Fermentation for Feed Additives
Modern poultry production has made amazing achievements in the efficient production of high quality and safe chicken meat, eggs and poultry bio-products. While improving production and efficiency, the industry must also maximize the health of the birds and minimize the industry's environmental impact. Animal diets contain a wide variety of additives that are designed primarily to improve the growth efficiency and/or egg production capacity of poultry, prevent disease and improve feed utilization. Common feed additives include antimicrobial agents, antioxidants, emulsifiers, binders, pH control agents and enzymes. In addition, there are other additives such as flavor enhancers, artificial and nutritive sweeteners, colors, lubricants, etc. Strategies to develop healthy feeds additives in the last decades have been to produce alternatives to antibiotics such as probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics and plant extracts, or to improve feed quality. Biofermented feeds are a new class of feed additives that are safe, efficient, environmentally friendly and residue-free. Generally speaking, biofermented feeds are developed by modern biotechnology, such as genetic, protein or enzyme engineering or fermentation. Fermentation technology has achieved good results in improving feed quality and feed utilization efficiency and promoting animal health. Microbial fermentation can improve the intestinal function and organism immunity of animals, and improve feed digestibility by changing the physicochemical properties of the feed matrix, thus ensuring animal health and high quality production.
Fig 1. Feed Additives in Animal Health. (Amit, K. P.; et al. 2019.)
Precise Fermentation
Precision fermentation technology fuses fermentation and precision biology to program microorganisms into small biofactories that can produce almost any complex organic molecule at high speed and in large quantities. Precision fermentation offers solutions across the whole animal-based market, from the manufacturing of human collagen for cosmetics, to the manufacturing of whey protein for dairy products, and the manufacturing of egg-based proteins. Nowadays, feed additive industry has accumulated a great deal of knowledge about fermentation. Fermentation technology has been widely used in the field of animal feed additives, such as amino acids, yeast, enzymes, etc. Precise fermentation will result in lower production costs for such products. In addition, precision fermentation can increase the type and complexity of proteins in animal feed additives.
Microbes and Anaerobic Microbe-based Fermentation
Scientists have been developing anaerobic microbial processes to apply marine microalgae feedstocks for the production of health promoting bioactive ingredients in feeds. Different types of seaweeds have been processed, and a range of fermenting bacteria have been tested and analyzed. Several optimal combinations of processed seaweed fractions and fermentation bacteria were selected to enhance the scale of the fermentation process, resulting in synergistic biofeed formulations (including probiotics and prebiotics) as as additives in fish feeds.
Advantages of Fermentation for Feed Additives Production
- Preservation of high quality feeds additives for long-term use
- Degradation of toxins, anti-nutritional factors and harmful microorganisms in low quality feeds additives
- Promotes intestinal health of animals
- Improves productivity and animal welfare
- Reduces the use of antibiotic agents
- Generates economic and environmental impact
Fig 2. Simplified scheme of fermentation in the production of fermented feed additives. (Michalak, M.; et al. 2021.)
Development of Fermentation Technology
Currently, the main methods for fermentation of feeds additives are submerged fermentation and solid-state fermentation. A high level of production of high-quality fermented-feed additives is essential to sustain livestock in the post-antibiotic era.
Cell line selection
Optimization of cell lines for genetic stability, ease of culture, rapid growth, non-toxicity to humans, etc.
Cell culture media
Shift from animal serum to chemically defined media for high cell density and reproducible results.
Scaffolds
Culturing meat requires different scaffolding materials.
Bioreactors
Highly specific and customized fermenters or bioreactors to meet the needs of culturing a range of different cell types.
Our Services
- Fermentation CDMO Service
- Strain Development Service
- Fermentation Process Optimization
- Fermentation for Special Small Molecules
- GRAS Services
BOC Sciences provides fermentation CDMO service for feed additives. With our complete quality management system and strong fermentation capabilities, we are able to help customers facilitate their fermentation related projects and support them from laboratory to commercialization.
Workflow of Our Service
References
- Amit, K. P.; et al. Feed Additives in Animal Health. Nutraceuticals in Veterinary Medicine. 2019. 22: 345-362.
- Michalak, M.; et al. Selected Alternative Feed Additives Used to Manipulate the Rumen Microbiome. Animals. 2021. 11(6).
