[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – The National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) has awarded Alltech with its Preferred Supplier seal for companion animal and equine feed products.

The NASC Preferred Supplier program ensures quality and confidence in the supply chain, from start to finish. For a company to display the NASC Preferred Supplier seal, it must meet and comply with strict criteria set forth by NASC.

“We are very pleased to have been awarded the National Animal Supplement Council’s Preferred Supplier status,” said Dr. Juan Gomez-Basauri, global director of Alltech’s companion animal business. “This award is a validation of Alltech’s long-standing commitment to the pet food and equine industries to provide nutrition that is safe and beneficial to animal health.”

Central to the development of all Alltech nutrition products and feeding programs is the guiding Alltech ACE principle. This principle sets the standard for all company efforts, from the lab to the production floor, and ensures that what Alltech delivers is safe and beneficial to the Animal, Consumer and Environment.

For more information about Alltech nutrition for pet health and horse health, visit Alltech.com/Animal-Nutrition or contact your local Alltech sales representative.

[DUBLIN, Ireland] – As fossil fuels deplete at astounding rates, biogas production is fast becoming an alternative source of economic and renewable energy. Alltech’s new product, DIGEST P3, improves the profitability of anaerobic digestion by optimising biogas productivity. DIGEST P3 is an enzyme complex produced by the breakdown of organic matter through a process called solid state fermentation, with production similar to that of yeast fermentation. Since Alltech has nearly 40 years’ experience in the fermentation of yeast for both the animal health and brewing industries, biogas fermentation is a logical next chapter for the company. Through mastery of solid state fermentation techniques, Alltech can produce enzymes economically and pass this cost savings along to customers.

“This is exciting. This is why I love what I do,” said Dr. Pearse Lyons, founder and president of Alltech. “We have taken our expertise and decades of knowledge in fermentation and applied them to the development of DIGEST P3. Remember, efficiency on the farm is what we are experts in. Alltech is all about adding value and efficiency and bringing sustainable solutions to market. Dealing with waste, while at the same time producing renewable energy, is simply another way we are using innovative and ground-breaking technologies to solve our customers’ issues.”

DIGEST P3 works with methane-generating microflora to help break down feedstock components previously inaccessible through digestion. This enhanced feed breakdown allows for more readily available energy and protein for the microflora, resulting in additional biogas volumes from the same amount of feed input. DIGEST P3 allows for flexibility in feedstock formulation through the inclusion of byproducts and alternative raw materials.

“We are working with customers to optimise the flexibility offered by this technology,” said Niall Brennan, biogas project manager at Alltech. “We are seeing some customers reduce their feedstock inputs and maintain their gas outputs. It is very encouraging to see the range of benefits DIGEST P3 offers Alltech customers.”

Alltech has just completed a research trial with Harper Adams University in England to identify optimum performance-enhancing additives. The trial was run utilising DIGEST P3 in commercial plants across Europe. In the trial, DIGEST P3’s additional feed breakdown led to increased biogas production, reduced feed costs, reduced power consumption and uplifts in operating profit.

“Since implementing DIGEST P3, many of our customers have witnessed significant improvement in substrate efficiency,” said Brennan. “This allows our customers to decrease the amount of substrates they input each day, yet maintain a consistent energy output.”

For more information on DIGEST P3, please visit go.alltech.com/digest-p3 and stay connected through Twitter and Facebook.

Health-conscious consumers in search of wellness and quality of life are the key drivers behind a booming market for food and beverages with added benefits. This functional foods market was already estimated at $129.39 billion in 2015, and a compound annual growth rate of 7.8 percent is expected through 2021.

Strengthening this trend is a major demographic change taking place: the boomer generation is aging.

By the year 2050, 30 percent of the U.S. population will be 65 years of age and older, and a similar demographic trend is expected in other regions of the world. Currently, life expectancy at birth is 78.9 years, a significant increase over the past 40 years due to advances in medical care and nutrition. This means more people are experiencing the aging process, which brings with it a series of changes and a decline in body functions, such as eyesight, hearing, taste, mobility, memory and cognition.

This is due to an accumulation of damage to cells, tissues and organs, occurring over time from changes in hormonal regulation, wear and tear, and free radical production, among others.

One of the resulting conditions, cognitive impairment among older people, may place a tremendous burden on public health. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease. It affects 5.3 million Americans 65 years of age and older, and that number is expected to quadruple by the year 2050 with a cost of over $1.1 trillion to the U.S. alone.

Can Fido come to the rescue?: Similarities between senior pet and human nutrition

As it is with humans, the pet population is also living longer due to better nutrition and veterinary care. It is estimated that 45 percent of dog parents have a dog aged 7 and older, while 46 percent of cat parents have a cat aged 7 and older. 

A number of studies in the past 15 years provide evidence indicating similarities between man and his best friend as far as cognitive-behavioral skills are concerned, particularly in later stages of life. These studies suggest that cognitive decline in the aging canine is remarkably similar to that of human aging and dementia.

In humans, AD involves the accumulation of senile plaques called beta amyloid (AB) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT). Canines develop AB lesions but not full-blown NFT. In addition, free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS) from mitochondrial dysfunction may cause deleterious effects in neurons both in canines and humans.

In the canine model, the use of antioxidants and mitochondrial cofactors, such as carnitine, alpha lipoic acid and alpha-tocopherol, showed improved cognition and reduced neuropathology in aged dogs.

The beneficial effects of fish consumption are well-known in human health. Several studies in elderly people indicate that supplementation with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) has a protective association against cognitive decline. Similarly, DHA supplementation in the canine model also shows improvement in cognitive learning in aged dogs.

More recently, there is strong evidence coming from a number of selenium yeast studies, indicating that selenium yeast plays an important role in reducing the beta-amyloid burden and minimizing DNA and RNA oxidation, which can assist in preventing age-related neuropathologies associated with cognitive decline.

There is no silver bullet that will provide a solution to the preservation of cognitive function through life. What is clear, however, is that the nutritional tools we have available can help us forge a magnificent shield to fight against cognitive decline in both the human senior and his best friend. 

Agriculture is not immune to the changes of the digital age. Technological innovations have the ability to transform every link in the food chain, from seed to fork.

The need to embrace the opportunities these innovations offer is real. In order to feed the nearly 10 billion people with whom we will be sharing this planet by 2050, crop and livestock productivity improvements are essential.

Agricultural efficiency is still relatively poor: 7 tons of feed are needed to produce just 1 ton of meat. It takes 880 gallons of water to produce one gallon of milk.

Further, climate change is already requiring changes to crop management, and access to fresh water and good soil are becoming serious limitations for agriculture.

Finally, there are competing food requirements. In wealthier areas, food is a relatively small part of the household budget, and consumers are becoming prosumers, with high expectations for the standard and types of food they want. At the same time, global hunger and food scarcity are serious challenges - nearly 800 million people are undernourished. Connecting both is the global food chain: ensuring that there is transparency, traceability and trust between producers, processors and prosumers.

Digital disruption drives the next agricultural revolution

Fortunately, the makings of a fifth agricultural revolution are here, with the potential to reduce or eliminate all of these issues.

Eight emerging digital technologies each have the potential to transform agriculture. They range from specific technical tools to new ways of seeing the existing system. Some, especially the first ones, sound familiar but their use in agriculture is novel.

These eight digital technologies can be categorized into four each of hardware and software and, when combined with the IoT (Internet of Things), can profoundly change the way food production works.

To discover Aidan Connolly’s list of the eight digital technologies disrupting agriculture, view his original post on LinkedIn.

Alltech has just released the results of its fourth annual global feed survey. The highly anticipated report provides a glimpse into the animal feed industry and allows us to compare output across countries, regions and species. Compiling the data is no small task. Wherever possible we collect information from local feed associations, but in many areas our global sales team works with individual feed mills to obtain the numbers.

In 2014 we saw more feed mills producing more animal feed than in past years. The estimated worth of the feed industry is now $460 billion with global production of 980 million metric tons. That's a 2 percent increase over 2013. 

A number of factors affected output, including: slow markets, shifting raw feed material costs, fluctuating governance over import/export standards and animal diseases such as PEDv in pigs and bird flu in poultry. However, the top 10 producing countries remained the same: China, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, India, Spain, Russia, Japan, Germany and France. 

To learn more, please download the survey below. You are also welcome to watch a recorded webinar with analysis and interpretation of the results by the feed survey’s director, Aidan Connolly.

Download Survey [+]

Watch Recorded Webinar [+]

Download Presentation Slides [+]