In any livestock production system, the management of an animals’ gut health and the nutrition of the diet is fundamental in the potential performance and welfare of the animals. Minerals are essential for animal health and performance, as they are involved in numerous metabolic and endocrine processes within the body. Consequently, providing trace minerals in the correct form and concentration within the diets improves the performance and wellbeing of the animal. However, no matter how good the animals’ nutrition is, if their gut health isn’t optimum, they will not get the full benefit from the nutrients within the diet.
Firstly, the gut health status of the animal will determine the ability of that animal to digest and absorb nutrients from the diet, and its susceptibility to disease challenges. When gut health is compromised, the animal will not be able to fully utilise the diet provided, feed conversion will worsen and ultimately, so will farm profitability. Therefore, achieving optimal gut health is critical along with the correct nutrition of the animal.
Alltech has created a novel nutritional approach known as Advantage Pak, which has been uniquely designed to advance economic, environmental and social sustainability of pig and poultry businesses. By working together with producers to enhance animal welfare and performance, reduce carbon footprint, and minimise environmental pollution.
The Power of Chelated Trace Minerals
Conventionally standard animal diets contain inorganic sources of trace minerals (for example, copper sulphate, zinc oxide and sodium selenite), to meet the needs of the animals for maintaining normal bodily functions, skeletal development, growth performance and reproduction, whether that be eggs or piglets. However, minerals from inorganic sources are extremely reactive in the premix, the feed and in the gastrointestinal tract of the animal, due to their poor stability and reduced bioavailability (Macelline et al., 2024). Due to this low bioavailability and reactive nature of inorganic minerals, inclusion levels are regularly over formulated to ensure the animals requirements are actually met, however, uptake and utilisation of these minerals are limited, resulting in poor animal performance and high levels of mineral excretion and waste. As a result, dietary mineral levels are coming under added scrutiny from an environmental perspective and ’overfortifying’ the ration will become a less acceptable practice in modern production systems. The interactions of inorganic minerals with other feed components include binding to other components of the premix such as feed additives and vitamins, reducing the efficacy of dietary enzymes such as phytase, and acting as pro-oxidants (which can cause oxidative stress in the gut) (Concarr, Sinkunaite and Murphy, 2021; Concarr, O’Rourke and Murphy, 2021). Therefore, when inorganic minerals are added to an animal’s diet, the animal will not be getting the most out of that diet due to the negative interactions occurring within the feed. For this reason, there is increasing interest in alternative forms of minerals which are better absorbed, stored and utilised by the animal. Trace minerals, that are proteinated or chelated minerals, are a RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT more stable form of iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and manganese (Mn)), as well as minerals in yeast form such as selenium (Se). These are more stable in the premix, the diet and gastrointestinal tract meaning they are more bioavailable than inorganic sources, and provide a metabolic advantage to the animal, which often results in enhanced performance and lower mineral excretion.
