Benefits of natural antioxidants ‘go way beyond’ their use as partial Vit E replacers in feed, says Cargill

“We have been working on polyphenol blends for the past seven years now and our research findings are showing their usefulness goes far beyond partial vitamin E replacement. ​

In fact, we are continuing to see additional animal productivity gains from feed supplementation with different natural antioxidant combinations, and we are set to investigate what benefits they could bring to other sectors such as swine,​” Gilles Houdart, marketing director additives for Cargill Animal Nutrition, told this publication at the Atlanta feed and meat show.

Trial data, said the agribusiness group, demonstrates that adding its new Proviox Breeder, which is a tailored blend of polyphenols including grape seed extract and a carotenoid based pigment, to the diets of breeders can improve broiler growth performance and increase profits by $1 per broiler breeder and $.02 per broiler.

“We have filed a patent regarding the blend of ingredients used,​” added Houdart.

Trial data ​

Cargill carried out around 11 trials on the plant based product in its newly extended innovation center in Velddriel, The Netherlands, following a breeder flock from week 36 to week 64.

The results, said the additives team, indicate improved broiler growth performance with fewer broken eggs and better chick hatchability - the number of chicks hatched per breeder increased by 1.8%.

“Usually as breeders get older, you see a lot more broken eggs. But we saw a dramatic reduction in that regard as we found this particular polyphenol blend makes the egg shell 7 to 9% stronger,”​ Maxime Hilbert, Cargill's global additives technology leader, told us.

The trials also showed that chicks are 2 to 4% heavier at hatch with reduced oxidative stress, which is evident by the increased glutathione levels in their livers, and broilers are 70 to 110 grams heavier at 35 days, said the animal nutrition company.

Mode of action ​

Understanding the mode of action of Proviox Breeder is not so straightforward, say the animal nutrition specialists, but they are working off certain assumptions. “In terms of understanding how there are such improvements in quality we think that it is down to the fact that some of the flavonoids in the formula improve calcium absorption, and thus improve the metabolism of the bird. ​

Furthermore, polyphenols are known to increase the bile acid production to again allow better calcium assimilation in the animal​,” said Hilbert.

The breeder tailored additive is currently undergoing the registration process in different markets. But the additives team expects to see it being rolled out quickly in Thailand and other Asian countries, followed then by Europe and Latin America.