February 21, 2008

Phytase helps win the fight for dietary phosphorus

Press Release

Adding more phytase to feed presents pig and poultry producers with an opportunity to help offset some of the recent increase in feed phosphate prices, explains Danisco Animal Nutrition.

As the demand for phosphate fertilizers continues to rise to meet increases in global crop production to feed developing nations and produce ethanol, feed producers face the challenge of sourcing sufficient quantities of feed phosphates to meet animal requirements.

Feed phosphate prices have rocketed in recent months, reflecting the imbalance between global supply and demand. The UK's Agricultural Industries Confederation has recently reported in the next few months supplies of feed phosphate will continue to be limited, which means that the price of feed phosphate will continue to rise.

New generation bacterial phytases are proven to be more effective at releasing plant-bound phytate phosphorus than traditional fungal phytases. At a standard inclusion rate of 500 FTUs/kg feed, Danisco's bacterial phytase (Phyzyme XP) can replace an additional 1.3 kg dicalcium phosphate (DCP) in pig and broiler feed formulations, compared to traditional fungal phytases.

"With the current phenomenal rise in the price of feed phosphates, producers should consider increasing the inclusion of phytase in their feed", explains Dr Peter Plumstead, Danisco's Technical Services Manager.

"We have a wealth of data to show that doubling the dose of phytase in pig and poultry feed allows at least an additional 1.9 kg dicalcium phosphate to be removed from the feed, without negatively affecting animal performance," Plumstead continues.

The phytase inclusion rate of 500 FTUs/kg feed tends to be the standard in broiler and pig diets and 300 FTUs/kg feed for layer feeds. With current DCP prices at around 550 euros/tonne, the economic optimum phytase inclusion rate is currently around 1000 FTUs/kg feed for broiler and young pig feeds and 600 FTUs/kg feed for layer diets.

"The 1000 FTUs/kg feed will currently reduce broiler feed costs by around 4.60 euros/tonne. This allows a further 17 percent reduction in dicalcium phosphate, resulting in an additional feed cost saving of 0.60 euros/tonne compared to the standard inclusion rate of 500 FTUs/kg feed. Increasing the phytase dose to 600 FTUs/kg feed will allow layer producers to further reduce their feed formulations costs by around 0.53 euros/tonne, reducing dicalcium phosphate inclusion by around 30 percent" he concludes.

Danisco Animal Nutrition (www.danisco.com/animalnutrition) is a business unit of leading global food ingredient specialist Danisco A/S (Denmark), pioneered the development and use of enzymes and betaine in animal nutrition.