H5N1 BIRD FLU
Understand its effects and the debate around vaccination
Pages 6 - 12
with avian influenza,
swine fever,
more
ASF VIRUS IN MILLS
New research on the persistence and spread during feed production
Pages 20 - 21
ASF VACCINE
CEO of Vietnam’s AVAC discusses production & export
Page 31
Capturing the magnitude of HPAI’s global impact is always tricky. However, notifications made to the World Animal Health Organisation (WOAH, formerly the OIE) in 2022 reinforce the idea that the disease was off the charts last year.
Markets, too, may provide a way of indirectly measuring HPAI’s impacts. Stratégie Grains estimates that European poultry production fell by 2% in 2022, and EU poultry meat exports measured by Eurostat collapsed by almost 10%. Of course, HPAI may not have been the only cause of either decline, but it is a significant one; it should be noted that not a single EU member state could export poultry to China as of March 2023 because of the HPAI situation, for example. In the US, the layer flocks have been hit especially hard by HPAI, and in consequence, the US benchmark shell egg quotation soared to a record high of $5.46 per dozen in December according to Urner Barry, a figure which is 76% higher than the previous record, set during the pandemic.
Beyond the impacts on bird numbers and the trade in poultry products, the recent experience with H5N1 HPAI is different in other important ways. For one thing, there was the troubling persistence of outbreaks even during the summer months of 2022, a fact noted on both sides of the Atlantic. And for another, it is wider in its geographical extent. In the Americas, H5N1 HPAI has reached further south than ever before, and continues to creep ever closer to Brazil, the world’s largest chicken meat exporter.
In short, it looks like more places will be dealing with fiercer HPAI for longer periods of time than ever before. How to adapt to this new reality? Many are calling for vaccines, a complicated subject that this magazine discusses in greater depth in its lead feature on HPAI. But it is also important to recognize that vaccination against HPAI will not be a silver bullet. It is not going to return us to the previous status quo, where avian influenza is only a periodic concern. Instead, in learning to live with the disease, we might need to rethink how and where we produce poultry. And we definitely need to work with international partners and across the value chain, in order to ensure that vital trade can continue and mitigation measures can be deployed.
Of course, the animal disease threat is much wider than just HPAI. This magazine features an interview with a researcher studying African Swine Fever virus’s survival and spread in a feed mill environment, as well as one with the CEO of a Vietnamese company rolling out one of the world’s first vaccines against the feared swine disease. We also discuss an initiative which is working to expand awareness of and access to existing animal health treatments in Africa, where a significant chunk of the future growth in meat demand will come from.
Feeding the world requires healthy animals. Keeping the herds and birds headed for our plates safe from disease requires research, innovation, international cooperation, and most of all, constant vigilance.
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Feedinfo Review (ISSN 1777-5566) is a Mintec (formerly AgriBriefing) publication. Copyright ©2023. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher. The contents of Feedinfo Review are subject to reproduction in information storage and retrieval systems.
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The greatest global challenge is to ensure food security. Eight billion human lives depend on it. However, it matters how we source animal protein. Because it has consequences that affect animals, humans – and ultimately the entire planet. There is only one way to do it right: using science. Only well thought through, evidence-based solutions can establish a truly sustainable and secure food supply.
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HIGHLY PATHOGENIC AVIAN INFLUENZA
4 big questions on HPAI 6
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVES
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Avian influenzas are not a new phenomenon. Indeed, they predate the existence of industrialised agriculture: “fowl plague” outbreaks affected both Europe and America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Low pathogenic avian influenza is found around the world, and occasionally, these low pathogenic strains have mutated into highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
To quote an explanation by Nienke Beintema of Wageningen World1: “Initially, highly pathogenic variants tended to cause problems only locally. They were so deadly that wild birds that caught them never got very far. But around the turn of the [21st] century, a highly pathogenic variant that was able to hitch a ride with migratory birds emerged on poultry farms in Asia.” Throughout the last 20 years, this lineage of H5 avian influenza became multi-country, and then transcontinental.
However, despite the fact that the modern poultry production industry has been dealing with H5 (and sometimes H7) HPAI for two decades now, the experience over the last two years or so has been unlike anything anyone has ever seen. HPAI, mostly H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, has left a growing trail of devastation. Today, we try and grapple with how dramatically the numbers of affected birds have risen and understand what factors might be driving that. Then we examine the vaccine development landscape, looking at the different technologies and understanding the obstacles which have kept parts of the world from the widespread use of vaccination as a tool against HPAI.
Various authorities measure HPAI’s impacts differently, but the numbers are sobering.
Members of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, formerly the OIE) are supposed to notify the organisation if HPAI is detected in their territories. Data from its information system WAHIS records 167.8 million birds killed and disposed of from HPAI in 2022. Here’s how that compares to previous years with particularly bad levels of HPAI:
• 2021: 60 million killed and disposed of.
• 2020: 23.6 million killed and disposed of.
• 2016: 39.2 million killed and disposed of.
In Europe, which tracks its HPAI by seasons rather than by the calendar year, the 2021/2022 epidemic was the largest ever recorded. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) officially
recorded “a total of 2,467 outbreaks in poultry, 47.7 million birds culled in the affected establishments…and 3,573 HPAI virus detections in wild birds with an unprecedent geographical extent reaching from Svalbard islands [inside the Arctic circle] to South Portugal and Ukraine, affecting 37 European countries.”2 We’ve also seen at least 10 million culled so far over the 2022-2023 outbreak.3 Before this, comparatively bad years for Europe were:
• 2020-2021: 22.4 million affected poultry birds in the regular “season”, and another 0.5 million over the summer months before the following “season” started.4,5
• 2016-2017: 13 million domestic birds reported in the Animal Disease Notification System as having died of or been culled due to the HPAI epidemic from 2016 through April 2017. EFSA records this as “a number that is already 10 times greater compared with the 2005-2006 epidemic.”6
In the US, which has kept a running tally since the current round of A(H5) viruses first appeared in the country in January 2022, the number of birds on affected premises was around 58.6 million at the time of publication7. Every one of the states had observed bird flu in its wild birds. For comparison, in the US, the 20142015 outbreak saw about 50 million birds in total which were depopulated or died of the disease.8
Beyond the cull numbers, we are also now looking at an HPAI threat which is less constrained by season and which has a greater geographical reach than ever before.
Unfortunately, HPAI no longer seems to be disappearing during the summer months as it has generally been expected to, with EFSA also noting that “HPAI outbreaks were still observed in poultry from June to September with five-fold more infected premises than observed during the same period in 2021 and mostly distributed along the Atlantic coast.”2
Meanwhile, in the US, the previous outbreak was a threat to commercial flocks for about six months, between January and June 2015, according to APHIS’s 2016 Final Report of the outbreak8, whereas the current outbreak continues to rage 14 months after HPAI’s appearance in the US, including infections over the summer as well.
In Q4 2022, H5N1 reached South America for the first time, a milestone for a critically important poultry exporting region which had not yet faced the virus. As of mid-March, 8 South American countries had declared outbreaks to WOAH. Several of their North and Central American neighbours have also been affected.
The answer to that appears to be wild birds.
Just like the move into migratory birds was what helped highly pathogenic avian influenza become a global phenomenon, it looks like a significant part of the story of the last few years are evolutions of the virus which allow it to infect more species and/ or to transmit more easily between birds. “The current clade of H5N1 virus, called clade 2.3.4.4b, appears well-adapted to spread efficiently among wild birds and poultry in many regions of the world,” observed Dr. Tim Uyeki, Chief Medical Officer of the Influenza Division at the US’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a publication on February 20239. Meanwhile, an April 2022 piece in Science10 quoted other US experts’ suspicions that the virus spreads more easily than previous strains, and noted that a mere five months after HPAI’s return to North America in November 2021, it had already been noted in twice as many wild bird species.
That is more than just an interesting (if gruesome) bit of trivia. Instead, it is at the heart of how commercial poultry operations are now getting infected by HPAI, according to Dr. David Swayne, a leading expert in avian influenza who spent 28 years at the USDA-ARS Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory, retiring as its director at the end of 2022, in a conversation with Feedinfo this February. As he explained, molecular analysis of the viruses circulating in the Midwest in during the last HPAI epidemic in the US in 2014-15 showed that, after having been introduced to the area, the dynamics of its spread were different: “it was primarily being spread from premise to premise, and not by introductions of wild birds…but today it’s mainly environmental contamination from wild birds, and there’s very little of that farm-to-farm spread, and there’s really very little evidence of backyard poultry to commercial poultry spread, or vice-versa.”
Meanwhile, across the pond, HPAI has now probably become a permanent fixture in Europe as well. “The observed persistence of HPAI (H5) virus in wild birds since the 2020-2021 epidemic wave indicates that it may have become endemic in wild bird populations in Europe, implying that the health risk from HPAI A(H5) for poultry, humans, and wildlife in Europe remains present year-round, with the highest risk in the autumn and winter months,” stated the ECDC in June 202211 .
Beyond increasing its spread, having endemic HPAI in Europe has also contributed to a worsening of the disease’s economic impact. Effectively, whereas HPAI in Europe had previously been something of a cold-season phenomenon, it is now cropping up even during the summer. This means that exporters are finding themselves with less and less of a window during which the absence of HPAI allows their poultry products to be accepted by wary importers, as representatives from AVEC (the association of poultry processors and the poultry trade in EU countries) told Feedinfo.
Ultimately, though, there remains much to be learned about all of these aspects of this disease, as noted by Offlu, a network of expertise on animal influenza associated with WOAH and the FAO. In a document published this March12, it identified “gaps in knowledge that remain unresolved regarding the current epidemic including, but not limited to:
• What are the roles of different species of wild bird in long distance spread, and local transmission and maintenance of the current H5N1 virus?
• What are the underlying factors associated with an increased range of wild bird species affected and their relevance for future disease epidemiology?
• What specific viral factors allow the expanded geographical spread and continued circulation causing outbreaks in the northern hemisphere summer (unlike 2014-15 strains)? […]
• Will the H5N1 HPAI viruses circulating in wild birds remain enzootic or will they self-extinguish as has been the case with HPAI viruses that have crossed over and spread in wild birds in the past (e.g. virus in wild birds in North America in 2014-2015 and in Europe from 2005 to 2008)?
Continued on page 8
[LAST TIME] IT WAS PRIMARILY BEING SPREAD FROM PREMISE TO PREMISE, AND NOT BY INTRODUCTIONS OF WILD BIRDS...BUT TODAY IT’S MAINLY ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION FROM WILD BIRDS.© Valda Butterworth / Shutterstock.com
Several vaccines against bird flu exist, and have been deployed over the last two decades in a variety of countries, from China to Mexico. The technology behind these existing vaccines largely falls into two categories, although there are some looking to apply emerging vaccine technologies to the problem as well. The two most prominent technologies are discussed briefly below:
“Hang on, I thought that vaccine x was licensed in the US, but now I understand that they’re not using HPAI vaccines in their domestic poultry flock. What’s As Dr. Swayne explained, the authorization process for animal vaccines in the US can be thought of as having two parts (although that is an oversimplification). The first is registration or licensing, for which the Center for (CVB) requires proof that the vaccine is safe and efficacious. And the second is authorization for use. For endemic diseases, this authorization is already in place; however, for HPAI, it is not. Therefore, there is no contradiction in the fact that a vaccine might be authorized in the US, but not
Inactivated vaccines, also called “killed vaccines”, are estimated to represent over 95% of the 113 billion doses of HPAI vaccine used between 2002 and 2010, according to research Swayne co-authored which was cited by the OIE Terrestrial Manual 2021 13 (the other 5% being recombinant vaccines, explained below).
Inactivated vaccines are an “old, established technology” widely used for diseases such as infectious bronchitis or Newcastle disease, as Feedinfo learned from Dr. Swayne directly in an interview.
Nonetheless, it is a category with recent innovations which
are particularly interesting to the question of HPAI vaccination, including the development of reverse genetics to make new seed strains for the vaccines. In Dr. Swayne’s words, “by using reverse genetics you can design that hemagglutinin [the H protein in an influenza virus such as H5N1], so it would match the high pathogenic [avian influenza strain that was circulating locally].” Having a good match like this improves the ability of the vaccine to protect against the virus, and also lengthens the amount of time the vaccine can be used before new strains evolve for which the vaccine’s protection is no longer sufficient.
Beyond this, there are also a few other points to note about this technology. These vaccines are inactivated, which simplifies the question of assessing the potential risk to the environment from their use – as the viral ingredient of the vaccine is dead, it cannot mutate in the field. They can also be used in practically any species of bird; Dr. Swayne pointed out that territories worried about the exotic birds held in their zoos have used inactivated vaccines to protect them.
However, there is an important caveat. While this is a technology that might help protect long-living birds such as layers, breeders, or turkeys, inactivated vaccines can only be deployed after the birds’ immune systems have reached a certain level of maturity. This makes it impractical for broiler production; in settings where birds’ lifespans are measured in weeks, a technology that could not provide protection for several of those weeks is not worth the investment.
Still, there are existing technologies which can be used much earlier in the bird’s lifespan: viral vector vaccines. In these vaccines, another poultry virus such as turkey herpesvirus (HVT), fowlpox, or Newcastle disease is modified to express proteins of the disease you want to vaccinate against — in this case, HPAI. “Their huge advantage is that they can be used in the hatchery, at one day of age, or [even before], actually injecting it into the egg while it’s developing,” explained Dr. Swayne.
While these represent a much smaller portion of the vaccines that have historically been used against avian influenzas, vector vaccines are worth discussing because of recent technological developments in Europe. In mid-March, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture announced that a study it had commissioned had found two vaccines against H5N1 HPAI had proven effective in chickens in an experimental trial under controlled conditions conducted by Wageningen Bioveterinary Research. The vaccines protected the chickens against both symptoms of the disease and
THE CHICKENS [VACCINATED WITH HVT-H5 VECTOR VACCINES] WERE COMPLETELY PROTECTED AGAINST DISEASE AFTER INFECTION WITH THE HPAI H5N1 VIRUS
spread of the virus. The two vaccines which have proven effective are now moving on to field trials, which are expected to start this summer. Trials of vaccines for ducks, turkeys, and geese are taking place in other EU member states.
It is worth noting that the Dutch researchers had begun by investigating four vaccines last summer, including two vector vaccines, one inactivated vaccine based on a low pathogenic H5N2 virus variant, and a DNA vaccine. It was the vector vaccines which were found to significantly reduce the viral transmission and achieve a reproduction rate of less than 1 “The chickens [vaccinated with HVT-H5 vector vaccines] were completely protected against disease after infection with the HPAI H5N1 virus,” Minister of Agriculture Piet Adema said in a letter to the Dutch House of Representatives 15. This type of vector vaccine is only known to be effective in chickens and turkeys, and is administered at the hatchery in day-old chicks. Meanwhile, the other two vaccines were described as “less effective”. “They do provide some protection against disease symptoms and death, but insufficient [protection] against the spread of the H5N1 virus,” the letter asserted.
There are disadvantages to the existing vaccine technology which have to be considered when evaluating a vaccination program for HPAI.
Like human influenza, HPAI is a moving target. “Over time, the viruses in the field that cause the disease and cause infection, they change. That’s part of being an influenza A virus. It’s an RNA virus. It doesn’t have proofreading in the replication cycle. So it changes, and so the vaccines have to change with it,” explained Dr. Swayne.
Dr. Swayne recalled observations from Indonesia in 2006-8, a few years after the country began vaccinating against HPAI. Chickens were vaccinated using a vaccine which, like the viruses circulating locally, had an H5 hemagglutinin protein, and then were challenged with different field viruses. As he explained, the vaccine in question offered “really good protection [against some strains]; no illness, no death, very little virus replication,” but then, faced with strains from other parts of the country, vaccinated chickens might experience 50% mortality, or even 100% mortality, after a challenge.
“[They were] fully vaccinated, they had antibodies, they just didn’t match the field virus…they didn’t have a perfect match. And so that allowed the field virus to replicate.”
Still, he pushed back against the characterisation that inactivated HPAI vaccines do not work well. “I think that’s one of the myths, that [inactivated vaccines] don’t work…those vaccines can work very, very effectively, as other vaccines can, but you have to use them correctly, and the vaccine seed string that’s used has to match the field virus antigenically.”
Continued on page 10
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Even once you have a working vaccine, injecting thousands of birds individually is no simple matter. It requires trained personnel who can make a subcutaneous injection without having the needle poke out the other side of the skin. Such a skill- and labourintensive task will necessarily be expensive. For some types of vaccines, birds will need boosters — requiring a second round of injections – in order to benefit from full immunity. And indeed, having people from outside the farm come in to vaccinate provides a potential point of entry for the very virus that the establishment is trying to keep down. While these challenges are not insurmountable, this does make vaccines that can be deployed through other means, including in ovo, that much more valuable, and it is a non-negligible concern if vaccination is to be envisaged in places with weak veterinary health systems.
The immunological situation of the birds can also affect their reaction to a vaccine, and thus that vaccine’s effectiveness. For example, as previously mentioned, you cannot give a killed vaccine to a day-old chick whose immune response will not be sufficiently developed to respond to it. Maternal antibodies can also decrease the immune response, and with a viral vectored vaccine, the influence of maternal antibodies will differ depending on the various viral vectors being used. “That’s why you would need to understand the flock you’re working with, [to understand] whether you can use [a particular vaccine] or not,” Dr. Swayne observed.
Thus, for a variety of reasons — whether because the vaccine was poorly matched to the strain that was circulating, or because the birds had antibodies that impacted its ability to react as it should have to the vaccine and thus develop an immunity to HPAI, or because the vaccine was administered incorrectly — HPAI vaccines may end up being only partially effective.
That’s a major problem, because if a vaccine suppresses symptoms but does not stop the spread of HPAI, then then you’ve still got virus circulating and you’re not always aware of it. Such a dynamic can make the HPAI situation in an area much worse, as explained by two Wageningen Bioveterinary Research experts in a 2019 article by Dutch animal health magazine Tijdschrift voor Diergeneeskunde 14
“Are we seeing evolutions in opinions regarding HPAI vaccination in developed countries?” In Europe, at least, the experience with HPAI over the last few years has changed the thinking. Early this year, the European Commission harmonized its rules for the use of vaccines in order to prevent or control animal diseases. The move was explicitly a response to the HPAI situation, and allows for the movement of animals and products from establishments and zones where vaccination has taken place.
At a member-state level, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, in addition to commissioning trials to identify an effective H5N1 vaccine, is also working on preparations for an HPAI vaccination program for poultry in the Netherlands, starting at a pilot scale and working up to a larger scale. In Minister Adema’s words, his own country and France are the two European states leading the way in the vaccination process.15 In France, the validation of a vaccination plan is expected in May, and the country may begin vaccinating as of September, according to the calendar for the vaccination action plan posted by the French Ministry of Agriculture in early 202316
Continued on page 12
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Continued from page 10
That really drives home the need to have highly effective – and frankly rather costly — post-vaccine monitoring. In a memorandum from 2006 describing a previous vaccine strategy for the European Union, the EC explicitly listed this as an argument against vaccinating all poultry against HPAI: “The use of preventive vaccination requires the adoption of particular surveillance and controls to prevent the possible persistence of disease in an endemic form in a poultry population. These surveillance and controls would not be possible in case of generalised vaccination of the billions of poultry that are kept for farming purposes in the EU. Moreover, the application of the vaccination, which can require up to 3 vaccine shots per bird for it to be effective, is extremely onerous when it comes to huge bird populations.”17
For his part, Dr. Swayne asserted: “I think we in the United States and other [peers with comparable animal health systems] would do the surveillance correctly. We would do it correctly. But I think the fear is that some other countries that are using vaccines now are not doing the surveillance correctly. They’re not trying to find the breakthroughs so that they can eradicate it. That kind of viewpoint is kind of what’s keeping everyone from moving forward.”
Finally, the biggest hurdle is not technological, but economic and political: it is the understanding that the use of vaccination will cause importing countries to shut their markets.
“I believe that if the issue was not there about losing trade markets, we would already be vaccinating [against HPAI] opined Dr. Swayne.
A USDA Veterinary Services official speaking at a poultry health event in October stated, “We don’t have any assurance that any of our trading partners would accept our products if we began vaccinating any birds,” according to coverage in Lancaster Farming, a regional paper. According to a USA Poultry and Egg Export Council spokesperson quoted in the same piece, reactions are expected to range from a block on all poultry exports from the whole of the country from some Asian importers, to demands from others for attestations that the birds they are receiving were not vaccinated. 18
Moreover, as explained by a recent New York Times article, the export issue has also led to divisions within the poultry industry, with representatives of sectors which are export-dependent and little affected by the virus (like broilers) rejecting the idea of vaccination, while those from harder-hit sectors whose main markets are domestic (like turkeys) are anxiously awaiting it.19
AVEC confirms that the European poultry trade is similarly worried about losing export markets if it makes wider use of vaccination. “We are a member of the international Poultry Council, where it is debated very heavily, and we have also had meetings with WOAH, to try and make them advocate for the science behind this — that when you put vaccination in place, and it’s thoroughly investigated and analysed, then it should not be a problem for trade — but we have not been very successful with that.”
Between the immediate challenges of paying increasingly expensive feed bills, and the longer-term but no less urgent threats such as the overuse of critical resources and the pressure to feed an ever-larger global population, the animal production industry has several truly serious concerns to grapple with.
The animal nutrition industry, of course, can be an ally in doing so, given the importance of feed to the total cost and environmental footprint of animal production. Adisseo takes that mission seriously. To that end, it is launching the “Protect your Margins” platform, in order to empower producers to understand how the animal nutrition choices they make can impact their particular objectives in terms of both economic and environmental sustainability. In today’s Industry Perspectives piece, Stefan Jakob, Global Director of Monogastrics Solutions at Adisseo, discusses how everything from novel raw materials to feed additive format can play a role in helping its customers survive and thrive in a changing landscape.
[Feedinfo] The animal nutrition industry has been struggling with high and volatile prices for inputs such as feed raw materials. Do you believe that this situation will resolve itself? Or is the industry going to have to get used to doing more with less?
[Stefan Jakob] In today’s global market, the animal protein production industry is facing different challenges depending on the region. For example, in India, the cost of raw materials is still a major concern for the market. In contrast, in Europe, the wheat price has dropped below 300 €/t after reaching a peak above 400 €/t last spring. Although resolving the Ukrainian/Russian crisis may help relieve some of the pressure, climate change and the global scarcity of raw materials, arable land, and clean water will continue to challenge crop production. To address these challenges, the industry must recognize the problem and develop tools to improve resilience by doing more with less and doing things differently.
[Feedinfo] With feed costs serving as the main lever to reduce production costs, what kinds of solutions can Adisseo offer to help producers enhance digestibility, mitigate the challenges that come from formulating with novel local ingredients, or otherwise capture the full nutritive value of raw materials?
[Stefan Jakob] In the quest to reduce the pressure on feed costs, the use of less common raw materials has been suggested as an alternative to traditional protein and energy sources. Such raw materials are often readily available and potentially less expensive, thus presenting a promising solution to feed formulation challenges. However, there are concerns regarding the suitability of these new types of ingredients for feed processing, the absence of contaminants, and their ability to deliver the right amount of nutrients for optimal animal performance and health.
To address these concerns, several effective approaches are available to help make the right decision when using alternative feed ingredients. First and foremost, rapid feed testing methods such as Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) can provide fast and accurate data on nutritional values, thereby aiding in quality control of alternative feed ingredients that are prone to variable nutrient contents. Adisseo’s PNE and Adict solutions are particularly helpful for improving feed formulation through better knowledge of raw material quality and variability. Unlike other NIR solutions, Adisseo’s PNE system evaluates many raw materials in-vivo, enabling the most precise digestibility data possible, which is an essential lever for reducing variations in practical formulations.
Secondly, the use of enzymes, particularly multi-NSPase enzymes like Rovabio®, can significantly increase the digestibility of alternative feed ingredients with high or complex fiber content. Enzymes can also help buffer the variability of ingredients, making them a valuable addition to the feed formulation process.
Lastly, palatability enhancers can help ensure consistent feed intake and performance by addressing the sensitivity of swine and ruminants to formulation changes. Even small changes in raw material usage can significantly impact feed intake and result in impaired performance. Therefore, flexible and targeted flavor technology is an important tool for ensuring consistent feed acceptance.
With the effective approaches outlined above, the use of alternative feed ingredients can be optimized, leading to better animal health, performance, and ultimately, profitability.
[Feedinfo] Beyond the price of cereals or oilseeds, high energy costs have also squeezed margins and focused more attention on the energy efficiency of the feed mill (and on operational efficiency in general). Is this an area Adisseo is involved in?
[Stefan Jakob] In the highly energy-intensive process of pellet production at feed mills, optimizing any area of the process can lead to significant benefits. Adisseo, a global leader in liquid feed additives, has conducted extensive studies showing that
using a liquid source of methionine (OH-Methionine) instead of the powder form (DL-Methionine) can result in power savings of up to 13% during pelleting.
Adisseo’s Rhodimet® AT88, a liquid source of methionine, is just one example of our liquid ingredient expertise. Other liquid feed additives, such as multi-NSPase Rovabio®, emulsifiers, and palatability solutions, have also demonstrated clear advantages in the field with customers.
[Feedinfo] Proactively managing animal health is another solution bringing benefits for both the farmer’s bottom line and for the wellbeing of the planet. How have Adisseo’s portfolio and research efforts adapted to meet various animal health challenges?
[Stefan Jakob] Adisseo strongly believes in the concept of Health by Nutrition, which involves making animals more resilient against the various challenges they may encounter throughout their lives, ranging from nutritional to environmental and climate conditions. This approach includes promoting feed intake, enhancing the digestion process of animals and their microbiota, and ensuring optimal animal health, which includes supporting gut integrity, strengthening the immune system, and decreasing oxidative stress and inflammation.
To achieve these goals, Adisseo offers a targeted and flexible portfolio of additives, which includes probiotics, butyric-based solutions, glycerides, and pure form of organic Selenium. The company collaborates closely with its customers to identify and tackle specific issues, providing tailored solutions to meet their needs.
Moreover, Adisseo has launched the second edition of the Adisseo Research Grant in 2022, a program designed to finance promising and innovative academic, nutrition-oriented research projects. This initiative aims to address challenges such as reducing medication in livestock farming and addressing issues related to a warming global climate.
[Feedinfo] Tell me about the “Protect your Margins” platform. How does this go beyond just a slogan at Adisseo, and instead encompass how you prepare to help your customers meet future challenges?
[Stefan Jakob] The optimization of animal diets is a fundamental principle in animal nutrition. Achieving the perfect balance between animal requirements and costs is key to getting the best possible animal and economic performance. Given the multitude of nutrition practices available, it can be challenging for nutritionists to determine the most efficient and cost-effective approach. Adisseo understands this challenge and has recently launched a digital platform named “Protect your Margins” to help customers and partners navigate the potential limiting factors they face in their activities. By selecting their critical business issue, customers can access articles that detail specific solutions to their problems. This platform provides a map to identify issues and find ways to protect margins.
At Adisseo, our aim has always been to help partners navigate the complexity of their respective environments using our complete range of additives and services. We aim to ensure the sustainability of their production, now and in the future, and help deliver their business objectives. Our goal is to “Build a better future for animal nutrition” globally by unlocking the power of science.
[Feedinfo] Looking forward, what are some of those future challenges that you think the industry needs to be thinking about as of now?
[Stefan Jakob] Adisseo takes great pride in turning its vision of “Feeding the planet in a qualitative, affordable, safe and sustainable way” into a reality. The company has made a resolute commitment to lead the industry towards greater efficiency while reducing its impact on the planet. Adisseo recognizes that achieving economic, environmental and social goals hand-in-hand is crucial to sustainability. Therefore, the company is taking steps towards sustainability not only within its own operations but also by supporting its customers in achieving their sustainability goals. Achieving this three-fold sustainability goal is a huge task that requires all stakeholders to work together towards creating a better future for the planet.
Given the multitude of nutrition practices available, it can be challenging for nutritionists to determine the most efficient and cost-effective approach.
STEFAN JAKOB
North America monocalcium feed phosphate (MCP) March delivery prices moved down about 10-13% below Q4 2022 prices for some buyers, depending on contract terms and supplier, but remain above prices in other regions.
The average Q1 price in the US Midwest as of mid-March was $915/short ton, 13% lower than the average Q4 contract price of $1,060/short ton.
As of end-March, a price decrease announcement of $50/short ton for Q2 business in North America emerged, but contracts were not yet settled.
One supplier said it expected contracts to take until mid-April to settle and anticipated prices to fall further during the month.
North American buyers began reporting lower prices in March, but prices had held steady in January and February, while European price indications have fallen much more quickly since Q4.
However, European prices moved up faster than US prices did during 2022. MCP prices increased rapidly in Europe after the Russia-Ukraine conflict began in February 2022. The quarterly contract peaked at just over €1,700/tonne in Q2 2022 and stayed at high levels for most of the year before plummeting in the fourth quarter.
European contracts continued to fall as the new year began. The average Q1 contract price to begin 2023 was €800/tonne ($857/tonne), 32% below the average Q4 price.
In Brazil, contract prices for dicalcium phosphate (DCP) were around BRL 3.60/kg for March deliveries. This equates to around $0.68/kg or $618/tonne.
DCP is 18.5% phosphorus, while MCP is 22% or higher phosphorus content.
In mid-March, one North American seller said its Q1 prices had held steady from Q4, while Q2 prices had not been announced yet. There are two feed phosphate manufacturers in North America, and various resellers and importers.
Many North American market participants were at the Purchasing and Ingredient Supplier Conference (PISC) in Orlando in early March to discuss trends and the demand outlook. According to sources, offer prices and deals were rarely discussed.
Still, feed phosphate cost and supply in North America was a key topic of conversation in many of the meetings at PISC.
It is now just over a year since the RussiaUkraine conflict began. Over the previous few years, Russia had become a significant feed phosphate supplier, and so when the war began, it caused a major disruption to the phosphate market.
Buyers said they continued to receive EuroChem’s defluorinated feed phosphate (DFP), which is produced in Russia, during 2022 and so far into 2023 as well, but had been very concerned initially that they would not be able to secure sufficient supply for production.
However, even with tariffs, phosphate imports have continued to be offered and arrive at North American ports.
Both Chinese and Russian-origin feed phosphates carry tariffs of up to 25% in the US. Russian-origin feed phosphate carries a 35% tariff in Canada.
In the latest trade data from the US Department of Commerce, Q1 feed phosphate imports were seen coming in from China, Spain, Germany, Turkey, and Russia.
Chinese-origin MCP was last offered for $630-660/tonne FOB.
There was a slight decrease in feed phosphate demand in North America in 2022 due to bird flu and swine disease; however, the drop in demand was not as severe as in other regions, global buyers have explained.
Barring any unforeseen geopolitical events, North American demand is expected to remain steady in 2023, according to buyers interviewed by Feedinfo.
An integrator in the swine industry said it is planning on purchasing more feed ingredient volumes in 2023 compared to the previous year. The swine sector purchased less material last year due to swine disease impacting its herd.
A poultry producer said it is planning on purchasing steady-to-higher volumes of all feed ingredients in 2023 compared to 2022, despite bird flu still being prevalent.
“Bird flu does continue to be an issue and some culling is happening, but we are working hard to get them hatched and raised,” the poultry producer said.
By Heather McGuire Doyle, senior analyst
NORTH AMERICAN BUYERS BEGAN REPORTING LOWER PRICES IN MARCH, BUT PRICES HAD HELD STEADY IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, WHILE EUROPEAN PRICE INDICATIONS HAVE FALLEN MUCH MORE QUICKLY SINCE Q4.
HEATHER MCGUIRE DOYLE
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Sustainability concerns are fuelling consumer and lawmaker demands for more transparency in the animal production process, with detailed information about the environmental impact of bringing animal protein to supermarket shelves increasingly becoming a market need rather than a market want.
This extends all the way down to what we are feeding production animals. DSM Animal Nutrition and Health is looking to help their customers answer these calls with their recently launched environmental product declaration (EPD) project which will provide customers with comprehensive information about the environmental impact of the company’s feed additive solutions. In this Industry Perspectives piece, VP of Sustainability and Business Solutions David Nickell and Sustainability
Expert Charlotte Valliere share more about this initiative with Feedinfo and detail how these declarations can deliver transparency to customers and the industry as a whole, allowing them to make informed decisions about their purchases. We also uncover the process DSM employed to verify the data collected for its EPDs and how it ensures reliability and accuracy.
[Feedinfo] Can you explain what DSM’s environmental product declaration project is all about? Why did the company feel it important to launch this initiative?
[David Nickell] DSM’s environmental product declaration project is an initiative to provide credible Scope 3 reporting for our customers and help them to reach their emissions commitments. It involves creating technical documents called Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) that communicate the full environmental footprint per kilogramme of DSM product, including carbon footprint according to the EU Product Environmental Footprint methodology, and covering 19 impact categories from raw material sourcing to manufacturing, including the energy used, waste generated, and emissions produced during the manufacturing process.
Through this initiative, DSM demonstrates its commitment to sustainability, which is becoming increasingly important for companies as consumers demand more sustainable products and practices. This is one way we work together with customers and supply chain partners as part of our strategic initiative ‘We Make it Possible’ that aims for a robust and achievable transformation in animal protein production.
[Feedinfo] How do EPDs differ from life cycle assessments?
[Charlotte Valliere] EPDs are reporting documents that use Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) methodology.
An LCA is a comprehensive assessment of a product’s environmental impact throughout its entire life cycle, from raw material extraction to disposal. It considers all the stages of the product’s life cycle, including transportation, manufacturing, use, and end-of-life disposal. LCAs typically involve a detailed analysis of the energy and material inputs, as well as the outputs of emissions, waste, and other environmental impacts.
On the other hand, an EPD is a standardised and verified document that summarises the results of an LCA for a specific product, providing information on its environmental impact from “cradle-to-gate” — which means from raw material extraction to the point where the product leaves the factory — in a consistent and understandable way.
[Feedinfo] Why is this something that your customers should consider? How does this benefit them at the end of the day?
[David Nickell] Our EPDs provide transparent information about the environmental impact of our products, specifically in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, and water usage. By employing them, our customers can make more informed decisions and choose products that have a lower environmental impact, thereby reducing their carbon footprint. Additionally, EPDs can help our customers understand the environmental impact of their own products, allowing them to communicate this to their own customers who may be increasingly concerned about sustainability.
We understand that the demand for sustainable products and practices is growing, and we aim to help our customers along their sustainability journeys. Our commitment to sustainability is not only important for our customers but also for the planet.
[Feedinfo] You have a very large portfolio of animal nutrition products. How many currently have EPDs? And when do you expect to have EPDs for your entire portfolio? How long do you expect this process to take?
[Charlotte Valliere] We have a continuous process to maintain and update our EPDs, ensuring our customers have the latest information and that new products and innovations are included in our EPD programme.
We are committed to ensuring that all products in our animal nutrition and health portfolio have an environmental product declaration, so customers have transparent information about the environmental impact of DSM products.
[Feedinfo] How did DSM go about ensuring objectivity of the data in these EPDs?
[Charlotte Valliere] We took a rigorous approach to ensure the credibility and objectivity of the data used in Environmental Product Declarations. The data used to produce the EPDs are based on primary data, which reflects DSM’s own consumption of raw materials and energy in the production of our products. Our Environmental Product Declarations are third-party assured by an external partner DNV Assurance B.V. This ensures that they are in accordance with International Life Cycle Assessment Standards ISO 14021:2016 and that the data used is credible and objective.
By using primary data and ensuring third-party assurance, DSM is able to provide customers with transparent and reliable information about the environmental impact of their products. This helps our customers to make informed decisions about the products they use and the impact they have on the environment.
[Feedinfo] Cost remains a major deciding factor in the industry as raw material prices as well as interest rates, inflation, and animal diseases continue to put pressure on bottom lines. Why should sustainability initiatives and EPDs remain high on to-do lists when there are — what some might say — more immediate pressures to consider?
[David Nickell] Measuring and understanding the environmental footprint at each stage of the animal protein value chain is crucial to identifying and implementing improvements that lead to more
efficient and sustainable feed and food production, which often improves profitability. Sustainability information enables companies to make informed choices that support them in reducing their own environmental footprint to meet their own targets and the needs of others downstream, while unlocking value such as sustainable finance, eco-labelling, and identification of best practices across animal production.
Measuring and understanding the footprint is key to futureproofing your business, as the environmental boundaries within which to operate become more stringent. Fundamental to all of this is the need for credible, accurate and transparent sustainability metrics and sufficient time to systematically embed these within the business.
[Feedinfo] Of course, having the EPDs available does not necessarily mean that customers know how to employ them in their operations. Is this something that DSM is helping them with? How are you approaching improving knowledge around the value of EPDs to customer operations?
[Charlotte Valliere] At DSM, we are committed to supporting our customers in their sustainability goals by providing the necessary knowledge and resources to make informed decisions. To improve our customers’ understanding of EPDs, we are providing them with training and educational materials on how to effectively use EPD data. We are also engaging with stakeholders across the value chain to promote the adoption of EPDs and increase awareness of their importance in driving sustainable production.
Through these efforts, we aim to empower our customers with the knowledge and support they need to make sustainable choices and reduce their environmental footprints. We believe that by working together, we can create a more sustainable future for all.
[Feedinfo] How are you making your EPDs available? How can customers get a hold of them? Are they free or available at a cost?
[David Nickell] They are available free of charge to clients, who can get further information via their DSM representative. We also plan to make the environmental product declarations available via our DSM customer portal.
Published in association with DSM Animal Nutrition and Health
For the US, African Swine Fever (ASF) is a foreign animal disease; it is not present in the territory. Given the size of the country’s pork industry, everyone would very much like to keep things that way.
Learning from past foreign animal diseases can be instructive. Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) arrived in the US ten years ago, and is believed to have spread through feed. This served as a wakeup call to the dangers of feed-based viral transmission and catalyzed research in this area.
Work recently conducted by Dr. Jordan Gebhardt of Kansas State University is part of that effort. As he explains, research done at the university in years past had established that when feed mills handle ingredients contaminated with PEDv, it spreads extensively. “Anywhere we can find dust within a feed mill, which is just about everywhere, we can find virus. So our hypothesis is that virus attaches to dust particles [and] dust particles become widely distributed within that space,” he says. Now, with African Swine Fever potentially knocking at the door, he and his team wanted to establish whether the same would be true of ASFv, a larger and more complex virus which has been known to survive in feed ingredients.
For obvious reasons, they could not simply introduce one of the most dangerous animal pathogens known to science into a feed mill and record what happened. Work done with ASFv must be conducted in a BSL level-3 space equipped with appropriate safeguards to ensure the virus remains contained. But Kansas State University is one of a very few US institutions which has such facilities.
And so they basically built a tiny mill inside the Kansas State BSL-3 space. “We had a 50 kg capacity mixer, about a 2-3 meter tall bucket
elevator, so somewhat smaller scale than a commercial mill but all the same equipment, all the same mechanisms,” Dr. Gebhardt explains. “So we set that equipment up in that facility, and then we did the same experimental design [as had been done with PEDv previously]. We ran some feed through it to prime the system, we ran an inoculated batch with ASF through, and then we ran some subsequent batches.”
Like with PEDv, they found that the ASF virus got everywhere. “If we go around that animal room, which is probably 5 meters by 6 or 7 meters in size, if we went to just about any surface within that room and took an environmental sample of that surface, we could find ASF virus. So within that experimental setting, that ASF virus became widely distributed.”
Moreover, they continued to find it in the subsequent batches of feed they ran after the inoculated batch, something which compares negatively with the PEDv experience. “That was even a little bit more clear within the ASF data, that carryover from batch to batch was even a little bit more significant than what we observed with PED,” he says.
Dr. Gebhardt is careful not to jump to conclusions from that data point alone; after all, they were using a different virus, different means of measuring the inoculation dose, etc. However, it is perhaps noteworthy: “Within that PED project, eventually, after running enough batches of feed through, we could no longer find the virus. Under the conditions of this experiment with ASF — the dose we started with, the number of batches we used — even after that last batch of feed, we could still find the virus…under the
THIS DATA WAS ABSOLUTELY EYE-OPENING, AND SO TO ANSWER
THE QUESTION OF THE STABILITY OF ASFV IN THE ENVIRONMENT WITHIN A FEED MILL: IT IS EXTREMELY STABLE.
DR. JORDAN GEBHARDT
conditions of this study, we were able to detect it a little bit longer than we were with PEDv.”
Finally, there was also the persistence of the virus. “When we look at day zero, there’s about four logs of virus. And even when we store those surfaces for 180 days, we still have between 2 and 3 logs of virus,” Dr. Gebhardt recounts. “So statistically, there was no decrease in ASF DNA, even after six months.”
Again, he warns, one needs to be cautious about extrapolating from that; the presence of a piece of genetic material does not indicate whether the virus can still cause infection in an animal. Still, in his words, “this data was absolutely eye-opening, and so to answer the question of the stability of ASFv in the environment within a feed mill: it is extremely stable.”
Thus, this research could provide useful insight for diagnostic purposes — understanding after an outbreak if ASF was present in the feed mill or not. “If ASF was in that feed, we [now] know that virus becomes widely distributed within the mill, and if we go in and collect dust samples or environmental surface samples, we know that if ASF was there, we would find the DNA, even months later.”
Beyond that, it also demonstrates that you cannot simply hope for the virus to flush itself out of a contaminated mill. “We do need to worry about some of those later batches of feed. Therefore, if we really are concerned about [ASF], we probably need to layer additional biosecurity or mitigation techniques on top of just our normal batching procedures.”
This confirmation that the ASF virus spreads widely and lingers for a long time in a mill is admittedly not great news. However, Dr. Gebhardt also has more hopeful insight about ASFv in a feed mill setting, although this draws from earlier research.
In 2019-2020, a biosecurity-minded, vertically-integrated swine producer in Vietnam asked his team to see how the concepts they’d identified in PEDv spread would apply in the field, in a context where ASF was present in the area. “They wanted to understand what practices they should be considering, or what were the potential gaps in their existing biosecurity,” he explains.
The initial sampling identified trucks as the most problematic source of contamination. More specifically, he says, the big gap in the biosecurity was the truck cab. “They were disinfecting and
washing the outside of feed trucks every time they would come back to the mill, but the cabs of those trucks, the insides, were not being decontaminated very well.”
Having identified the issue, they were able to identify a technique using a fan to spray disinfectant inside the cabs as well. “Once they made that change, we didn’t find any more positive samples,” he states.
There are a few lessons that can be drawn from this, including about the importance of people and moving objects in spreading viruses, and about the ability of properly-implemented biosecurity measures to control that spread. But it is also interesting to contrast these findings with the more recent experiment involving inoculated feed in a research setting. As Dr. Gebhardt notes, in a field setting known to have ASF circulating, they actually found vanishingly little trace of the virus in a biosecurity-focused mill, even when casting a wide net.
“We also looked at the feed mill itself, and going back to the PED work, instead of doing pinpoint ingredient samples or feed samples where we really have to find that inoculated spot in order to find the contamination, we focused on environmental samples — dust samples, primarily — because we thought that would be a more representative sample type over a long period of time… and what was interesting [was that in] just over 1,100 samples, we only found nine samples that were PCR positive.”
Of course, this should not minimize the threat of the ASF virus, nor the intense efforts that the company in question was taking to keep it out. “The biosecurity measures they implemented were terrific. So these results probably couldn’t apply to all scenarios,” he notes. “But in a situation where they do biosecurity well, we can keep ASF out.”
The inoculated feed study was described in the papers “Evaluating the distribution of African swine fever virus within a feed mill environment following manufacture of inoculated feed” in PLOS ONE and “Effect of mixing and feed batch sequencing on the prevalence and distribution of African swine fever virus in swine feed” in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, as well as in an extension report available here and submitted for peer-review publication. The Vietnamese work was described in “Sampling and detection of African swine fever virus within a feed manufacturing and swine production system” in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases
By Shannon Behary, senior editorGood decision-making relies on good data. Whether you are making decisions about capital investments or feed formulation, having insight into the supply and demand for corn, wheat, soybean meal, and other feed ingredients is essential.
Feedinfo’s sister company Stratégie Grains has 30 years of experience in analysing the effect that different factors, from the weather to the macroeconomic climate, will have on the production and price of agricultural commodities. Today, we are joined by Benoît Fayaud, Head of Grains Analysis; Hémeline Macret, Head of Oilseeds Analysis; and Rim Lazrak, Feed Analyst, for an outlook of key feed ingredients and a better understanding of the data that Stratégie Grains can provide to the feed industry.
Overall, Fayaud describes the supply and demand balance of corn as “very tight, even [though] demand is not very high.” That particularly bad supply situation is a function of drought in Argentina, as well as a decline in production in the US (reduced acreage and dry weather) and Europe.
Of course, he notes, there could be one factor potentially pushing in the other direction, if the Brazilian crop to be harvested in July and August provides a big increase.
Still, Fayaud warns, for the campaign running through the end of September, “we do not expect a big decrease potential for corn prices, because of this problem in Argentina. And so [any] decrease in prices would be for the next campaign: 2023-2024, once we [will have some visibility on whether] the harvest will be good in the northern Hemisphere. We will know that in September.”
ample local supply, but domestic demand has not gone up and on export markets, Europe’s supplies are competing with the Russianorigin wheat. “So very big stocks for the EU next year,” he notes. Next year’s wheat campaign will start in July. “We expect a good crop of wheat at the world level – of course, not at the record high level as was the case in Russia and Australia this year — but still very high, because, mainly, of very high area.” And once again, he says, the tepid economic situation will keep a lid on demand growth.
The takeaway for the animal nutrition market is that we should expect wheat’s inclusion rate in feed to reflect its competitiveness with corn in the coming months. “At both EU and global level, total feed demand should be higher than in 2022-2023 — but not very high. And in this slight increase, the share of wheat should again increase.”
Did Russia’s surprise decision to commit to a renewal of the Black Sea grain corridor lasting a mere 60 days, rather than the previous 120 days, upset Stratégie Grains’ forecasts? Fayaud says not so much:
Ample supplies are also a defining feature of the oilseeds situation. Macret describes the Stratégie Grains position as bearish on oilseeds. In soy specifically, she says, global production is decent, despite the “disaster” in Argentina; this was offset by very high areas and yields in Brazil. “Mato Grosso should harvest its highest soybean production ever and Brazil will be able to provide large soybean shipment volumes to the main importing countries,” she asserts. “The US and India also got a decent harvest in 2022, which helps supply the crushing industry right now.”
“Until now, especially for cereals, we have remained cautious regarding Ukrainian exports, because of this uncertainty around the corridor… we are on, I would say, the low side of the forecasts [which] make the assumption that the corridor is in place.”
The next campaign, they foresee, could ease that tight situation. “We expect a big increase of the [corn] crop, assuming normal weather, and rather low demand. So stocks should increase for 2023-2024.
Meanwhile, the situation is quite different for wheat. For one thing, he explains, remarkable harvests of wheat have been recorded in Russia and Australia. And for another, “the demand is not very high, even if wheat was competitive against corn in feed demand; because of the economic context, the total demand was not very high.” This means large stocks, with the potential for further decrease in prices until June, the end of the current campaign, accentuating its competitiveness against maize.
In the EU, he notes, Ukrainian wheat has contributed to the
However, oilseed supply is only one of the factors influencing the production of vegetable oil (and of the meals commonly used in animal nutrition); industrial margins also have a powerful influence. Therefore, in the next marketing year (October 2023-September 2024), she warns of a “tight situation” in the soymeal market, even amid oversupply in the soybean market thanks to presumed recovery of yields in South America and an increase in soybean areas around the world.
“The complex prices for 2023/24 deliveries indicate mixed crush margins for soybean. They appear good in the US and in Brazil, but not very profitable in Europe and Asia, especially in China. So soybean crush — and thus soymeal production — should not rise much in the next marketing year,” she explains.
The expectations for the prices of the two commodities are similarly disjointed. Macret believes soybean prices “should
collapse as soon as the new harvests [are] secured and all climactic risks passed,” or in other words, in Q3 2023 in the Northern Hemisphere and early 2024 in South America. “But soymeal prices should not follow. We forecast that they should stay at a high level, given the deficit expected in the world and the main exporting country, Argentina.”
What could change this neutral outlook for soymeal prices would be the level of demand from the animal nutrition sector, Macret explains. Given that animal nutrition is overwhelmingly the largest application for soybean meal, if animal numbers take a hit because of anything from diseases like avian influenza or to financial shocks impacting the profitability of farming, then the price will respond accordingly.
Effectively, because the sector is such an important source of demand for both grains and oilseeds, Stratégie Grains also produces detailed modelling of animal feed consumption.
As explained by Lazrak, who is responsible for Stratégie Grains’ animal feed modelling, these are produced for the EU and UK each month based on livestock estimates (derived from data including the previous month’s numbers and forecasts about meat and milk consumption and export) and on estimates regarding feed composition (i.e. the
proportion of various meals and grains which might be used, based on their price and availability).
Stratégie Grains subscribers can download data sets for individual European countries for compound feed production by species, for the composition of that feed (i.e. the use of wheat, barley, maize, etc.), and for estimates of livestock numbers as well as milk and meat production. For the rest of the world, this exhaustive modeling on compound feed is not yet available, but Stratégie Grains’ monthly reports on grains and oilseeds still offer highly detailed insight into changes in the animal nutrition sector’s demand for different ingredients. For example, the March grains report cited no less than 10 different countries in which forecasted demand for feed wheat for the current marketing year had changed month-on-month or year-on-year, and seven countries for corn.
Overall, the most important factor Stratégie Grains sees shaping demand from the feed sector is the economic environment; with inflation pushing up the cost of living, people are cutting back on consumption, including that of meat. “Each time we have very high prices of raw materials, we see a decrease in feed demand at the world level,” asserts Fayaud.
By Shannon Behary, senior editorTHE COMPLEX PRICES FOR 2023/24 DELIVERIES INDICATE MIXED CRUSH MARGINS FOR SOYBEAN. THEY APPEAR GOOD IN THE US AND IN BRAZIL, BUT NOT VERY PROFITABLE IN EUROPE AND ASIA, ESPECIALLY IN CHINA. SO SOYBEAN CRUSH — AND THUS SOYMEAL PRODUCTION — SHOULD NOT RISE MUCH IN THE NEXT MARKETING YEAR,”
Over the last decade or so, the idea of insects as a source of protein for animal feed has taken off. There are many advantages, particularly in terms of sustainability; bugs can be fed on agri-food residues that would in many cases have gone to waste otherwise, and they can help supplement plant proteins or fishmeal which might not be considered environmentally friendly or nutritionally appropriate for all applications.
However, it is increasingly becoming clear that insectderived ingredients can be seen as more than simply a protein-rich biomass. Instead, as explained by Professor Laura Gasco of the Department of Agricultural, Forest, and Food Sciences at the University of Torino in a webinar organized by the FAO, researchers are beginning to look at different substances found within insects as tools which could reduce antimicrobial use on farms.
It is likely that we have barely scratched the surface of what could potentially be a vast reservoir of alternatives to antibiotics. After all, she points out, there are an estimated 1.5 to 3 million insect species — many of which have yet to even be named, let alone seriously studied.
Still, according to her, we already know of at least three categories of very interesting bioactive compounds within insects which might have antimicrobial, antioxidant, immune system stimulation, or microbiota modulation effects, or other types of positive impacts on an animal consuming them.
The first are antimicrobial peptides (AMPs): small cationic proteins that exhibit activity against bacteria, fungi, parasites, and even viruses. Beyond directly killing microbes, AMPs can also boost host-specific innate immune responses and exert selective immunomodulatory effects. Given the harsh environments in which many insects survive, Prof. Gasco recounted, they have very robust innate immune systems, in which AMPs play a role. Research going back several years has identified that AMPs can potentially be useful against a broad range of pathogens, including both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Indeed, she pointed out, work has even begun on stimulating insects with a pathogen to make them express more of the desired AMP, in order to achieve effects comparable
to that of an antibiotic when fed to the target production animal. However, despite the intriguing findings in trials, there is apparently no insect-based AMP which has been introduced to the animal nutrition market.
The second category of interesting bioactives which can be found in insects is chitin. Chitin is a structural polysaccharide with nitrogen which forms a major element in the exoskeleton of insects.
Some knowledge of the effects of feeding chitin already exists, as it is also found in fungi, algae, and certain sea animals like crustaceans. However, she points out, we must move with caution before assuming that insect chitin will have the same medicinal properties; after all, these effects might depend on the size, structure, and composition of the chitin, which can differ between organisms.
Still, chitosan extracted from the mealworm beetle (Tenebrio molitor) has demonstrated antibacterial activity against E. coli, Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Streptococcus aureus Moreover, Prof. Gasco added in response to a question, there is evidence suggesting that specifically insect-based chitin may have advantages for animal production, based on a trial with diets including ingredients with their origins in crustacean processing, and ones which included discarded exoskeletons (exuviae) from insects. Beyond that, there is evidence from broilers of a probiotic effect from black soldier fly larvae, modulating the microbiome to promote microorganisms which are positive for the animal’s health and productivity.
The final category is one which the animal nutrition industry is broadly familiar with: fatty acids. Some of these, like lauric acid (which has strong antibiotic properties) might be found naturally in insect species like black soldier fly larvae. But beyond the fatty acids which are already present, it is apparently also possible to impact the fatty acid profile of the insects by feeding them on different substrates.
Of course, given that insect-based ingredients are in their infancy, there is much work to be done before their potential can be properly exploited. Indeed, in some of the literature investigating the benefits of feeding insects to animals, it is not necessarily clear whether the positive effects are due to AMPs, chitin, or fatty acids — and may © Vector Tradition / Shutterstock.com
well be some combination of all of them. Still, for Dr. Gasco at least, it is clear that this will be a fruitful avenue to explore. She shared an experience of her first visit to an insect factory in China, where the broilers being fed on the larvae the site produced had reportedly seen a marked decrease in mortality. Now, with further investigation, it is becoming evident that insects are more than just an eco-friendly protein source; they can be a powerful tool to keep animals healthy and productive.
Dr. Laura Gasco presented on 9 March 2023 as part of the FAO’s knowledge dissemination dialogues on AMR.
By Shannon Behary, senior editorHow was the trade liberalisation of June 2022 experienced in Europe?
“In Africa there is a proverb. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you go want to go far, go with partners.”
According to Gabriel Varga, Regional Director Africa SSR at Zoetis, it is a lesson that the company has learned during the first five years of its African Livestock Productivity and Health Advancement (A.L.P.H.A.) initiative, a project that “aims to improve veterinary health and food security in some of the most rapidly developing regions of the world.”
The A.L.P.H.A. initiative made the news recently when, in early March, Zoetis announced that it had received a USD 15.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand the programme further. The next iteration, known as A.L.P.H.A. Plus, will go deeper in the countries where it is already operating — Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, and Tanzania — and will also expand into Kenya, Ivory Coast, and five other countries from across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Whereas the first A.L.P.H.A. programme which began in 2017 covered cattle and poultry, Zoetis is now looking to see what it can bring to aquaculture production, which is a growing segment across the continent, from Nigeria to the Great Lakes region.
“For A.L.P.H.A. Plus, we are exploring what type of [fish] farming, what type of diseases, what kind of samples we can get, from which countries, and then, building on that, we will make a decision [on whether] we go into that investment or not,” he says.
The objective of A.L.P.H.A. Plus is to accelerate access to veterinary products, services and diagnostic tools to increase the productivity of smallholder farms, with a particular focus on supporting female farmers, who represent an important subset of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Diagnostics are an important starting point. “One of our experiences from the African professional environment is that there’s still a lot going on in the way of ‘treat to diagnose’,” Varga observes. “Farmers come to the agro shop, and they know that last time this specific product helped, so [they say] ‘let’s do it again’. But they don’t know, really, the underlying cause why, what happened. And it’s not their job [to know], actually, because it should be a paravet or vet who should diagnose. But because of the lack of access, we need to create that awareness about the diagnostic part.”
There are at least two parts to the diagnostics pillar of the A.L.P.H.A. programme. The first is building up a diagnostic network. Varga says that one the important learnings from the first iteration of the programme was the importance of partnerships in making this a success. “So the initial idea, for example, was that we wanted to have our own diagnostic labs, which we would run, operate, and do everything. We had to move away
from it; we realized that, first of all, logistically it’s very difficult. Secondly, if you don’t have partnerships, then it’s not working efficiently enough.”
Moreover, working with various institutions already in place has allowed them useful flexibility. For example, he recounts, “At Kampala University in Uganda, we have highly trained professionals who can do two things: they can do diagnostics [themselves] and also train [others].” Meanwhile, in Nigeria, A.L.P.H.A. worked with a hatchery to help expand and move an existing lab from a location on their own premises (where access was limited for biosecurity reasons) to a location in a nearby city where it could be useful not only to this hatchery but could also support the success of its clients in the local poultry industry. “The number of samples went up incredibly, immediately,” he said. Finally, when it comes to public-sector partnerships, the initiative is even helping to reinforce government labs doing diagnostics for notifiable diseases with training and equipment.
The other part of the diagnostics pillar includes helping reduce the distance between farmers and labs. To this effect, it has developed a digital smartphone app: LabCards, to simplify the processing of samples for diagnostic testing and encourage more professionals to do diagnostics. As Varga explains, when a sample is taken, a minimum amount of information needs to be plugged in — what the sample is, and what tests are required. “The phone automatically detects the site where the sample was taken, and the lab connected to it can see immediately that this sample is coming. So we are not losing traceability of the samples.”
Importantly for the initiative and for the Gates Foundation funding it, the app can be used by anyone, as long as there is a local veterinary diagnostics lab willing to adopt it. Indeed, Varga says, although it was developed for Sub-Saharan Africa, it is now also being promoted by Zoetis teams in Southeast Asia.
The second pillar, improving access to high quality veterinary products, requires actions on several fronts. The first is regulatory: getting products registered in various African markets, which requires resources and time. Zoetis must identify which products fit the markets’ needs — sometimes, indeed, demonstrating that the disease is a problem in a particular area — and then pursue a regulatory process which, in Varga’s words, is “as strict as in the US or Europe or anywhere in the world.”
Indeed, he says, one of the major learnings of the initial A.L.P.H.A. programme was that product approvals would take longer than anticipated. “We were maybe overambitious. We thought that the registration would go very fast, and within one to two years, we’d have registered products. We had to change that view, and we [now] know that it’s between two to four years.” Still,
the company is now able to see the results of this persistence; whereas prior to 2017, Zoetis had an estimated 3-5 products officially registered in Sub-Saharan Africa, the company now says it has over 90.
Beyond product registration, there is also the necessity of building distribution channels. This means finding, training, and certifying partners who can import, store, and distribute products which are sensitive to humidity, temperature and other handling conditions.
A.L.P.H.A. Plus seeks to go beyond the distributor level and reach those directly responsible for selling and using the products, to help them understand the application and correct use. “Because [we’re talking about] new products, and sometimes even new diseases, we need to train those colleagues, whether it’s our business partners or distributors, or whether it’s professionals like vets, paravets, or farmers,” he explains.
“The farmer is not going to a distributor, they’re going to the agro shop in a village, or in the neighbouring city. They go there to pick up those products, and those points of sale need to be certified as well.”
Training is an essential part of the A.L.P.H.A. Plus, which is particularly interested in reaching those who have not been able to access such opportunities.
Technology has been a major part of this; sweeping aside any preconceived notions of Africa as being behind the times in matters of digitalisation, Varga explains: “smartphones are very widely used, so that’s quite an [important] channel. But at the
same time, it mainly focuses on the male users, and because we have gender equity as one of the key elements of the whole A.L.P.H.A. initiative, we need to make sure that we find a way to equalize training accessibility.”
To help meet this objective, he says, A.L.P.H.A. Plus also does face-to-face trainings, together with partners like cooperatives or farmers’ groups who have on-the-ground knowledge. This, he contrasts with his experience in the Nordic countries, where the company would mostly be working through veterinarians. “[Africa] is a huge, huge continent, [with] huge countries, huge distances. The vets are not everywhere. We cannot rely on one channel. We have to work with farmers… these groups, they help us with that. They have regular meetings, and they love to come together and gather in some of the village centres. It’s a very different [experience], I would say, to do these trainings through those cooperatives.”
The A.L.P.H.A. project thus far has managed to train 30,000 professionals, Varga estimates, around 30% of whom were women. “Our strategic goal is 50%, but we reached up to 30% [so far].”
Underlying the whole of the programme is the desire to cultivate talent in Africa. “If the demographics and social development and urbanization in African [continue] as they are going today, in 10, 20, 30 years from now, there will be a big need for additional proteins to [feed] big populations in big cities. And you need good, well-trained, educated, capable colleagues to do that. So we were looking for colleagues in Africa, to hire them, train them, develop them, to act as future leaders.”
By Shannon Behary, senior editorTHE FARMER IS NOT GOING TO A DISTRIBUTOR, THEY’RE GOING TO THE AGRO SHOP IN THE VILLAGE... THOSE POINTS OF SALE NEED TO BE CERTIFIED AS WELL.
Like many in the animal nutrition industry, French biochemistry firm METabolic EXplorer (METEX) had a rough 2022. A manufacturer of animal nutrition products including fermented amino acids and butyric acid (as well as products for other industries), METEX made the decision to halt production in Q3 of last year when energy prices in Europe reached eye-watering levels. Then in the final days of December, the company revealed that it would progressively restart production of fermented amino acids, and also unveiled financing for an industrial transformation plan at its plant in Amiens, a project in which it intends to invest tens of millions of Euros.
Today, we are joined by METEX’s Business and Innovation Director for Animal Nutrition Etienne Corrent and Sustainability and Public Affairs Director Nicolas Martin to discuss that industrial transformation plan in greater detail, as well as get an idea of how the company is in better shape to adapt to a changing market going forward.
For METEX, the concentration of issues in 2022 had the effect of delaying projects that had been on the company’s agenda since it purchased the amino acids manufacturing business of Ajinomoto Animal Nutrition Europe (AANE) in 2021. “Initially METEX secured the financing for the plan in spring 2022. But due to the tough economic situation in 2022, it was no longer possible to start the investments, because the conditions were not met to release the money from the banks, and to start. During the second half of 2022, when the situation was a bit difficult, a new financing plan was discussed,” Martin explains. “Now we will be finally able to implement this transformation plan that should have taken place in 2022.”
Concretely, he says the company is looking at investments of over €70 million, largely dedicated to the industrial transformation of the production plant.
One important focus for that is the increase in specialty amino acids capacity. METEX had previously announced its intention for products such as tryptophan, valine, isoleucine, leucine, and arginine to make up 60% of its revenues by 2025, complemented by 40% from commodity products; this would be an inversion of the current ratio.
As Martin explains, the company’s plan is to build a new workshop, adding capacity at Amiens. In other words, it is not simply a question of switching over a production line currently making a commodity product like lysine. Specifically, the company is planning to increase downstream processing capacity. Whereas the fermentation stage of production can be done using the same equipment regardless of the final product (for example, the same
large-scale fermenter could be used to make lysine or valine), the processing that takes place after that — separating out the desired product from the rest of the fermentation, for example — is more product-specific.
“Today, if we want to produce more valine, we need more downstream capacity. It’s the same for tryptophan. So we will invest in this downstream capacity. Indeed, it’s really a capacity increase.”
According to Feedinfo’s Supply & Demand Database, the Amiens plant has a nameplate lysine capacity of 100,000 tonnes/year on a lysine HCl equivalent basis. The plant produces both lysine HCl and liquid lysine, as well as tryptophan and valine.
However, the industrial transformation plan is more than just the increase in specialty amino acid capacity.
The company is also looking at process improvements. These include introducing new METEX technologies to replace previously-used AANE technologies. “For example, there’s a METEX technology for valine production which is more efficient than the one we are implementing now,” Martin says.
Next, there is the company’s attention to the question of decarbonisation. This includes not only reducing the footprint of its own operations, but also about getting serious documentation, validated by third parties, of just how its products compare to those of other origins.
As Martin explains, there are ultimately only a few viable options for reducing the carbon footprint of feed. First, an ingredient has to actually make a significant contribution to that total; and second, there need to be different suppliers offering this ingredient, with significant differences in the carbon footprint between those suppliers. Amino acids made in Europe, he believes, are one of the
SOME
rare examples at that intersection, allowing a buyer motivated to improve the carbon footprint of a feed operation to do so.
Finally, there is portfolio diversification. In the animal nutrition space, this includes an expansion into gut health products for monogastrics based around the functional aspects of amino acids, as well as customised amino acid blends to help customers face their own particular challenges or meet specific objectives (which could be everything from controlling footpad dermatitis to reducing the use of soybean meal).
It should be noted that this industrial transformation project does not just concern animal nutrition products. Indeed, the company is looking to add the first bio-based glycolic acid to its line-up, a product whose main application is in the cosmetics industry.
However, Martin and Corrent are clear that the developments in other areas do not represent a shift in focus away from the animal nutrition industry; they fully expect it to continue to grow and to remain a high priority for investment and other resources.
“We have a strong willingness to be present in animal nutrition,” asserts Corrent. Martin agrees, adding that the cosmetics business “is in addition [to animal nutrition], it’s not instead.”
Of course, 2022 was a remarkably difficult year to be in that business. Beyond the war in Ukraine and the other drivers pushing up the price of energy and raw materials, there were also demand-side factors affecting the bottom lines of companies in the animal nutrition industry. For example, there were the supply chain disruptions of 2021, which had scared many buyers into building up large “just in case” stocks of feed additives, which they were slowly eating their way through in 2022. Moreover, feed consumption was dragged downwards by avian influenza and African swine fever, and prospects were further dampened by China’s zeroCovid policies, which curbed meat consumption in a critical export market.
The takeaway was “an important decrease of demand”. In Corrent’s words, estimates of that decline varied, but approached 15% in some countries. “And some demand will not be recovered,” he acknowledges.
As a consequence, the company has begun adapting its plant in Amiens, making it more flexible and reducing the fixed portion of energy costs. As Martin explains, this helps ensure that when the plant is running at less than full capacity, the equipment can match that, rather than requiring full-scale production levels of energy to run.
“The main reason we are more prepared now is that we have integrated the fact that demand can vary. We used to run full speed at the plant, regardless of the market [situation], and it was more or less the stocks which were buffering the difference. I would say now we are much [more precise] in the way we manage the plant. That will not reduce the price of the energy that we buy, but for us, it was the main thing to address in order to become more resilient.”
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As trials continue to take place in Vietnam and in the Philippines for its vaccine against African Swine Fever (ASF), AVAC Vietnam Joint Stock Company (AVAC) has ramped up production capacity at its site in northern Vietnam to 3-5 million doses per month. The company has deployed over 600,000 doses of the vaccine domestically so far, mostly in farms belonging to the CP Group.
“We can produce [many] more doses and we can increase capacity [quickly] at our current production facility, depending on market needs,” AVAC CEO Dr. Nguyen Van Diep told Feedinfo at VIV Asia in March.
Dr. Diep estimates current Vietnamese demand for ASF vaccines at about 10 million doses per year. Demand from neighbouring countries where AVAC’s international distributors are pursuing registration (Thailand, India, etc) is about 10-20 million doses per year, he said.
Dr. Diep mentioned that countries outside Asia are also making enquiries but doubts that the vaccine will be rolled out there anytime soon.
“We have even been contacted [by interested parties] but it will be difficult to supply these markets due to technical testing barriers and differences regarding strategic approaches to controlling ASF,” Dr. Diep commented.
A few companies Feedinfo met in Bangkok are awaiting further developments — in particular, further evidence about the vaccine’s safety. They are nevertheless curious about what might come next, as an efficacious vaccine would be a big step forward in the fight against ASF.
Dr. Diep, meanwhile, is confident in the efficacy and safety of the vaccine AVAC has been working on for the past two years.
He said that the AVAC vaccine strain is derived from a US strain which his company further attenuated by using its own technology. The vaccine is much safer because of that. It is currently effective against serotype 2 ASF, which is the main strain of the virus. The vaccine’s deployment in field settings monitored by the Vietnamese Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development also ensures safety.
“We have also conducted trials with partners. CP Group, for instance, also do their own studies and have noticed that the vaccine’s efficacy is high. That’s what they told us. We have many government certificates on the safety and efficacy of all vaccines; these were needed for approval in Vietnam,” Dr. Diep commented.
AVAC is not the only Vietnamese company with an ASF vaccine. NAVETCO received the first approval for an ASF vaccine from Vietnam’s Department of Animal Health in early June 2022, while AVAC’s approval came roughly a month later. However, Dr. Diep says AVAC has the competitive advantage.
“NAVETCO has to use live pigs and their cells for vaccine production, which is limiting. Testing is unstable and conditions change from pig to pig. It is also more expensive,” he said.
Unlike other ASF vaccine makers, AVAC produces its own cell lines. “Having (our) cell lines enables reliable quality control,” he added. “This offers us better testing grounds and more flexibility.”
And after injection, Dr. Diep said it is possible to differentiate between infected and vaccinated animals simply by carrying out conventional PCR tests.
Moving forward, Dr. Diep acknowledged that there is still some work to do. For instance, the vaccine, which is mainly used in fattening pigs, still has some limitations for use in sows. According to Dr. Diep, this will take a few years to fine-tune as the full breeding performance of sows and their progeny can only be evaluated over a period of years.
AVAC also plans to optimise the vaccine or develop a new version of it to obtain faster immune response from the pigs.
“This is a big focus for us, and a faster immune response vaccine could be available to register in the next one to two years,” Dr. Diep said.
By Simon Duke, editor-in-chiefWE CAN PRODUCE [MANY] MORE DOSES AND WE CAN INCREASE CAPACITY [QUICKLY] AT OUR CURRENT PRODUCTION FACILITY, DEPENDING ON MARKET NEEDS.
CJ Bio’s Shenyang plant is to switch from valine to the production of other specialty amino acids, mainly isoleucine, the company told Feedinfo at VIV Asia in Bangkok. Production at CJ Bio’s amino acid plant in Shenyang, Liaoning province, resumed in late January.
“We will be manufacturing isoleucine instead as there are fewer producers in the market supplying this amino acid. We expect to be able to produce isoleucine in Shenyang from Q2 onwards,” said Paul Chun, Manager BIO ANH — Global Marketing at CJ Bio.
Commenting on valine, he said the supply shortage is ongoing but the market is strong. He argued that the worst is over for the valine market as there are other suppliers, and weather conditions in general are improving, which should result in stronger overall demand.
Discussing CJ’s other ongoing amino acid factory expansions, Chun said the 10,000 tonne/year tryptophan capacity increase
in Piracicaba, Brazil, will come online in April. Once completed, the new line will bring CJ Bio’s global tryptophan capacity to 50,000 tonnes/year.
At the Brazil site, CJ Bio is also completing a 27,000 tonne/year Thr Pro threonine expansion. This is expected to be online in May or June, Chun said. Thr Pro is an 80% active granular source of L-threonine, with residual biomass.
Chun said that, as of now, no other amino acid expansions are in the pipeline for 2024-2025. The company will be mainly focused on production flexibility and developing customised solutions.
Commenting on the effects of China’s reopening on the lysine market, Chun said the real impact will likely be felt in Q2 and Q3. “High demand in China can be expected for the coming quarters,” he said.
By Simon Duke, editor-in-chiefProduction of lysine at Daesang’s factory in Gunsan, South Korea, is set to resume in May after a four-month shutdown, the company told Feedinfo at VIV Asia.
According to Mr. Su Young Son, Team Leader Animal Nutrition Department at Daesang, the restart will be in May and full capacity will be reached in May/June.
At full capacity, the plant can produce 10,000 tonnes/month of lysine HCl and 7,000 tonnes/month of liquid lysine, he said.
Commenting on China’s reopening and its impact on the lysine market, Mr. Son said the lysine price could decrease further, adding that producers in China have increased capacity. He also predicted that demand will likely pick up at the end of 2023.
As for Daesang’s lysine offers, he said that on the one hand his company is telling customers that this year it will be “tough to match Chinese prices”, but on the other hand, to offset this, Daesang is selling Chengfu’s lysine sulphate to its customers — excluding the EU market, where the Chengfu lysine sulphate product currently isn’t authorised.
“We also have a competitive advantage with liquid lysine as Chinese companies are not present in this segment,” he added.
Mr. Son also disclosed that Daesang has plans to produce arginine, valine, isoleucine and tryptophan in China in the future. The production would take place at a factory owned by Heilongjiang Chengfu Food Group, the company with which Daesang signed a contract in August 2021 to produce amino acids in China.
The original intention was to start in 2024, Mr. Son said, but the project has since been delayed.
“June is when we’re hoping our negotiations with Chengfu will be done. So far, the news is good. We will know more in June,” Mr. Son said.
From 2025, in line with the incentive to continue diversifying the business beyond animal nutrition, Daesang also plans to start producing more biobased alternative solutions to products used in other industries.
“The plan is to progressively replace the production of lysine in our own factories by these new products,” he explained.
By Simon Duke, editor-in-chief; Assistance by Lydia Ma, senior analystWE ALSO HAVE A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE WITH LIQUID LYSINE AS CHINESE COMPANIES ARE NOT PRESENT IN THIS SEGMENT.
MR. SU YOUNG SON
Russian premixer Megamix LLC’s plans to expand capacity for vitamin E 60% adsorbate and vitamin E 50% adsorbate to cover the entirety of the domestic market’s demand are on track, the company told Feedinfo.
Megamix’s vitamin E adsorbate plant reached a production capacity of 2,000 tonnes/year in 2021, and in a January 2022 interview the company said it was aiming to produce 12,000 tonnes/year by the end of the decade. At the time, Vasiliy Frizen, General Director at Megamix, estimated the total potential of the Russian market for vitamin E adsorbate at about 4,000-5,000 tonnes/year.
“Currently, the production capacity of the feed grade vitamin E line fully matches its built-in process capabilities. The potential of the Russian market for vitamin E consumption is growing pro rata to the compound feed output,” Arseniy Vlasov, Deputy General Director for Business Development & Co-owner, told Feedinfo, adding that the growth rate of compound feed output in Russia in 2022 was 7% year-on-year, which was almost double the rate of the previous year.
Vlasov acknowledged that Megamix did, however, experience some setbacks last year for its vitamin E project due to the need to find new partners in the supply chain and overall logistics issues.
“We overcame these challenges and now we are on a good track to reach our goal to achieve a production capacity of least 40% and cover all needs in the Russian market and CIS countries,” he said.
Megamix has also made progress on its project to produce other vitamins: namely vitamin A, vitamin B12, folic acid, biotin, and possibly other additives — a project which was still in the very early stages in early 2022.
Vlasov said his company is currently in discussions with its partners about a joint venture in “one of the mentioned fields”.
They hope that by the end of Q3 they will be able to disclose the details of this next vitamin project.
In the past year, the conflict in Ukraine and the various sanctions have played a big part in how companies in Russia have been operating and adapting their businesses.
“The changes primarily affected purchasing of the key ingredients for premix production,” Vlasov said.
“If previously a significant
share of ingredients was purchased from European suppliers, now the focus is almost entirely on Asian manufacturers. Thus, we are able to fully secure the required import volumes of raw materials.”
On the export side, Megamix has seen its business increase for premix products. “In total, the export volumes of Megamix products increased by over 20% in 2022,” Vlasov said. “We have not observed decreased customer demand in our traditional CIS markets (Armenia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, etc.)”
In January 2022, Megamix estimated its broiler premix market share in Russia at about 38% and its total premix market share at 32%.
According to Megamix’s Deputy General Director for Business Development, the company has been able to maintain its market share amid a trend of growing livestock production output across Russia.
“Taking into account the growth outlook of livestock production in Russia and availability of nearly all kinds of raw materials and energy, we firmly believe that feed additive production in Russia will be steadily growing,” he also commented.
“Moreover, government support is expected to speed up this process. In general, it should be beneficial for all local market players as it could reduce the cost of feed additives, shorten supply chains and lower forex risks,” Vlasov added.
The Russian government previously said it wants domestic feed additives production to rise 5% by 2024 and 5% more by 2030 to partly mitigate the feed industry’s dependence on foreign vitamins and amino acids.
By Simon Duke, editor-in-chiefIF PREVIOUSLY A SIGNIFICANT SHARE OF INGREDIENTS WAS PURCHASED FROM EUROPEAN SUPPLIERS, NOW THE FOCUS IS ALMOST ENTIRELY ON ASIAN MANUFACTURERS. ARSENIY VLASOVPhoto Courtesy of Megamix
ADISSEO ’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jean-Marc Dublanc will retire in mid-2023, and a new CEO will be appointed on 1 July.
ADISSEO also announced the appointment of Frederic Jacquin as Chief Operation Officer (COO) and Deputy President for its worldwide activity.
Chris Dyer took on the role of Director of Sales, North America at AMLAN ® INTERNATIONAL , the animal health business of Oil-Dri® Corporation of America.
AVIAGEN named Magnus Swalander Global Vice President of Products following the approaching retirement of Craig Morton.
Mexican poultry giant Industrias BACHOCO named Ernesto Salmon Castelo, Director of Operations for Mexico, as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective in mid-April. Retiring CEO Rodolfo Ramos Arvizu will be nominated as a member of the Board of Directors.
BASF announced that Tobias Dratt, President for North America, will assume responsibility for the Global Business Services Division based in Ludwigshafen, Germany, effective 1 May. Meanwhile, Marc Ehrhardt, Global Business Services President in Ludwigshafen, will assume responsibility for the North America Division, based in New Jersey.
CARGILL promoted Philippa Purser, previously Agriculture Supply Chain Group Leader in EMEA, to Head of Strategy and Global Process Leader in late February. It also appointed Joanne Knight as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Tracey Forfa, J.D. was appointed director of the CENTER FOR VETERINARY MEDICINE , part of the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in mid-February.
Dr. Alexey Dronov became the new head of global sales for phytogenic feed additives company DR. ECKEL in March.
EVONIK ’s CFO Maike Schuh became a member of the company’s Executive Board on 1 April. In her new role, she is responsible for Group IT and the Americas in addition to Finance.
Gerald Gruber became Managing Director at Austrian compound feed producer FIXKRAFT as of 1 March, leading the company alongside Rupert Bauinger.
Theo Spierings’s resigned from his position after only a few months as CEO of FORFARMERS N.V, due to health reasons and personal circumstances. COO Pieter Wolleswinkel has been appointed as CEO, and Rob Kiers as member of the executive board.
Animal genetics firm GENUS plc announced that Jorgen Kokke will be taking over as CEO in July, as Stephen Wilson transitions towards retirement.
Antoon van den Berg, co-founder of HENDRIX GENETICS , stepped down as CEO and chairman of the Executive Committee, handing the reins to Richard Maatman as of 1 April.
NOFIMA has appointed as its new Research Director Erik-Jan Lock, currently Head of Research for Food and Nutrition at the Institute of Marine Research and Adjunct Professor at the University of Bergen.
Effective 1 March, PERSTORP Group’s Ib Jensen, formerly CFO, took over as Chief Executive Officer of the Swedish specialty chemicals company. Monica Jönsson, previously deputy CFO, took over as CFO.
Insect-based ingredients firm PROTIX has named Lynn De Proft as Chief Financial Officer.
Jan Derck van Karnebeek will become the new CEO of ROYAL FRIESLANDCAMPINA N.V. as of 1 June.
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In February, BBCA Pharmaceutical began production at a new valine plant at Bengbu, Anhui province, with a nameplate capacity of 20,000 tonnes/year.
Low prices caused Daesang to stop production of lysine HCl at its factory in Gunsan, South Korea in late January. The company told Feedinfo production would restart in May. It has also said that it has plans to produce specialty amino acids in cooperation with its Chinese partner Heilongjiang Chengfu Food Group in the coming years.
Meanwhile, Yufeng will be launching additional lysine production in mid-2023. The first phase of Yufeng’s lysine project, located in Zhumadian, Henan province, is expected to have a nameplate capacity of 200,000 tonnes/year.
CJ Bio’s 10,000 tonne per year expansion of tryptophan capacity in Piracicaba, Brazil is expected online in Q3 of this year. The company will also be making its Thr Pro threonine range in Brazil for the first time when a 27,000 tonne production line comes online in H2. Moreover, although valine production resumed at CJ Bio’s Shenyang, Liaoning plant in late January, the company has told Feedinfo that it will be switching over to isoleucine at this site as of May, as there are fewer suppliers for this product.
Sources at NHU told Feedinfo in February that construction would soon begin on a methionine hydroxy analogue (MHA) plant in Ningbo, Zhejiang. The project is a joint venture with Sinopec ZRCC and is expected to come online by the end of 2024.
Evonik announced an expansion to its DL-methionine capacity in Singapore, where nameplate capacity will increase 13% to 340,000 tonnes per year by Q3 2024, according to current projections. Moreover, this quarter Evonik also brought online a new EUR 25 million methylmercapto propionaldehyde (MMP) production unit at its site in Wesseling, Germany; this product is integrated with Evonik’s methionine production hub in Antwerp, Belgium.
This quarter, Chinese amino acids producer Fufeng broke ground on a plant in North Dakota which would have been its first production facility in the Americas, but the project was suspended
shortly thereafter amid a worsening of the US-China relationship. Fufeng has also been sounding out Bulgarian authorities about potentially building a fermentation facility there.
BASF announced that it would be building a new plant for citral production in Zhanjiang, China. Once brought online in 2026, the new plant will boost BASF’s production capacity for citral to 118,000 tonnes/year. Citral is used in the production of vitamins A and E, as well as in other applications.
DSM resumed vitamin A production at its site in Sisseln, Switzerland, which had been halted from November through February due to a challenging cost environment. Elsewhere, NHU restarted its vitamin E plant in Weifang, Shandong, in midFebruary; the plant had been shut since 1 January due to the impact of rising COVID-19 infections.
Although Lithuanian phosphates producer Lifosa has been forced to pause many of its operations during this quarter as the complexity of sanctions compliance slowed payments to and shipments from suppliers and customers, this was not necessarily an indication that MCP production had shut down. “Feed phosphates are produced on demand, therefore, [production] does not always correspond to the production of other products,” the company told Feedinfo when affirming that MCP production was still taking place during a wider furlough in February.
Evonik more than doubled its capacity for probiotics production at its facility in León, Spain, where it can now produce the equivalent of 6,000 tonnes of blended final probiotic product per year. ADM, meanwhile, also grew its probiotics production in Spain, opening a new facility which increased its capacity more than five-fold.
Novus International has acquired biotech company Agrivida Inc., which embeds feed additives such as enzymes inside grain. The company says it is examining how to deliver other high-value functional proteins like antibodies or even peptides or vaccine molecules through feed grains.
Shrieve Chemical Company has acquired fellow Texas-based chemical distributor Chem One, who distributes copper sulphate for various applications including animal production (where it is used in animal feed and hoof baths). It is understood that Chem One represents Mexican supplier Cuprosa.
Denmark’s Vilomix has acquired a 75% shareholding in Vitamix Nutrição Animal, a 25-year-old Brazilian premix and minerals company, with the outstanding shares remaining in the hands of founder and CEO Enio Feiber Sônego. Vitamix operates factories in Brazil and in Paraguay.
Nutreco acquired a minority stake in microbiome biotech company BiomEdit in a recent Series A financing round. The companies had earlier announced a long-term R&D and commercial partnership to develop novel feed additives from microbiome technology.
The Saudi Industrial Investment Group (SIIG) is investing around $70 million in Danish single cell protein (SCP) company Unibio, which will use the funds to roll-out new global production capacity, grow operating capabilities, and accelerate innovation and commercialisation of its high-protein feedstuff made from microorganisms fed on methane.
Australian startup Rumin8 has received USD 12 million from its Phase 2 seed round of funding completed this quarter. The funding will be used to accelerate the commercialisation of a feed additive to reduce enteric methane production from cattle. This feed additive is understood to be a synthetic version of bromoform, the active ingredient from seaweed that targets the methanogenic pathways in the rumen of livestock.
ForFarmers has announced plans to sell its Belgian compound feed activities to Arvesta for €25 million. Under the deal, Arvesta will buy ForFarmers Belgium’s sites in Izegem and in Ingelmunster. Approximately 80 employees who sell approximately 420,000
tonnes of feed will also join Arvesta. The sale of co-products, organic feed producer Reudink and equine feed producer Pavo are not included in the transaction.
China’s Boen Group, headquartered in Panyu, Guangzhou, has launched on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. It is understood Boen intends to use the funding raised in the IPO to invest in feed and premix projects.
French feed manufacturer Sanders, part of Avril Group, is partnering with Groupement des Producteurs de Blé (GPB DieuzeMorhange) to acquire Moulin de Sarralbe, a long-time Sanders distributor. Sanders says that the move will reinforce its position in Alsace to the tune of 25,000 of feed.
Alltech Coppens and Finnish circular economy/fish farming company Finnforel Oy are teaming up to acquire the Raisioaqua fish feed production facility from Raisio. The factory produces environmentally friendly aqua feed suitable for northern conditions.
French piglet feed company ARC Nutrition announced a management buyout (MBO) which took place at the end of February. ARC has separated from its shareholding partner Vilofoss France, part of Denmark’s Vilofoss Group, and is now owned by the de Beauregard family and management.
US consumer packaged goods company Post Holdings has signed an agreement to acquire select pet food brands from the J.M. Smucker Co. for $1.2 billion. The transaction includes dog and cat food brands such as Rachael Ray Nutrish, Nature’s Recipe, 9Lives, Kibbles ‘n Bits and Gravy Train, as well as manufacturing and distribution facilities in Bloomsburg, PA and manufacturing facilities in Meadville, PA and Lawrence, KS.
Belgian private label company United Petfood is planning to acquire a stake in Türkiye’s Lider Pet Food. Based in Izmir, Lider Pet Food operates two production facilities that manufacture dry pet food for dogs and cats as well as feed for birds, rabbits and rodents.
Agribriefing, the parent company of Feedinfo, Stratégie Grains, Urner Barry, and Tropical Research Services, was acquired by Mintec in January. A portfolio company of Five Arrows and Synova, Mintec aims to be the leading global provider of price data, analytics, and forecasts for the agri-food sector.
H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza continues to worry poultry producers worldwide. Argentina suspended poultry exports from the end of February through late March until it could establish regionalisation agreements with certain importers. Moreover, the scientific community remains vigilant to cases in mammals (including the first human cases for Ecuador and Chile, both identified this quarter) but at this point, infections are understood to have come from contact with infected birds, rather than from mammal-to-mammal transmission. To read more about the impacts of HPAI on poultry production, see pages 6-12.
KPP Powers Commodities Inc, a Philippine distributor of feed additive and animal health products, is trialling a Vietnamese vaccine against African Swine Fever (ASF) under the supervision of the animal health authorities. The vaccine in question is that made by AVAC Vietnam JSC To read more about the AVAC ASF vaccine, see page 31.
Markets including China and Russia halted some or all imports of Brazilian beef after the country reported a positive test for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or Mad Cow) in late February. The case was eventually determined to be atypical, meaning that it is a variant of the disease that appears spontaneously, rather than being spread through contaminated cattle feed. Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have also reported atypical BSE cases this quarter.
Commercially available raw pet food is believed to have caused infections by the bovine tuberculosis bacteria Mycobacterium bovis in the Netherlands, with cats consuming the food spreading it to humans in two households. The Dutch authorities have issued an RASFF alert about German-origin raw pet food containing ruminant lung material probably implicated in the incident.
Evonik has announced plans to transform its animal nutrition division by separating its amino acids business and specialties business operating models. As part of the plan, approximately 200
Both crop and animal agriculture are sources of nitrogen emissions, and farmers have been pushing back against measures to curb these emissions in the Netherlands and parts of Belgium.
job cuts worldwide can be expected. Meanwhile, BASF has also announced plans to cut jobs and reduce production at its Ludwigshafen site in Germany, although these changes are not concentrated within its animal nutrition operations but are group-wide.
Ajinomoto revealed in January that it has reached a settlement with CJ Group in a lawsuit relating to the import and sales of feeduse amino acid tryptophan products. The suit had been filed in Düsseldorf District Court on 10 May 2016.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative, which has allowed some agricultural goods to ship from Ukraine despite the ongoing conflict in the country, was renewed again. Although this prevented it from lapsing in March, Russia has only agreed to an extension of 60 days, instead of the 120 of the previous extension. Russia has said it is unhappy about the obstacles to its own agricultural exports, including the difficulty in payment resulting from its isolation from international banking systems.
Flemish farmers took to the streets of Brussels in early March to protest the impacts of a regional plan to reduce nitrogen emissions. The move echoes the contentious debate over the implementation of European nitrogen regulations which has been taking place for years in the Netherlands, where a farmers’ protest party organised around the issue, BoerBurgerBeweging, did very well in recent provincial elections in the quarter.
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