Trace minerals are essential to maintaining health and productivity in livestock animals. Traditionally, trace minerals were fed based on the minimum level required to overcome a deficiency symptom and not necessarily to promote productivity. Feeding adequate amounts and sources of trace minerals is essential to optimize production, health and feed costs and to minimize effects on the environment.

The growing uncertainties associated with trace mineral requirements and supply puts nutritionists in the dilemma of balancing the costs of either underfeeding or overfeeding trace minerals. A deficiency will impair health in dairy cows, leading to problems such as retained placenta and mastitis, and can decrease reproduction and lactation performance. On the other hand, excess supply will inflate feed costs and increase the risk of environmental pollution and toxicity, and it may also result in unwanted antagonistic interactions among minerals, leading to poor absorption.

Dietary trace minerals are supplied from feedstuffs and mineral supplements. The National Research Council (NRC) requirements are based on both sources of trace minerals, accounting for their absorption coefficients. Feed trace minerals usually have lower absorption coefficients compared with supplements. Furthermore, mineral supplements differ in their bioavailability. The NRC (2001) requirements appear to be adequate for most minerals, except for manganese and cobalt, for which new data suggests higher concentrations.

Inorganic minerals generally have lower bioavailability compared with organic minerals. Inorganic minerals become free in the rumen and can interact with other feed components. They can also bind to other minerals and pass through the gastrointestinal tract unabsorbed. Inorganic minerals may also include a source of contaminants, such as the heavy metals cadmium and lead. The presence of inorganic trace minerals in premix feeds can negatively affect the stability of enzymes and vitamins. To circumvent these bioavailability and absorption uncertainties, inorganic minerals are often supplemented at multiples of NRC requirements, which may further reduce their absorption and may reduce animal health and performance.

The Total Replacement Technology™ (TRT) mineral program at Alltech offers trace minerals (Bioplex®, Sel-Plex®) to provide highly available and traceable sources of minerals that support the animal’s requirements.

Most lactation diets will supply adequate to excessive amounts of iron, while other trace minerals will be supplied at amounts below NRC requirements, ranging from 40 percent to 85 percent. The TRT program should accommodate most situations but may need to be adjusted for specific situations in which extreme dietary concentrations are found. Regular assessment of trace mineral levels in forages is critical to building a more efficient mineral nutrition program.

Have a question or comment?

By Brian Springer, CCA

Sixty percent of a dairy cow’s diet is forage. With so much of the diet dependent on the nutrients a cow receives from forage, it is important to make sure the crop reaches its nutrient and energy potential. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the major components of fertilizer, are essential for soil nutrient content and are controlled by pH. We test and fertilize for these nutrients regularly, and they are often the first place we look for a solution if a problem arises in crop health.

However, critical elements — like calcium, magnesium, and sulfur — are often seen as secondary in importance in terms of soil content, and, in turn, plant health. For example, with current industry practices, recent findings show that sulfur deficiency of 10 to 20 pounds per acre is common in much of the United States. Of these elements, sulfur in particular might be the missing piece in your forage puzzle as it increases nutrient quality and aids in balancing the microflora in the rumen.

What is sulfur?  

Sulfur is one of the 17 elements essential to crop production. This is because, according to the International Plant Nutrition Institute, plants almost exclusively use sulfate as their primary source of nutrition. It can be found in high levels in salt domes and volcanic deposits, typically in its elemental form. But it is also present in almost all soil types in smaller quantities.

Plants receive sulfur through two primary mediums:

• Soil: The sulfur found in soil is typically organic sulfate that has been converted from elemental sulfur by soil bacteria. Ninety-five percent of plant sulfur uptake is in the organic form of sulfate.

• Air: Inorganic sulfur dioxide is often absorbed through the leaves and stoma.  

What role does sulfur play in forage plant and dairy cow processes?

Required by both plants and animals, sulfur appears in every living cell and is essential for the synthesis of certain amino acids and proteins.

A deficiency of sulfur in the soil can lead to deficiencies in the cow. Nutritionists recommend 0.2 percent of sulfur or sulfate in the diet of cattle, and ensuring your forage has enough sulfur is the easiest and most cost-effective way to manage sulfur requirements for the ration. Most of the dietary sulfur required by the cow is actually utilized by the rumen microbes for amino acid production. By feeding the microbes, the cow can produce amino acids, enzymes and proteins that then contribute to cow health, milk production and quality.

Not only will the sulfate aid the cow, but plants use sulfate for chlorophyll formation, which contributes to higher sugar content and nutrients, resulting in greener, fuller foliage.

What does our current sulfur landscape look like?

In recent years, there has been a decrease in soil sulfur content as well as an increased demand on the soil for higher crop yields, and the fact that many fertilizers contain little to no sulfur is the primary reason for our current depletion of sulfur in the top soil. Secondary causes include erosion and mineralization.

How to recognize a sulfur deficiency

Since high-yielding crops often don’t receive adequate amounts of sulfur or receive it at inopportune times, it is important to be able to recognize a sulfur deficiency. Thankfully, if presented in its organic form, sulfate can quickly be absorbed in two to three days, which helps avoid leaching as you fertilize. If you notice some of the following signs of sulfate deficiency, it is recommended to provide a sulfur treatment two to four days before cutting forage to increase chlorophyll, resulting in a fuller, energy-rich harvest.  This short-term solution can be done by applying biostimulant products, as a sulfur application would need to take place much earlier in order to keep the plant healthy and growing well. Signs of sulfur deficiency include:

• Yellowing of young growth; yellowing of old growth indicates a nitrogen shortage.

• Curling of young leaves.

• Diminished foliage.

​

Photo is provided courtesy of the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI).

Although sulfur is present in the soil, it is often below recommended standards. Furthermore, in its inorganic sulfur state, it cannot be properly taken up by the plant until it has been converted to organic sulfate. By checking your forage crop for sulfur deficiency and treating as needed, you can increase the sugar and nutrient quality of your forage and provide sulfur to your herd to support rumen microflora health.

Have a question or comment?

Farmed fish species are generally exposed to a huge variety of microorganisms that inhabit the water column within aquaculture systems. This is especially true for fish farmed in marine settings, as these species must drink large volumes of the surrounding water to maintain an osmotic balance with their environment. Such interactions between environmental microbes and those of the gastrointestinal system of fish can potentially lead to disturbances of the commensal gut microflora, which can consequently affect the normal functioning of a healthy digestive system.

Support the good

An increased level of positive commensal bacteria in the gut can enhance the innate immunity of fish, improve performance and help to support the efficient functioning of the gastrointestinal system.

​

Figure 1. Illustration of microvilli

Extensive peer-reviewed research has shown that mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), derived from specific yeast strains, can have a positive impact on the overall gut health of fish. Through feeding these yeast fractions, both the length and density of villi and microvilli can be increased in the gut. This translates to a larger gut surface area and supports enhanced uptake and absorption of nutrients delivered within the feed.

In addition, MOS serve to fortify the epithelial layer of the intestine, thereby enhancing mucus production, which prevents opportunistic bacteria from attaching themselves to the surface of gut enterocytes. As a result, these microbes are readily removed from the fish intestine.

Tackle the bad

Promoting a stronger mucus layer and longer microvilli is a giant leap forward in gut health, but these benefits alone are not sufficient to guarantee optimal functionality within the intestinal tract. Alltech’s Bio-Mos^® aids in normalizing gut microflora. 

Bacteria attach to the epithelial cells in the gut via fimbriae that recognize certain sugars on the cell exterior. Many pathogenic bacteria attach via specific type 1 fimbriae, which recognize mannose as a surface receptor, depicted in the illustration below.

Figure 2. Illustration of bacterium attaching to Bio-Mos^® instead of the gut surface

The Alltech^® Gut Health Management program is based on the unique “Seed, Feed and Weed” principle developed by Dr. Steve Collett at the University of Georgia, in which we seed the gut with favorable microflora and then feed the beneficial resident bacteria, maintaining a natural intestinal environment. Through these interconnected processes, we can subsequently weed out potentially unfavorable microorganisms and strengthen the immune defense system of farmed fish.

Avoid the ugly

In modern aquaculture, ensuring optimal gut health is more vital than ever before. We want to avoid ugly situations and produce farmed fish as responsibly as possible, which means the maintenance of optimal water quality parameters is of paramount importance. Every farmer continuously strives to improve the performance of their livestock, and this also applies to terrestrial farms. Fish farmers focus predominately on two key aspects to maintain productivity: the reduction of feed costs and the improvement of growth performance rates.

By implementing our gut health management program in combination with our dedicated on-farm support, we can achieve:

1. Enhanced growth performance, which drives a shorter production cycle.
2. Optimal immune defense, which means reduced treatments and veterinary costs.
3. Strong, robust fish with an optimal fillet quality that satisfies consumer demands.
4. Highly efficient, responsible and sustainable aquaculture practices.

Interested in having our experts help you to achieve optimal gut health in your farmed fish? Email aquasolutions@alltech.com today to request an on-farm assessment. Irrespective of your target species and farming environment, we are here to help.

Have a question or comment?

Pig producers are well aware that enhanced gut health is the driving force behind profitability. Mortality, feed efficiency, growth and health costs are just a few of the many areas influenced by achieving optimal health. Positive gut health can have long-lasting effects on animal performance, herd health and producer returns.

In this webinar, Dr. Stewart Galloway, senior swine nutritionist at Hubbard Feeds, discussed the lifetime impacts of gut health strategies implemented early in the life of the pig. According to Galloway, gut health is a critical success factor that affects things such as pig value — as a source of profit and as a source of protein globally — sow productivity, animal welfare and the responsible use of antibiotics.

Gut health is essential for building a foundation for performance and profitability in pig production. Healthy pigs will eat and produce more efficiently, ensuring they are performing at their maximum potential.

What is the ideal gut?

The goal is to help generate a fully developed gastrointestinal system in which water, pH and beneficial bacteria are balanced and maintained while pathogens and toxins are kept out.

So, how you can tell if a pig’s gut is healthy? To start, observe pig activity. Are the pigs alert and moving around? Are they eating? Are they displaying normal behavior? Another indicator is diarrhea. Diarrhea is a telltale sign that something is not right with the pig’s gut, so it is important to keep an eye out for pigs that have this symptom. Other indicators of a healthy gut include lower morbidity and fewer treated pigs as well as growth and feed efficiency.

However, it is important to remember that many factors can disrupt good gut health. For example, weaning is the biggest stressor put on a pig. Poor gut health strategies implemented at this stage of life will negatively impact the pig throughout its lifecycle. Dietary changes, pathogens and mixing, and crowding stress are some of the other factors that negatively affect gut integrity.

Tips for good gut health

Galloway suggests a comprehensive program approach by implementing these three strategies for good gut health:

1. Decrease gut inflammation

2. Decrease pathogens

3. Decrease water loss

When a gut is inflamed, several problems arise: nutrients are not properly absorbed; there is an increase in antigens, leading to further inflammation; pathogens and toxins move right through the cells, causing inflammation inside the cell; and there is water loss and water movement out of the cells into the gut, leading to dehydration and diarrhea.

To combat inflammation and in turn decrease pathogens and water loss, producers should do a few critical things. First, identify the pig’s stressors and decrease stress. Second, optimize ingredient selection and combination, such as proteins and amino acids, as well as the use of carbohydrates. Third, use enzymes to draw more nutrients from the feed, making them more available for absorption by the pig for its own use and less available for the pathogens to use as a food source later on in the gut.

Achieving and maintaining a healthy gut is a continuous process and requires a complete approach to gut health, not just a one-time or quick fix. An animal truly never gets over a good or bad start. Make gut health a priority and get your pigs on track for lifelong success.

To receive a recording of the webinar and learn more about Galloway’s strategies for good gut health, click the button below:

I would like more information on the Alltech^®Gut Health Management program.

[LEXINGTON, Kentucky] – It is with great sadness that Alltech announces the passing of its founder and president, Dr. Pearse Lyons. Lyons died on Thursday, March 8, due to an acute lung condition that developed during his recovery from heart surgery. He was 73.

“The thoughts of our entire Alltech family around the world are with Dr. Lyons’ family, specifically his wife Deirdre, daughter Aoife, son Mark and Mark’s wife Holly,” said Alric Blake, CEO and treasurer of Alltech.

“Dr. Lyons was a visionary entrepreneur who transformed the agriculture industry beginning with his innovative application of yeast technology in animal nutrition. From farm to field, from market to family dinner table, our world is immeasurably better because he was a man who never saw problems, only a challenge that had not yet been solved.

“He inspired everyone he met with his energy, enthusiasm and passionate belief in possibilities. He instilled that positivity in his people, more than 5,000 Alltech team members around the world. I am confident I speak on behalf of all of them when I say that we are deeply honored to have known and worked for such a great man. We will resolve to honor his legacy by deepening our commitment to his customers and all the innovative ideas he believed in so strongly.”

To continue driving forward his vision for serving the agriculture industry through field-proven innovations, Dr. Lyons established a clear leadership structure, including:

• Dr. Mark Pearse Lyons, Chairman and President
• Alric A. Blake, Chief Executive Officer and Treasurer
• E. Michael Castle II, Vice President and Secretary

As the company’s director of corporate image and design, Mrs. Deirdre Lyons will continue to further Dr. Lyons’ vision for Alltech’s global presence and their shared commitment to philanthropy and community involvement.

 “We are all deeply saddened by my father’s passing,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, Pearse’s son and chairman and president of Alltech. “He always focused on developing people, and he built an extraordinary team over the years. I know he had full confidence in his team to continue growing the company he built.

“He saw farther into the horizon than anyone in the industry, and we, as his team, are committed to delivering on the future he envisioned. He planted seeds that will produce a bountiful harvest for the world in the years to come.”

Dr. Lyons’ family are deeply appreciative of the many prayers and well wishes they have received from friends around the world. At this time, they kindly ask that any expressions of sympathy, including memories and tributes, be shared at alltech.com/pearselyons.

In lieu of flowers, the family is encouraging donations to the Alltech ACE Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that funds a variety of philanthropic endeavours around the world from disaster relief to primary schools in Haiti. Donations may be made at alltech.com/pearselyons.

Funeral masses will be in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, on March 17 and in Dublin, Ireland, in April. A special celebration of life will be held on May 20 at the beginning of ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference in Lexington.

Public visitation in Lexington will be on Friday, March 16. Arrangement details will be kept up to date on alltech.com/pearselyons.

Horses exude beauty and strength, and yet, large and robust as they appear to be, we equestrians know that horses are also some of the world’s most fragile and finicky creatures. Along with their penchant for finding bizarre ways to inflict bodily harm upon themselves, they are often prone to internal ailments, especially involving their digestive systems. Why is this?

Different by design

Horses are non-ruminant, monogastric (single-stomached) herbivores. The digestion of the horse is notable for several reasons. They are perhaps most well-known for their inability to vomit. But, have you ever thought much about how their digestive tract works?

When a horse eats, portions of the feed are first digested enzymatically in the foregut. Afterward, microbial fermentation of other nutrients, like cellulose, occurs in the hindgut. The equine digestive system is truly unique because the first section resembles that of other monogastrics, like humans, but the second section is more akin to that of a ruminant species, like cattle.

What is the hindgut, and what happens there?

The equine hindgut consists of the cecum, large colon, small colon and rectum. It contains billions of symbiotic bacteria, protozoa and fungi, which all help to break down and absorb fiber. Like all species, horses do not possess enzymes capable of digesting fiber, so they rely on these microbes to process fiber for useful nutrient absorption.

What if the hindgut malfunctions?

When you consider that the majority of your horse’s diet (at least 50–60%) should be made up of forage, it makes one realize just how much work the hindgut has cut out for it. So, if something is awry, it can spell big trouble in the form of hindgut acidosis (when lower pH levels lead to increased acidity), which often leads to colonic ulcers, poor body condition, colic or laminitis.

So, what’s a horse person to do?

Keeping the hindgut healthy starts with keeping your horse’s overall nutrition in order. Below are some easy rules of thumb to keep in mind when feeding your equine partner(s).

1. Feed good-quality hay.

2. Don’t let your horse go on an empty stomach. Feed smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day or consider offering free-choice hay.

3. Remember that less is usually more when it comes to grain. Grain is often high in sugar and starch, which is difficult for the hindgut to digest. This can have an adverse effect on pH and bacteria levels (see acidosis mentioned above).

4. Add healthy fats in the form of vegetable, corn, flax or another type of palatable, equine-friendly oil.

Remember also that movement is hugely beneficial for gut motility, so be sure to give horses ample turnout time and exercise. And, last but certainly not least, don’t undervalue the importance of fresh, clean, temperate water — hydration plays a key role in keeping the horse’s overall digestive system functioning at its best.

I would like to learn more about horse health.

This year at the Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show, Alltech sponsored the Mineral Myths Forum, which featured industry representatives and their discussion on the myths behind mineral supplementation. We interviewed two experts who were present at the forum to hear their takeaways from the event.

Mineral quality over quantity

Dr. Vaughn Holder, ruminant research director at Alltech, was interested in the discussion surrounding the levels of minerals in supplements.

“The key point to take away from this forum is that you cannot judge a bag of mineral supplements by its cover,” said Holder. “The fact that a certain bag has higher levels of minerals in it does not mean it should be worth more to your enterprise. It is more about the quality of the components that are inside of the bag, and sometimes you can get away with using much lower levels of quality minerals and actually achieve better results. Remember, sometimes less is more!”

The saying “less is more” is one that we hear often, but not always when it comes to mineral supplementation. Holder emphasizes the fact that some companies focus strictly on quantity of minerals, not necessarily quality. However, in a University of Florida study featuring Alltech’s Bioplex® and Sel-Plex® organic trace minerals, it was found that, even when included at lower rates than their inorganic counterparts, Alltech organic trace minerals still managed to outperform the standard mineral in various areas, including weaning weights, pregnancy rates and even colostrum quality. For a full recap of this study, which was featured in the February issue of Progressive Cattleman magazine, click here.

Mineral antagonists

Another point discussed during the forum was the concept of “mineral antagonists,” a complex-sounding topic that is actually very simple — something that blocks or decreases the absorption rate or metabolic function of a nutrient. We pulled in Mark Robbins, manager of research and technical services at Ridley Block Operations (the makers of CRYSTALYX®), to speak on the issue.

“If you have mineral antagonists, which is where you have situations in which inorganic trace minerals aren’t your best option, the Blueprint® program that we have formulated with Total Replacement Technology™ using organic trace minerals is the way to go,” he said. Research has shown that certain organic trace mineral complexes resemble those found naturally in plant proteins, and this may be the reason that they do not act as antagonists in the ration.

We hope you enjoyed the Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show as much as we did this year, and if you didn’t get a chance to attend, visit our Facebook page for recaps of the event. We hope to see you next year in New Orleans, Louisiana!

Panelists Dr. Vaughn Holder, Dr. Tanya Covey, Mark Robbins and Dr. Matt Hersom at the Alltech Mineral Myths Forum during the 2018 NCBA conference. 

Have a question or comment?

Gene Goenner is a technical dairy expert with Alltech. Below is an edited transcript of his recorded comments on optimizing feedstuffs. 

Watch the full video here:

I want to talk to you a little bit today about feedstuffs: in particular, different ingredients and total mixed rations. We know that a herd’s diet is made up of multiple ingredients. For example, when we have a grain mix, a nutritionist is going to add up to 30 different ingredients that will mix together into a balanced diet for the animal.

A cow at a high production level is going to have the ability to consume approximately 50–60 pounds of the feedstuff a day. She has an outstanding ability for taste and smell, much better than we as humans have, so we are balancing this diet with all of these different ingredients to create a diet that is not only nutritionally balanced, but also palatable.

Maximize performance

When nutritionists look at a diet, we try to figure out the cow’s production level. This includes her milking performance, her reproduction performance and maximizing her overall health. Making a high-quality, balanced diet for a healthy animal will help her to perform, do well on a farm and be profitable for the producer.

TMRs

One of the problems we have when feeding a ration is that we include feed ingredients that animals prefer, and they will sort through to find individual ingredients. So, what we do to avoid that is running the feedstuff through a mixer to make what we call a TMR (total mixed ration), in which we combine all these ingredients together into one diet. We do that to create uniformity and to keep these cows consuming their diet consistently. Cows are great at finding the feedstuff that is more palatable to them and will look for that “goodie” or that “candy” in their diet.

It is crucially important to have the feedstuff in the TMR mixed effectively to maintain performance levels at high volumes and uphold good health.

Have a question or comment?

The following is an edited transcript of Tom Martin’s interview with Dr. Kristen Brennan, a research project manager at the Alltech Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

Click below to listen to the podcast:

                                    Dr. Kristen Brennan is a research project manager at the Alltech Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition in Nicholasville, Kentucky. In this interview with Tom Martin, Brennan helps us gain a better understanding of her field, nutrigenomics, and its role in sustainable agriculture.

Tom:                            What is the science of nutrigenomics?

Kristen:                        The easiest way to think about nutrigenomics is to break the word down into what it is: “nutri" and “genomics.” What we're aiming to study with nutrigenomics is how nutrition — whether that’s nutrients, forms of nutrients, diets, timing of diets — influences the animal's genome. So, we’re not changing the genome, but influencing the activity of all the genes of that animal’s genome.

Tom:                            Is this an outgrowth of the human genome project, or has it been around a lot longer than that?

Kristen:                        Nutrigenomics is something that's been around forever. From the time the first living organism evolved, it needed nutrients, and those nutrients had influence on the activity of the genes within that animal or cell. The thing that we've done within the last several years is to figure out how to capture that information. It's always been there, we just never had a way of measuring it before. Technologies like genome sequencing are the core foundation for measuring what we're seeing.

Tom:                            Is there a point in time when we realized that nutrients were having an impact on genetic expression?

Kristen:                        I think we’ve known for a long time the importance of nutrition. Centuries and centuries ago, they had an idea that nutrition had a vital role. I don't know if we knew at that point, really, what DNA was and what genes did, but we knew that nutrition could influence the outcome, or a phenotype of an animal — what we're seeing on the outside — and how important it was for good health.

Tom:                            What are the advantages of nutrigenomics in animal studies?

Kristen:                        What I think makes this field so exciting is that, first of all, when we’re dealing with actual sampling, we need a very small sample amount. We can do this with, for instance, a small draw of blood from an animal, or we can take a small biopsy. So, you're not having to euthanize an animal to get tissue.

                                       Even more of an advantage is the amount of information we get. If you think about most genomes, you're talking about thousands of genes. We can measure in a single snapshot how every one of those genes is behaving in response to a diet or nutrition. That is an amazing amount of information.

                                       The other advantage is that it can be really rapid. From the time we get a sample to the time we have an output of data, it can be as short as just a few days in the lab. So, a lot of information, small input and a ton (of data) in a very rapid way.

Tom:                            And are you able to understand why some animals respond differently than others to the very same nutrients?

Kristen:                        Yes. We can use this information to understand that. An example would be healthy versus diseased animals and why nutrition may play a role in how they respond to that illness. More and more, we're starting to understand how differences on a genetic level — different breeds of animals, different production states, things like that — can influence how that animal responds.

Tom:                            Are you able to dig down into it and figure out how nutrients and bioactive components in the food turn on or turn off certain genes?

Kristen:                        Yes. The biggest amount of information we get is just a simple “Do they or do they not turn genes on or off?” So, how does each individual gene activity respond to what you're feeding? As we’re understanding that more and more, we can take a step back and start to understand how they're doing it. They are what we call signaling pathways, which are like, if you set up a row of dominoes and you hit the first one, it sets everything off. It’s the same thing with gene activity. There is a series of molecules that are responsible for regulating or activating other ones. And we can start to decipher how we get from the nutrient that we’re feeding or the diet we're feeding to that endpoint, that last domino in the line.

Tom:                            You can actually target issues that call for some kind of nutritional intervention?

Kristen:                        Yes. And that's obviously one of the most exciting applications of this research. We can use this to define precision nutrition.

                                    One of the challenges with feeding animals, or people in general, is that there are so many environmental factors that influence how an animal responds to diet — things like illness and disease, but also production state, where they're living, what their basal diets are. And so, we can use this technology to get precise information on how we can use nutrition to get the best performance or best health out of that animal.

Tom:                            How do you carry out your research? What goes on in Kristen Brennan’s laboratory?

Kristen:                        It’s magic! This research is done in several steps. It’s really a team effort. The simplest study we have is between two groups of animals, and because so many things could influence gene expression, we want to make sure that those two groups of animals are as identical as possible — same breed, sex, age, production state, and they’re housed in similar environments. The only thing we want different between those two groups is the nutrient we’re interested in.

                                    For instance, if we’re looking at a form of a mineral like selenium, we might have one diet that contains selenium in the form of sodium selenite, and we might have the exact same diet for the other group that has selenium in the form of organic selenium like our Sel-Plex® product. Once we have fed these diets for a given amount of time — it just depends on what we're interested in looking at, what tissues and what nutrients we’re evaluating — then we obtain a sample. It can be as simple as just a very tiny muscle biopsy or a few milliliters of blood. We bring that to the lab, and our laboratory technicians will essentially take that tissue, rupture the cellular membranes and then the nuclear membranes and purify what we call the mRNA, or the transcripts, that are located within the nucleus. We make sure that transcript, or a total RNA, is of super high quality and purity because these assays are so precise. We have high standards for what we can use.

                                       And then we use a commercially available DNA microarray. And what that allows us to do is profile. It has probes for each gene on the animal's genome — for example in the case of a chicken, it has something like 18,000 probes — and that allows us to measure whether the mRNA, or the transcript, for each of those genes has been increased or decreased in response to the nutrient that we fed.

                                       At the end, we get a long spreadsheet that says gene A is increased, gene B unchanged, gene C is decreased.

                                       Then the tough part comes, and that is the data analysis. So, we have all of these data points — you’re talking about thousands — and it is sort of like taking one of those huge puzzles. If you took that box of puzzle pieces and threw it on the ground, you would just have a giant mess, right? When I get that Excel spreadsheet of thousands of rows and columns, that’s what it’s like, essentially. So, we need help to try to piece those puzzle pieces together. If we took one piece out, we might find a corner and that's really important. Just like if I look at that spreadsheet, I might find a gene that's very important, that's very highly increased or decreased. That's a starting point.

                                    What we really need to do to see the big picture is piece those puzzle pieces together. We use what we call bioinformatics — essentially biological statistics — and we use software programs that say, okay, these 100 genes are related, they all have a common biological function, and based on their activity, we predict that biological function to increase or decrease. And that helps us make sense of this information.

                                    So, just like piecing those puzzle pieces together, we get that big picture of what's going on inside an animal that results in what we're seeing on the outside like improved growth, or improved feed efficiency, or improved markers of health.

Tom:                            I'm under the impression that the “Holy Grail” for you would be to find and establish a link between nutritional genomics approaches and applied nutritional research. Can you explain?

Kristen:                        Sure. The ultimate goal, at least in my view, for nutrigenomics is when we do traditional nutrition studies, we take an experimental diet, we feed it to an animal and we look at a phenotypic output. So, what do we see in the whole animal? That might be body weight change, growth rates, feed efficiency — things we can measure in the whole cow or by just looking at the animal. We might look at blood markers, stuff like that. What often is lacking and what we can use nutrigenomics for is, how do we get from point A to point B? How do we get from feeding this diet to the response in the whole animal?

                                       What nutrigenomics gives us is a tool to look at a molecular reason for those changes. We can use nutrigenomics to figure out, are we affecting energy expenditure in the cell? Are we affecting protein translation in the muscle? Things like this can help us explain what we're seeing in that animal instead of just guessing on how something works.

Tom:                            Does this technology, nutrigenomics, reduce our reliance on large-scale animal studies, and is it less invasive than the traditional approach?

Kristen:                        I think so. When we do these studies, we can work with a much smaller number (of animals) per treatment. So, where you might need hundreds of animals to get, say, carcass quality measurements that are significant, we can use six or 10 animals per treatment and still get some of the same information that would explain why we see changes in a large animal. Obviously, they're complementary, but we use this technology to minimize the number of animals we need per treatment.

                                      The other advantage is the obtaining of samples. We don't need a whole kilo of skeletal muscle to do our analysis. We need a tiny amount. So, that really is noninvasive. We can use a simple blood draw that is noninvasive and get this information out of that.

Tom:                            The 21^st century farm is a changed place compared with that of the previous century. A big reason for that is the arrival of a lot of science, technology and big data. If we were to take your science, nutrigenomics, out of the laboratory and into the farm, how would producers use what you've learned?

Kristen:                        I think one of the major ways they can use it is precision nutrition — really formulating diets to meet the actual needs of an animal. And also to understand the form versus function of different nutrients. So, how do we get the best that we can get out of an animal through nutrition? Nutrigenomics gives us that tool to understand how.

Tom:                            To carry that further, beyond helping to determine what will work for an animal's genetic type, is nutrigenomics helping explain why we need to find what works for a given animal?

Kristen:                        Absolutely. And I think it really helps push the idea of precision behind nutrition. For so long, we've overfed nutrients. We haven't really paid attention to form versus function. Nutrigenomics is giving us reasons why form is so important in nutrients, and why precise levels are important. We're taking the guessing game out of animal nutrition.

                                       I think as our population grows and the need for food continues to increase, that really optimizing nutrition based on an animal’s genetic potential is going to be really, really important.

Tom:                            How can this genomic information help us better understand nutrition and nutrient science?

Kristen:                        That’s a great question. This gives us a good understanding of the hidden effects of nutrition — the things that we don't really understand; why we see the changes. Why are we seeing increased energy efficiency with different forms of selenium, for instance? If we just look at our traditional nutrition research, we have no idea. But we use nutrigenomics to say, “Okay, well, the genes that control, say, mitochondrial growth in the skeletal muscle in the animals are turned on by Sel-Plex, and that explains why we see changes in energy expenditure.”

                                       That’s the type of stuff that we can get through traditional animal nutrition research, and nutrigenomics really helps push that information ahead and gives us a better understanding of how nutrients function — things that we can't see by just looking at an animal.

Tom:                            One final question: Among the things that you're working on right now, what really interests you and excites you?

Kristen:                        Everything, as a true scientist! One of the areas that I'm completely fascinated by, and have been for years — and we've done quite a bit of work on it, but it's just something that I start to think about and almost gives me a headache — is the idea of nutritional programming. This is the concept of how early life nutrition — whether that's in a neonatal animal or even in the gestating diet, looking at offspring — how nutrition early in life influences an animal throughout its lifespan.

                                    We've done a lot of work to look at some of the things that happen, like gene expression changes that occur. When we change the diet of an animal in the first 96 hours of life, those patterns and the changes stay with that animal throughout its lifespan, and that completely fascinates me.

                                       I think that's an application that is something that can be applied through all different species of animals, whether that’s livestock or even humans. We think about how you are what you eat, but you're also what your mother ate and what her mother ate and then maybe what her dad ate. It starts to really fascinate you. So, that’s probably one the most exciting areas that we work on.

Tom:                            Dr. Kristen Brennan is a research project manager at the Alltech Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition in Nicholasville, Kentucky. Thank you for joining us.

Kristen:                        Thank you.

Looking for more information on the science and business of agriculture? Click here. 

Discussion topics to include lessons on meat quality, new technologies to battle disease and discussions on new zinc oxide regulations

Register before March 31 at  one.alltech.com for savings of $400

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE18), held May 20–22 in Lexington, Kentucky, will provide those in the pig industry with a unique opportunity to participate in a global conversation about the innovations, challenges and solutions facing their industry. Focus sessions designed to educate and inspire will allow attendees to gather insights from leading pig experts and exchange ideas with peers from around the globe.

ONE18 pig topics:

• Pig Powerhouse: What's Next?

Pork is the most widely consumed animal protein in the world. Who are the new players in the market, and what opportunities do producers have to fulfill the growing demand?

• Pleasing Today's Diner: Premium Palatability and Quality

Consumers are increasingly concerned with the quality of their meat and how it's produced. What do consumers perceive as quality meat? What are the key factors that affect pork quality? Learn what steps you can take to help your product get to consumers' dinner tables.

• Life Beyond Vaccines 

How can we move beyond vaccines to involve new technologies in the battle against diseases such as PRRS? Can we reach a point in which all viruses are a thing of the past? What genetic potential is unlocked when we live life without viruses?

• ZnO Ban: An Alternative Plan?

New zinc oxide regulations are expected to shake up the global pig industry. What are the current inclusion levels? Will this lead to more regulations in the future? Is there an alternative? Here's what you should know about your options.

• Pig Dilemma: Larger Litter, Lower Piglet Quality? 

Are more piglets sustainable? Where is the balance between quantity and quality? With demands on litter rates increasing, it's even more important for the sow and piglets to receive the nutrition necessary for optimum productivity and quality. Hear from industry experts who will provide solutions to this conundrum.

*Topics subject to change as the schedule evolves.

ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference is the place to learn from and network with some of the brightest stars in business leadership. This year's power-packed mainstage will welcome Jack Welch, legendary former chairman and CEO of General Electric, who was named as one of the “100 Greatest Living Business Minds” by Forbes magazine in 2017; Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou, a professor at North Carolina State University whose research focuses on applications of the revolutionary CRISPR-Cas system and its use in food manufacturing; and professor Robert Wolcott of Northwestern University, a contributing writer to Forbes and the author of “Grow from Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation.”

The Pearse Lyons Accelerator program returns to the conference this year and continues to be a launch pad for startup innovators. Entrepreneurs from around the world will present their revolutionary ideas in food and ag-tech. How will the next generation of technology influence your business? Find out at ONE18.

Now in its 34^th year, Alltech’s conference is attended annually by nearly 4,000 people from over 70 countries. Whether producers and business leaders are navigating a fundamental change within their industry or just need a little inspiration, they’ll learn about real-world opportunities and solutions at ONE18.

Register to attend ONE18 before March 31 at one.alltech.com for savings of $400. Join the conversation with #ONE18 on Twitter, and follow the  ONE18 Facebook event page for updates.