultry.

In some countries, vaccination is the most commonly used strategy to control avian influenza. However, the majority of vaccination programmes against the H9N2 avian influenza subtype have proven ineffective against infection and transmission in the field, although these vaccines were reported to work well in laboratory in specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens.


The reason for this, according to a press release from Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, is that maternal-derived antibodies (MDAs) can interfere with the immune response of chickens to vaccination, which are passed on to the unborn chicks through the egg. The presence of MDAs may be one of the reasons why most vaccination programmes against avian influenza have proven ineffective in poultry in practice. This is one of the conclusions of the research on the low pathogenicity H9N2 avian influenza virus currently prevalent in China, which was the subject of Xue Pan’s PhD thesis at Wageningen University & Research.


“Our results highlight that we need to pay more attention to MDA interference of avian influenza virus vaccines in the field, rather than just looking at antigenic distance,” said Pan, adding, “It is important to develop new vaccines to overcome MDA interference in the field.” During his research, Pan has come up with some new vaccines, such as a new adjuvant for the conventional H9N2 inactivated vaccine and turkey herpesvirus vector vaccine to improve the efficacy of the vaccines. Pan has also identified several mechanisms that influence vaccine efficacy.

Christmas trees against tail biting?

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Pig.

Wood is an ideal enrichment material for piglets. Pig welfare expert Dr Irene Camerlink reflected on this in the pages of Pig Progress after seeing the Christmas trees thrown away in January. Pinewood, which can be obtained for free, can be a cheap alternative to buying toys and can help reduce tail-chewing.

Next to straw, wood is one of the best options for attracting and maintaining the interest of pigs. It can be investigated, manipulated, chewed and it does not matter if small pieces are swallowed. Wood is also durable, widely available, low risk from a biosecurity point of view and in many cases can be sourced locally at low cost. It can also be provided in different diameters for animals of different sexes and ages (growing piglets, sows, boars).

Wood types differ in their softness and moisture content. In one study, pigs consumed spruce posts more quickly than beech, larch or Scots pine. Soft wood therefore needs to be replaced more quickly. None of the tree species caused any internal damage (e.g. damage to the mouth, digestive tract or liver). Although spruce is favoured by pigs, it did not result in less tail chewing in two studies in Ireland (1080 pigs). However, in a Finnish study (780 pigs), where fresh wood was suspended horizontally, piglets showed less tail and ear biting. In conclusion, there is no guarantee that fresh wood reduces tail biting, but it seems to pose little risk to pigs and keeps them busy for a while.