Page 3 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Uncovering new learnings and opportunities
AUSTRALIAN PORK LIMITED
NOTICE OF 2018 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Australian Pork Limited (ABN 83 092 783 278) (APL) will be held on Thursday 15 November 2018 commencing at 1.00pm (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time) at the Melbourne Marriott Hotel (Exhibition Room), Corner E xhibition and Lonsdale Streets, Melbourne, Victoria , 30 0 0.
The business of the AGM will include:
• together with the reports of the directors and auditors in respect of year ended 30 June 2018
• approving the remuneration of the company’s Auditor for 2018-2019
• ratifying the appointment of two Specialist Directors.
The 2017-2018 Annual Report is located on the Company website. Please advise if you prefer a printed copy and we will post one out to you.
If you have any questions about this process, please contact the APL Events and Membership Executive Rachel Blake on 02 6270 8807 or by email at rachel. blake@australianpork. com. au.
☛ from P2
when diets were pelleted
to >54C.
In relation to PEDV in-
fectivity, Dr Woodworth stated that just 1g of fae- ces from a pig acutely in- fected with PEDV could infect 500 tonnes of feed, with all the feed being infected at a dose capa- ble of causing illness in pigs – highlighting that it spreads through feed very easily.
The median infectious dose of African swine fe- ver in both feed and water is now being investigated in the US.
While I have focused on viral transmission via feed to pigs in this article, bacterial contamination of feed ingredients, particu- larly with salmonella and E. coli can also occur.
Further research to identify cost-effective ap- proaches to maintain feed biosecurity in order to protect animal health is under way.
In conclusion, four key steps were proposed to help maximise feed bio- security:
1. Assess biological haz- ard risk – proactive ap- proach required by feed manufacturers to under- stand biological hazards for their operations and their customers;
2. Define protocols to prevent entry of hazard into the mill;
3. Utilise mitigation strategies to prevent risk; and
4. Feed mill decontami- nation – should include a combination of physical cleaning, chemical clean- ing and, if applicable, the use of high heat as the final step.
Australian Pork Limited continues to discuss issues associated with the impor- tation of feed additives with the Department of Agricul- ture and Water Resources to ensure our biosecurity protocols will mitigate risks associated with feed additive importation to the Australian pig industry.
Dr Regina Fogarty from Rivalea recently at- tended the third Regional OIE Workshop on Afri- can swine fever disease control in Asia held in the Philippines as Aus- tralia’s representative and obtained a solid techni- cal understanding of the efforts being undertaken in response to this very serious disease, which has so far been provided to all pig veterinarians.
Dr Eric Neumann (a pig veterinarian and epi- demiologist from New Zealand) is also present- ing a webinar on Monday, November 5 at 12 noon AESDT.
If you want to join in, please contact Lechelle van Breda on 02 6270 8814 or email: lechelle.vanbreda@ australianpork.com.au
Application of metabo- lomics to reduce variation between individual pigs
Variation in birth weight and growth performance of individual pigs was dis- cussed by Dr Junjun Wang from China Agricultural University, Beijing.
Dr Wang described how his team is using metabo- lomics on plasma metabo- lites (such as amino acids, vitamins, sugars) in blood samples collected at vari- ous times after the pig’s www.porknews.com.au
last meal to identify bio- markers.
A number of biomarkers have been shortlisted and are being used to estab- lish predictive models for growth performance and determine the effects of breed, growth stages, gen- der and nutritional status to address variation be- tween individual pigs.
Dr Wang showed the bac- terial composition of the gut microbiota differed be- tween piglets in different birth weight groups.
For example, piglets clas- sified in the lower birth weight group had a lower energy digestibility in the final section of the small intestine and higher fer- mentation capability in the large intestine than pigs in the normal birthweight class and these differences may influence a pig’s life- time growth performance.
It was suggested nutri- tional optimisation may be possible based on mon- itoring of gut microbiota. Alternative feed ingredi- ents for pigs
Prof Margareth Over- land from the Norwegian University of Life Sci- ences discussed the use of modern biorefining, enzyme technology and fermentation to produce high-quality single-cell proteins from wood and seaweeds for use in feed for fish and livestock, in- cluding pigs.
Increasing interest in the development of microbial feed ingredients in Nor- way is being driven by the need to reduce com- petition with human food resources.
Margareth described that bacterial meal can be produced from fer- mentation of natural gas as a carbon and energy source by using a bacte- rium (methylococcus cap- sulatus) that metabolises methane as its only source of carbon and energy.
Oxygen and ammonia, together with a mineral solution, is added and the fermentation process takes place in a loop fermenter.
The bacterial biomass is continuously harvested, ex- cess water is removed using centrifugation and ultra-fil- tration, sterilised using high temperature and then spray dried into a powder with <10 percent water.
The crude protein and fat composition of the bac- terial meal (70 percent and 10 percent, respectively) is similar to fish meal, with a higher tryptophan con- tent and a lower lysine and methionine content.
Bacterial meal also con- tains a range of bioac- tive compounds, includ- ing naturally occurring antioxidants and nucleic acids (10 percent) – which have been shown to have a beneficial effect on the gastrointestinal health of Atlantic salmon.
When bacterial meal was added at 8 and 12 percent for two weeks af- ter weaning, average daily gain and feed efficiency were increased compared with pigs fed diets con- taining 0 or 4 percent bac- terial meal.
Interestingly, when bac- terial meal was added to diets of grower-finisher pigs, sensory quality was improved, and this may be due to changes in fatty acid composition or in- creased antioxidant activ-
ity due to the feeding of bacterial meal.
The production of bacte- rial meal from natural gas is getting closer to commer- cialisation – there is also potential for natural gas produced from biogas to be utilised, after scrubbing.
Additionally, spruce trees in Norway are be- ing explored as a source of plant dry matter to be used in the fermentation of yeast strains to produce single-cell proteins.
Enzymes were recently discovered that increase the efficiency of the con- version of cellulose in the tree biomass to sugars.
Seaweed is also being investigated as a feed re- source for fish and mo- nogastrics.
Novel technology using a biorefinery process is being evaluated to upgrade the nutritional value of brown seaweed (saccharina latis- sima) and make use of the whole biomass.
This process is needed because brown seaweed has a low protein content and high carbohydrate levels that are not able to be digested by farmed fish and monogastric animals.
Novel enzymes are be- ing used to break down the seaweed into sugars and other nutrients and these are then used in the fermentation process to produce yeast as a source of protein.
The yeast has a crude protein content of 50-55 percent and a favourable amino acid composition.
However, the nutritional value of yeast can vary depending on the yeast species used, the fermen- tation process and further processing conditions.
Bioactive compounds are also being isolated from the seaweed and these have been shown to impart health benefits to Atlantic salmon when in- cluded in fish feed.
The use of yeast as a high-quality protein source in weanling pig diets has also been inves- tigated.
Spray-dried and inacti- vated candida utilis yeast was included in weanling pig diets at levels of 3.6 percent, 7.3 percent and 14.6 percent.
Higher feed intake and growth rates, increased villi height in the small intestine and reduced se- verity of diarrhoea was found in weanling pigs fed diets containing yeast.
Overall, these results suggest the inclusion of microbial protein sources produced using under- utilised natural resources may be a sustainable sup- ply of feed protein for pigs and be a potential feed grain alternative.
Work to optimise all processing steps being un- dertaken to ensure profita- bility is being done as part of the ‘Foods for Norway’ project.
Further detail can be found at foodsfornorway. net
This work is uncovering lots of new opportunities; we will be keeping a close eye on developments in this area.
For further information on this conference and to obtain copies of papers, please contact me on 0423 056 045 or heather.chan non@australianpork.com. au
Australian Pork Newspaper, November 2018 – Page 3