The funding will support work, led by CBS Bio Platforms, to develop processes that release previously inaccessible plant components and makes them usable in poultry and swine diets.
Rob Patterson, CBS Bio Platforms technical director, said the company is developing novel technologies, such as feed-derived prebiotics, to be used to maximize feed performance and replace antibiotic growth promoters. By using such plant-derived substances (PDS), the idea is that producers will see efficiency and productivity gains.
“PDS are essentially prebiotic compounds that are generated through our novel processing technology. They are derived from the fiber fraction of the plant material. Work from our lab has shown that feeding natural prebiotic compounds improves growth performance of livestock by improving nutrient digestion and strengthening intestinal immunity.
“The prebiotic substances promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). More beneficial bacteria leads to improved nutrient digestion and greater resilience to pathogenic bacteria infections - thus, including these compounds in livestock rations can help to improve intestinal health thereby reducing the requirement to use antibiotics,” he told FeedNavigator.
Highly digestible proteins
Generating prebiotic compounds from the fiber fraction of the ingredient also leads to a co-stream of highly digestible protein materials, he continued.
“This co-stream, be it from canola, or hemp, or lentils or fava beans, will be evaluated as a dietary protein source in livestock rations and will be benchmarked to traditional plant protein sources such as soybean meal.”
Along with the funding from RDAR, the project is support by the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a five-year, CA$3bn investment by Canada's federal, provincial, and territorial governments to strengthen and grow the country's agri-food sector.
Patterson said the project builds on a wealth of previous CBS feed technology research, particularly with enzyme technology.
"We've learned a lot about extracting more value and delivering unique advantages out of feed ingredients. By using enzyme technology, CBS breaks down the plant's fibrous structures and releases components traditionally more difficult to access. This new project will take this approach to a new level of precision and power by capturing the protein fraction as well as functional carbohydrate fractions to create new high-value product streams."
