The summer season sets the scene, not only for picnics and pool parties, but also for pests lying in wait for a chance to prey on your precious pup — and potentially you, too. But, before you send Fido packing, know that you have a plethora of options available to combat these would-be invaders.

First, let’s consider what we may commonly be up against:

• Ectoparasites: These are perhaps some of the most well-known insects associated with dogs. These pests prefer to live on or just under the surface of your dog’s skin and can easily be picked up on outdoor adventures and introduced to your home.

  • Fleas: Dogs typically get fleas from other animals. Fleas are notoriously challenging to see with the naked eye, but their bites can cause severe irritation and inflammation. Your dog will undoubtedly be scratching and biting at their skin almost incessantly if infected.

  • Ticks: Ticks can easily be picked up in tall grass and wooded areas. More than just disgusting bloodsuckers, infected ticks can transmit Lyme disease, a serious bacterial illness that can also be passed on to humans.

  • Mites: Just as with people, mites exist naturally on dogs, but if found in excessive quantities, they can cause serious skin problems. Ear mites are another common concern. They are highly contagious and are typically passed from outdoor cats to canines, though humans are generally immune. Excessive head shaking and scratching at ears/the head are usually dead giveaways.

• Internal parasites: Dogs can contract internal parasites from a variety of situations, but they are typically transmitted when an animal unintentionally ingests parasite eggs in contaminated soil, water, food or feces.

  • Heartworms: One bite from an infected mosquito can lead to an unprotected dog developing heartworm disease, by far one of the most preventable and potentially deadly infections.

  • Tapeworms: There are several types of tapeworm, but the most common is caused by swallowing an infected flea. They typically set up shop in your dog’s small intestine, where they continue to feed and grow. Tapeworms compromise your pet’s nutrition and can contribute to weight loss, lethargy and a variety of other issues.

  • Hookworms: These nasty intestinal parasites can be ingested by sniffing or eating contaminated soil or feces. Hookworms literally hook themselves into the lining of your dog’s intestines and leave holes in their wake, potentially leading to anemia, weakness, weight loss and death.

Of course, these are just a few examples of the many possible pests that might afflict your canine companion. So, what’s a concerned dog mom or dad to do?

An ounce of prevention

First and foremost, let’s remember that we are our dogs’ biggest advocates. It is up to us to ensure that they have a clean, safe environment to thrive in. And, as responsible owners, we should all be taking the following recommended actions:

• Feed a chewable heartworm preventative, year-round, as prescribed by your veterinarian. It is a cheap and highly effective way to prevent disease.

• Flea and tick preventatives abound. You may choose from chewables, collars and topicals. Choose what works best for your dog and your lifestyle, as recommended by your veterinarian.

• Brush and bathe your dog regularly. This will not only allow for some quality bonding time, but it will also allow you to address any potential skin issues.

• Schedule time to regularly clean up your yard. Keeping it relatively free of feces and overgrowth will go a long way in keeping your pet healthy.

• Always check your dog’s skin (and yours, too!) after spending time in heavily wooded areas. If you should happen to find an embedded tick, take care in removing it. There are many affordable tick removal tools on the market today.

Building a defense

Another thing to consider is your nutrition regimen and what role it might play in immune defense, especially against would-be pathogenic or viral invaders. Much like us, dogs have a natural immunity that they have built up over the course of their life, but, unfortunately, that’s not always enough to prevent harm or illness. One thing you can do to help support your dog’s immunity is feed a high-quality diet containing trace minerals such as organic selenium (think Sel-Plex^®). Selenium can help to maintain proper function and strength of the immune system and counteract oxidative damage caused by infections.

As the late, great Benjamin Franklin so wisely proclaimed in 1736, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Nearly 300 years later, this advice still rings true.

I would like a FREE parasite management guide!

Unless you are suffering from an intestinal upset or are cleaning up the mess associated with an intestinal upset in your pets, you probably don’t often think about the health of the microbial population that inhabits your or your pet’s gastrointestinal tract (GI tract). However, over the last decade, it has become increasingly clear that the complex community of microorganisms residing in the GI tract not only influences digestive processes but also significantly impacts long-term and short-term health.

For optimum well-being, it is important to maintain an appropriate balance in the intestinal microflora. But what is that balance, and how do we support it?

Nutrition for a balanced GI tract

With the realization of the importance of microflora have come new nutritional strategies that influence microbial balance. Many are based on simple supplementation or diet changes, but their effects can be profound. These approaches are revolutionizing not only the way we view our gastrointestinal health, but also that of our animal companions.

Digestive aids that include specific feed ingredients, exogenous enzymes, probiotics, organic acids and plant-derived oils can be coupled with nutritional management practices to beneficially manipulate intestinal microbial populations. One of the most successful documented uses has been supplementation with small doses of yeast-based polysaccharides (prebiotic fibers) to influence the composition of the gastrointestinal microbial population.

We know that these supplementation strategies not only limit the proliferation of detrimental bacteria and pathogens but are also associated with improved immune function and nutrient absorption. These approaches allow us to eat our way to improved health, but how exactly they work had not been understood…until recently.

The science behind the nutrition revolution

A nutritional revolution is at hand, with new tools for reliably demonstrating and predicting how dietary and supplementation approaches can influence the intestinal microflora and gastrointestinal health.

Detailed nucleic acid sequencing techniques now allow for an in-depth description of the composition, profile and function of the most beneficial microbial populations in the intestinal tract. It is now possible to clearly pinpoint the effects of nutrition on the critical components of these complex populations and to determine the most effective balance of intestinal gut microbes. Rather than focusing on individual types of microorganisms, these techniques allow us to identify the optimal microbial populations that promote good intestinal health. This clarity takes the guesswork out of diet formulation and can strategically improve health, from the most minuscule gut microbes to overall well-being.

Below is a transcript of Tom Martin’s interview with Dr. Karl Dawson, vice president and chief scientific officer at Alltech and co-director of the Alltech Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition.

Click below to hear the full interview:

                                    Over the last 10 years, scientists at Alltech have been using nutrigenomics to define a variety of new nutritional concepts, manage product development and redefine our view of nutrition. What are the practical applications of the science, and what does it mean for the future of feeding and farming? Tom Martin talked with Dr. Karl Dawson, vice president and chief scientific officer at Alltech.

Tom:                          Let’s begin with the question: What is nutrigenomics?

Karl:                            Nutrigenomics is a system for looking to see how the environment, disease processes and nutrition influence gene expression in an animal. This is taking the basic information that comes in an animal’s genetic makeup, its DNA, and looking to see how that's used. This system allows us to look at numerous genes at a time. And in some of our studies, we would be looking at as many as 25,000 genes at a time. So, we get very precise in our measures of what the environment, or disease — or, in this case, nutrition — does to that animal.

Tom:                          In a recent panel discussion, the webinar “Farming the Future,” you said that nutrigenomics is really going to redefine things, if it hasn't already. Can you elaborate on that?

Karl:                            Yes. We’re going to be looking at nutritional processes in a totally different way. We could also look at things like diseases in a different way. The way we look at nutrition today is based on a narrow group of responses in an animal to a nutritional strategy. Nutrigenomics allows us to do that same kind of thing while looking at many, many different characteristics at once and very rapidly. We can look at changes induced by nutrition within several days instead of waiting for a whole production cycle, which may take anywhere from 42 days to two years.

Tom:                          The name of the field, nutrigenomics, might lead us to believe that it’s limited to exploring how nutrition influences the expression of individual genes, but is it more than that? Does the science also look at disease and environmental factors and how they’re related to nutrition?

Karl:                            Yes. We can look at all of those things and how they're related. “Nutrigenomics” may be a misnomer. In the science world, we call it “transcriptomics,” the idea of looking at these genes and how they're transcribed. But the word “nutrigenomics” has taken off, and it’s really being used to describe just about anything to do with gene expression and factors that influence gene expression.

Tom:                          How is this tool being used to define new feeding strategies?

Karl:                            We can talk about a couple of examples that have developed over the last seven or eight years. One of those is the feeding of young animals. We could take a chick during the first 96 hours after hatching and change its nutrition — by limiting its nutrients, we can change how that animal performs throughout its life or its nutrient requirements throughout its life. We would not have been able to know what that looked like until we had this nutrigenomics tool.

                                 We can show that the gene expression pattern changes in a young bird when you've limited its nutrients, but those changes that take place in that gene are reflected throughout the life of that bird. So, some 24 days later, that bird has a totally different environment that it is working with, and the types of nutrients it requires have changed. It's a totally different animal when it comes to its nutritional requirements.

Tom:                          And does this bring more consistency, more precision to farming?

Karl:                            Yes. It’s going to bring a lot of precision, but it actually gives you a new tool because, in some of those changes we’re seeing, we can decrease the amount of nutrients that animal is requiring. You condition it to a low nutrient value or nutrien. As it grows, it’s expecting that as it goes on through its life. So, for example, its mineral requirement may be decreased by as much as 50 percent. That’s a totally different world for that animal to grow in, and it changes the way we feed that animal to optimize its performance and health.

Tom:                          Let's say there's been a blood draw or a tissue sample taken from the herd or the flock on the farm and brought to the lab to process. How long does it take to get that information back to the farm?

Karl:                            It only takes about 48 hours for us to process a sample, but I don't want to mislead you here. We would not necessarily use this as a diagnostic tool at this point. Today, it's a research tool to show you what changes happen with a new trend. We can use it to screen new nutritional strategies or look at nutrients in the way they're influencing that animal. Eventually, you’re going to see some diagnostic tools coming from that. But today, that probably isn't a very realistic approach for this type of technology.

Tom:                          What are some new commercially useful feeding concepts that have come directly from the use of this molecular tool?

Karl:                            A couple come to mind immediately. One of them has been a rather surprising observation. Often, in the growth of that young animal and growing livestock, we’ll use enzyme supplements. The idea behind using an enzyme supplement is really to change what is happening to the food, how it's digested. Well, one of the surprising things that we found using nutrigenomics is, that is reflected not only in the digestion process, but actually the way the tissue develops in that animal. It changes the receptors for hormones. It changes the way that animal responds physiologically.

                                  That technology has moved forward and is the basis of a couple of different programs that we’re using in beef cattle today — to use enzymes to enhance their growth and performance. In some systems, we found that this can be worth as much as $15 to $20 per head when that animal reaches its final stages of growth or finishes out and goes on for beef production. So, it's a pretty substantial thing. We never would have seen that, or even thought about doing that, if it hadn't been for that nutrigenomic tool that allows us to see those changes in those animals.

Tom:                          I also recall from the webinar, “Farming the Future,” some discussion about the influence of minerals.

Karl:                            Absolutely. Minerals are very important, and that's one of the areas that probably was the hallmark of our nutrigenomics work when we started out. One mineral, specifically, is selenium. Selenium is a nutrient that's very important, but we had no idea of how much or what the ramifications of feeding selenium really were. We found all sorts of hidden traits that are influenced by selenium, all the way from reproduction to the development of brain tissue and the speed at which an animal grows.

                                    One of the most interesting traits is the way that animal generates energy. We found very early on that we could change the function of the mitochondria and the cell. This is the energy-producing organ within that cell. We can increase its efficiency by about 15 to 20 percent. That doesn't sound like a big number, but using a dairy cow for example, that means we can improve its energy efficiency by that same amount, which probably means 2 to 3 liters of milk a day from a cow.

                                 So, this is turning everything upside down. We've changed what we thought we knew about energy metabolism, and it's a totally different world now. We're going to have to go back now and redefine energy metabolism — not based on the energy content of the feed, but based on these minerals and the way they are interacting with that energy source.

Tom:                          Let's say there's a new feed supplement out there on the market and you want to determine its value as quickly as you possibly can. Can nutrigenomics do that?

Karl:                            Absolutely. That’s one of the most exciting examples I have right now. Several years ago, we were asked to come up with an alternative antioxidant to help us address the shortage of vitamin E. We took a nutrigenomics approach to that issue and developed what we thought was a new material to serve as a booster for vitamin E activity. Normally, to evaluate a new antioxidant system like that, we would have done it over a period of several years. It takes time to grow the animals, look to see what the vitamin E is doing, to harvest the meat product and evaluate the way that is responding to oxidative stress.

                                    With a nutrigenomics approach, we were able to do the same types of evaluation, but we can look at gene expression as our measure. In doing so, we could shorten that two-year period to about six weeks. We could actually evaluate what that new ingredient was doing during that very short time.

Tom:                          By applying this tool, you're gaining a lot of information, a lot of knowledge. How does that information influence the way you think about nutrient requirements?

Karl:                            We’ve changed a lot in terms of nutrient requirements. We talked about selenium a minute ago. We used to have a fairly standard idea of what selenium requirements were. Using nutrigenomics, we’ve been able to redefine that, and found that by changing the form of selenium — by putting it in the form of a selenium yeast, for example — we could decrease its requirements by about 50 percent.

                                    We’ve gone on to look at all sorts of different minerals. We know that we can cut back on a lot of the requirements we expect for copper and zinc in the diet. We can cut those by as much as 75 percent. So, we have really started to change that. Instead of asking what a mineral is doing, we look at the form of that mineral as well as how much we're providing it. Again, it’s turning things upside down. The old requirements we had for some of these minerals have really changed.

Tom:                          How is nutrigenomics being used to demonstrate the effects of maternal nutrition on the growth or development and the disease resistance of offspring?

Karl:                            This has been another very exciting area. We did some studies several years ago in pigs — looking to see what would happen to the offspring if we fed a particular carbohydrate or supplement to the sow. We fed the sows a particular carbohydrate called Actigen^®, which is a yeast product. Then, we looked to see what was happening in the piglets. To our surprise, by looking at the gene expression in those piglets, we could easily differentiate the piglets that came from the sow that was fed that material. In fact, we found some very specific genes were being changed. One of the more interesting effects was to the hormones that influenced the ability of that young pig to eat.

                                 We could stimulate intake in those young pigs, not by feeding the young pigs the material, but by feeding the sow. That changes what we think in terms of overall production, because now we have a different animal to work with. They have different gene expression patterns and, in fact, different nutrient requirements. Their resistance to specific diseases has changed.

Tom:                          Does this enhance that consistency that we were talking about earlier across generations?

Karl:                            Yes. That's the idea. We've always thought that consistency occurs, and we have evidence of it in the human population — that you are what your mother eats. Nutrigenomics actually gives us the tools to see what is changing specifically, and to program that into the production process.

Tom:                          We've been talking about animals here as though they were something separate and apart from us, but we're animals as well. Does nutrigenomics influence the way that we think about human nutrition?

Karl:                            Absolutely. We’ve really projected into the human population from what we've done in animals with nutrigenomics. One of the star programs that we have right now is a set of compounds that we've developed to provide a preventative for Alzheimer's disease. This program came directly from our observations of what was happening to gene expression. We realized that the genes that were being expressed — or not being expressed — in Alzheimer’s patients were, in fact, associated with Alzheimer’s and the development of neurological tissue. We were able to track that relationship down, and it’s in clinical studies today.

                                 We've done similar things with some of the yeast products that we’re using. We know that they influence animals. We are now doing the same types of nutrigenomic studies in humans to evaluate how these might be useful to address health issues.

Tom:                          I know from past conversations with you about the science of nutrigenomics that you feel that it holds a lot of promise. What is your take home message about this science?

Karl:                            That this is an extremely powerful tool. It probably gives us more information and more precision for feeding animals — and probably even humans — in the future. It’s going to be a very powerful tool for changing the way we develop our feeding strategies. So, my take home message is, “This thing is going to be something that will influence the way science changes our nutrition.”

By: Professor Ricardo S. Vasconcellos, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Brazil

Because cats originated from arid regions, they have a superior ability to adapt to a low consumption of water in comparison to other species, such as humans and canines (NCR, 2006). Although this could be perceived as an advantage, a low water intake has a high impact on the development of urinary tract diseases such as urolithiasis and idiopathic cystitis (Little, 2016).

These two diseases commonly affect young cats and are frequently related to nutritional and environmental management deficiencies. It is estimated that between 1.5 percent and 3 percent of clinical cases are caused by these two urinary illnesses (Forrester et al., 2010). It is also estimated that these two diseases are responsible for 80 percent of all related urinary tract issues in felines. However, this can be reduced or even prevented through nutritional intervention and environmental management.

The most common clinical signs of urolithiasis or cystitis are (Little, 2016). Although diagnosis and clinical treatment are relatively simple, it is very common to see recurrences of these illnesses. Nutritional and environmental strategies should therefore be constant to reduce the possibility of reappearing problems.

On nutrition, there are two crucial aspects to consider when preventing issues in the lower urinary tract, including controlling salt levels and the pH of the urine. It is recommended to promote water intake, as this is the best way to avoid supersaturation of salts in the urine and the eventual development of crystals and urinary stones. Managing urinary pH, will help avoid formation of kidney stones. The general rule is to keep urinary pH between 6.2 and 6.8.

Different strategies have been implemented to promote water intake, such as providing access to water around the house, offering clean and fresh water, palatable drinks, wet diets and the increase of salt levels in dry food. All these strategies have been proven to work successfully in cats facing urinary issues. The use of one or more strategies combined could be beneficial (Forrester, 2010). 

Different types of kidney stones can be developed depending on the level of pH. The pH conditions, combined with salt saturation in the urine, promote the precipitation of salts and therefore the development of uroliths. The most effective strategy to regulate the pH through diet intervention is by adjusting the composition of macroelements (e.g., sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chlorine, sulfur and phosphorus). Cationic macroelements such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium promote urine alkalization, while anionic elements such as chlorine, sulfur and phosphorus favor acidification.

The levels and concentration of these macroelements could be formulated in the diet. Salts with acidification or alkalization properties are frequently used (Jeremias et al., 2013). In conclusion, promoting water intake and controlling urinary pH are the foundation to preventing urinary tract infections in felines. It is also important to look after the environment, as urolithiasis and cystitis are correlated to environmental stressors such as addition of a new pet into the household, extended stays of guests or home renovation.

References

BARTGES, JW; CALLENS, AJ. Urolithiasis. Vet Clin Small Anim 45 (2015) 747–768, 2015.

FORRESTER, S. D., J. M. KRUGER; T. A. ALLEN. Feline lower urinary tract disease. In: M. S.

Hand, D. D. Thatcher, R. L. Remillard, P. Roudebush, and B. J. Novotny, editors, Small animal clinical nutrition, 5th ed. Mark Morris Institute, Topeka, KS. p. 926–976, 2010.

JEREMIAS, JT et al. Predictive formulas for food base excess and urinary pH of cats. Metabolism Clinical and Experimental. V. 182, n.1-4, p.82-92

LITTLE, SE. O Gato – Medicina Interna. Ed. Roca, Rio de Janeiro, 1310p., 2016.

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL. Nutrient requirements of dogs and cats. Washington: The National Academy, 2006.

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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 pet food trends, consumer engagement and improving pet health through nutrition

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 pet industry, including pet food manufacturers, 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 companion animal experts and exchange ideas with peers from around the globe.

ONE18 pet topics: 

• Mega Trends and New Opportunities in Pet Food: Niche or Mainstream? 

The outlook for the pet food market is promising, with key drivers in both developed and emerging markets reshaping the industry. Preventative and proactive health measures are the most important issues to consumers. Are you taking advantage of these trends? Are you ready for the new game changers?

• Rediscovering Protein: Clean and Sustainable Alternatives

The ever-increasing demand for clean, safe and traceable food is not only impacting human consumption, but that of our pets as well. How are new meatless sources of protein turning the tables?

• Feeding the Microbiome: The Omics Have Arrived

Have we finally found ways to improve well-being by understanding how nutrients interact with pets' genes? What additives or ingredients could achieve this? Are new foods on the horizon that will improve health? Learn about developing a pet food that can support heart health, brain function, joint health and overall well-being.

• Grow and Protect Your Brand: Develop Raving Fans

Pet owners want to engage with brands, to connect with the story behind the product, and they look to the internet for that engagement. Pet food brands are facing a generation of "screen-swiping" pet owners. Learn how millennials and Generation Z are changing the industry and how you can build trust and loyalty among these new consumers.

• Improved Health and Immunity Starts in the Bowl 

Like their owners, companion animals are living longer, but are they functioning optimally in their later stages of life? Are we providing the right nutrition? Does the information on packaging provide the answers you need? By having a better understanding of how nutrition and immune defenses interact, pet owners can choose foods that support animal health more sufficiently.

• Brick and Mortar vs. Virtual Storefront: Pick Your Winner

Forty percent of pet owners buy their pet products online, up from 37 percent in 2016. So how do traditional retailers compete with other brands that have a strong online presence? Why are some companies — usually independent retailers — choosing not to market pet food online at all? Learn how the internet is reshaping the retail landscape of the pet industry.

*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 launchpad 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.     

Companion animals have now become an extension of the family. It should come as no surprise, then, that many pet parents would say their pet’s nutrition is just as important as their own. They pay as much attention to the ingredients in their pet food as they do to the food they put on the dinner table. 

Superfoods make it into the doggie dish

Consumers are gravitating to “superfoods” that tout beneficial effects on the human body, and they want the same for their dogs and cats. Functional foods now starring in the ingredient lists of pet food include: 

• Blueberries: Identified as a source of antioxidants, they can be found in dry dog food. 
• Carrots: Known for having beta-carotene, they can be found as a principle vegetable ingredient in pet food and can be given as a treat to dogs in their raw or cooked form. 
• Pumpkins: In the fall, when we are all inundated with pumpkin and pumpkin spice products, even pet food is not immune. Pumpkin is a good source of soluble fiber with beneficial digestive properties.

Sustainability: Supporting a positive cycle of “good” for pets and the planet

Sustainability is a concept that has become increasingly important to consumers when thinking about their own food. They want to know not only how nutritious their food is, but also what practices were used to grow the vegetables and feed the animals that are nourishing their bodies. 

This concern extends to pet food ingredients and how the grains, vegetables and fruits (and superfoods) were grown.

From this standpoint, the management practices used on the farm are very important to the concept of sustainability.

When a plant is stressed, whether from environmental factors, disease pressure or micronutrient deficiency, it lacks the necessary ingredients to attain its peak performance. This can result in subpar yield, size, flavor and texture. Growers will invariably use synthetic products to try and combat these deficiencies. 

However, a more sustainable approach will incorporate the use of products that are naturally based, with substances such as amino acids that enable micronutrients to be more readily available to plants, increasing their ability to fight stressors. The plant becomes stronger, and, by using these natural products, growers also limit residues that could be left on the fruits and vegetables that go into the pet food. 

The process is cyclical. By using sustainable practices that protect the soil, such as cover crops, crop rotation and precision agriculture, growers create a more active soil microbiome filled with beneficial microorganisms that help provide micronutrients to the plants. These micronutrients, in conjunction with natural plant biostimulant products, improve a plant’s resistance to stressors and help the plant protect itself. This in turn decreases the need for pesticides and other synthetic products that leave residues in the ground, on the field and in the food.

Plants raised on healthy soils with the micronutrients needed for plant health, supplemented with naturally based fertilizer as needed, have increased nutritional value. Meanwhile, these farming practices also improve the environmental footprint of the crop itself so you can be confident that your pets’ food is not only good for them, but for the planet, too. 

If you’ve recently added a young feline family member to your home, then you may already know that one of the best ways to give your kitten the right start to a great life is by providing proper nutrition. But with an overabundance of choices in kitten foods, you may be feeling unsure of the best selection for your new friend. Or, if you own more than one cat, you may be considering feeding them all the same food. Unless your cats are all at the same life stage, this is not recommended.

Thanks to modern research and technology, we have achieved a much better understanding of the precise needs of growing cats. Properly balanced nutrition is essential to the appropriate development of both mind and body, but unfortunately, there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to nutrition. However, there are some general guidelines that can be followed to get you and your cat on the right track.

1. Kitten nutritional needs versus adult cat needs: Kittens need more calories than the average adult cat. In fact, a kitten’s weight may double or even triple in their first few weeks of existence. A high-quality kitten food will contain higher calories to meet a young cat’s needs. Most kittens will need three to four meals per day to meet energy requirements. Kittens also require a higher level of many critical vitamins, minerals and amino acids. In addition, they need more protein than adult cats. You can read more about the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) nutritional guidelines for growing kittens here.

2. High-quality kitten food: Select food from a trustworthy source, preferably recommended by your veterinarian or another trusted person. These foods are made with high-quality ingredients and are generally proven to provide superior health benefits. Check the label for a statement from AAFCO. Ideally, it will also contain the phrase "complete and balanced."

3. Wet versus dry food and how much to feed: Very young kittens should be fed some canned food to supplement their diet. This is because they have small teeth and are unable to chew dry food well. As far as how much to feed, it is generally recommended to follow the pet food label guidelines based on your cat’s age. Do not overfeed.

4. How long to feed kitten food: Generally, cats are considered kittens until they reach one year of age. They should be fed a kitten formula up to this point. Still, there are exceptions to every rule; one example would be a large breed cat like the Maine Coon. They are not considered adult cats until they reach 1.5 to 2 years of age and should be fed kitten food until that time.

5. Switching food: Cats are notoriously considered extremely picky eaters. They can develop a static preference for flavors and textures, so it is recommended to offer some new food and old food in separate bowls when attempting to make a transition. Over time, smaller amounts of the old food may be offered while simultaneously offering more of the new food. It is important to remember that changes to a cat’s diet should be made gradually (five to seven days is commonly recommended) to avoid stomach upset.

It is critical to avoid overfeeding your cat. Like the human obesity crisis, pet obesity in the U.S. has reached epidemic levels. The Association for Pet Obesity Prevention estimates that 59 percent of cats in the United States are overweight or obese. This is entirely in your control as a responsible owner. Even a few extra pounds can lead to chronic health issues and a shortened lifespan. Follow recommended guidelines for feeding, even for treats, and provide ample exercise opportunities to keep your cat at a healthy weight.

As much as we try to keep our pets healthy and protect them from illness, they can still get sick. Luckily, much like ours, your pet’s body has a built-in line of defense to fight pathogens that cause illness. Optimal selenium nutrition can help strengthen these defenses and enable your pet to fight its best battle against disease.

What happens when your pet is infected by a virus?

When your pet is exposed to a virus, their body launches a series of defense mechanisms that make up the immune system response. The immune system is responsible for identifying foreign intruders called pathogens that can cause disease and mounting a defense against them before they can make your pet sick. The immune system has two main components: the innate and the adaptive immune systems. The innate immune system is the first line of defense and includes barriers like skin and non-specific immune cells like macrophages, whose sole purpose is to attack at the site of infection. This general, non-specific immune response is a rapid onset, taking only a few hours.

But what happens if this isn’t enough and the virus or pathogen continues to infect? This is where the adaptive immune response kicks in. The components of this part of the immune system remain quiet until they are activated and adapt to the presence of the virus. The adaptive immune system is comprised of humoral, mediated by antibodies produced by B cells, and cell-mediated response, mediated by T cells. B cells make special proteins called antibodies that locate the virus and help the body destroy them. T cells, on the other hand, take a less direct route and form helper T cells and killer T cells. Killer T cells find and destroy viral-infected cells, while helper T cells coordinate the effort. The cells are destroyed and viral shedding to other cells is reduced.

To better help your pet during subsequent exposure, components of the adaptive immune system can produce memory cells. These cells “remember” the pathogen so when the same pathogen infects your pet again, the response is faster and stronger. The challenge with some viruses is that they mutate, causing small changes that make it so your pet’s body doesn’t recognize it as the same pathogen.

What role can organic selenium play in your pet’s health?  

Selenium is an essential trace mineral that is required in the diet of animals. Once consumed, selenium is incorporated into a family of proteins called selenoproteins. Selenoproteins are expressed in almost all tissues of the body and have vital biological roles. Selenoproteins function in hormone metabolism, redox regulation and antioxidant defenses. Selenium can be found in the diet in two primary forms: inorganic (a salt form) and organic (selenium yeasts).

You may wonder how your pet’s immune system, viruses and selenium relate. Selenium has two roles: maintaining proper function and strength of the immune system, and counteracting the oxidative damage associated with infection.

In chickens, selenium can reduce viral shedding and increase the expression of important anti-viral genes like interferons. In horses, selenium increases the expression of cytokines in immune cells. This link between selenium status and innate immune system function becomes clearer when you look at studies using selenium-deficient animals. These animals not only have higher pathogen loads, but they have reduced numbers of immune cells. The cells that are present do not function as properly as those of a normal animal. Luckily, these problems can be reversed simply by adding selenium back to the animal’s diet. At the adaptive immunity level, selenium can improve antibody production by B cells and accelerate T cell proliferation and total numbers.

Conclusion

A healthy immune system is your pet’s first line of defense against sickness and disease. If you remember when you were little, your mom might have said you have to “feed a cold.” While it might have sounded silly at the time, she wasn’t far off. Proper nutrition, especially selenium, is essential to make sure your body can fight off viral infections. The same is true for your dog or cat. No one likes when their pet gets sick, so ensuring they are eating a healthy diet containing optimal levels of selenium can help prevent this.

Sel-Plex^® is Alltech’s proprietary organic form of selenium yeast and is manufactured to mimic what is found in nature. Click here to learn more about Sel-Plex.

I want to learn more about pet nutrition.

In a recent live webinar, Dr. Kristen Brennan, research manager at Alltech, discussed how the science of nutrigenomics can be applied to pet nutrition. Click here and sign-up to view the recorded webinar and the interactive question-and-answer session.

Precise nutrition: What does it mean?

When we talk about precision nutrition, or target nutrition, we are referring to specific dog/cat foods for specific breeds, age groups or sizes of dogs/cats. We know that certain breeds might be predisposed to joint arthritis (e.g., larger dogs), and other breeds might be more sensitive to gastrointestinal issues. The idea behind precise nutrition is designing the best nutrition for an animal based on its genetics, physical build and lifestyle.

How long has nutrigenomics been around? What drove this technology to the forefront of nutrition?

Nutrigenomics has been around since the evolution of the first living thing, because nutrition has always influenced the genome. We just figured out a way to measure it. Really, the sequencing of genomes is what drove this technology forward. Once we understood what each part of the genome coded for, we could capture that information.

What advantages are there for us to use nutrigenomics studies compared to tradition nutrition studies?

The number one advantage is purely the sheer volume of information we can get. We can profile thousands of genes and their activity in one snapshot versus just a few phenotypic measures like body weight. Another benefit is that these can be relatively non-invasive. We need only small samples of tissue and that can be as simple as bloodwork.

Can we use nutrigenomics to explain why some breeds respond different to the same diets?

Down the road, that is the goal. We are starting to understand changes in the genome’s sequence (called SNPs) and their role in health. Eventually, we hope we can link those changes to how dogs or cats respond to diets. The work being done now is more “big picture.”

Gene expression: What does up- and down-regulating mean? Which is better?

By up-regulating (“turning on”) or down-regulating (“turning off”) genes, the body changes the levels of the proteins that make up structures and functions in the cells. This, in turn, alters physiological processes like energy production or immune response. Nutrigenomics is the field of research we use to study if changes in genes occur with changes in the animal’s diet.

Which is better: up-regulating or down-regulating? The answer is, it depends. For instance, if you have genes that are responsible for cancer cell progression and you see an increase (i.e., the genes turn on, or up-regulate), that is a negative thing, but if you see a decrease (i.e., the genes turn off, or down-regulate), that is a good thing. However, if you have genes that are involved in a different function, such as protein translation or energy, increases (up-regulation) are good.

What do we know about obesity and gene expression?

More than half of all cats and dogs are obese in the U.S. Nutrigenomics helps to identify the molecular markers associated with, or before, body weight gain, potentially offering an opportunity to identify targets for nutritional intervention before a problem becomes bigger, literally.

Nutrients and molecules: What is the impact on gene expression?

What we’ve seen on a molecular level is that the form of the nutrients — for example, organic trace minerals versus inorganic — is extremely influential to how an animal responds. By observing genetic expression, we can determine which form of a trace mineral will have the most beneficial effect.

Nutrients and energy: What is the real benefit of organic selenium?

We like to talk about the mitochondria being the “powerhouse” or “battery” pack of the cell. Every cell in your body has mitochondria, which provide energy. We have found that selenium plays a role in controlling the gene that essentially says, “make more mitochondria.” PGC-1 alpha is a key regulator that says to your body, “We need more capacity for energy, so let’s make more mitochondria.”

Nutrients and inflammation: Omega-3 fatty acids can have an impact

Nutrigenomics is telling us that omega-3 fatty acids can decrease the transcription genes involved in joint inflammation, opening the doors for potential nutritional therapy or alleviation of symptoms.

Nutrients and digestive health: Other applications of nutrigenomics

By using nutrigenomics, we have found that special molecules from yeast-based polysaccharides (prebiotic fibers) can increase goblet cell counts and mucin, protecting the mucous membrane and, ultimately, the intestine from chemical and physical injury.

The bottom line on nutrigenomics and pet nutrition:

• Nutrition and the environment are the two main factors that can affect the health of a pet.
• Nutrigenomics examines the nutrient-gene interactions on a genome-wide scale.
• Better understanding of nutrition is possible through nutrigenomics. If we understand the “why,” we can figure out the “how.”
• Nutrigenomics enables us to design diets to target specific concerns such as obesity and joint inflammation.