March 27, 2017

Food safety and non-antibiotic solutions discussed at Diamond V seminar

More than 100 producers and professionals attended Diamond V's technical seminar "Food Safety and Pathogen Control in Layers and Broilers" by Don McIntyre, PhD, PAS, Director of Global Research and Technical Services for Diamond V, at VIV Asia 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand.
 

Dr. McIntyre pointed out that more than 200 diseases are spread through food, making one in 10 people ill and killing nearly half a million worldwide each year.
 
"Poultry producers urgently need new, non-antibiotic, nutritional health solutions because of the increased challenges and cost of attempting further interventions by conventional methods," he stressed.
 
"Food safety starts on the farm," Dr. McIntyre said, "where it's possible to reduce Salmonella, Campylobacter, and E. coli in the gastro-intestinal tracts of poultry without using antibiotics.
 
Reducing these foodborne pathogens 'pre-harvest' or on-farm helps to reduce the risk of pathogens in food processing and food products. Ultimately, it helps reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses and the recall of food products because of bacterial contamination."
 
Dr. McIntyre also noted that effective on-farm or pre-harvest nutritional health technology lowered the virulence of pathogens and increased their sensitivity to commonly used antibiotics.
 

One question from the audience was whether the company's products might not cause immune response in the animal at the expense of energy. Dr. McIntyre clarified: "The innate response from the product only primes the animal's adaptive response, which certainly doesn't cause the animal to overreact at the cost of energy."

Concluding his presentation, Dr. McIntyre stressed: "Our technology is not a silver bullet. It does not fix poor management. You have to take responsible care of your farm, before adding our XPCTM products to your toolbox."

Jason Frank, PhD, Director of Non-Ruminant Research and Technical Support at Diamond V, presented on "Antibiotic Use and Replacement Strategies" at a separate seminar at VIV Asia, also to about 100 producers and professionals.