September 5, 2023
Lallemand to present new research at XXII Congress of World Veterinary Poultry Association
Lallemand Animal Nutrition has announced its sponsorship of the XXII Congress of the World Veterinary Poultry Association (WVPA) held in Verona, Italy.
As a leading advocate for microbial-based solutions in the poultry industry, Lallemand's technical poultry team will be attending the event to present two new studies. This highly anticipated gathering of global experts and scientists offers valuable opportunities to exchange information about the latest advances in poultry veterinary science, encompassing a wide range of key topics within the field.
"We are thrilled to support this year's Congress of the WVPA and present our latest research findings," said Lallemand's Florence Barbé. "We are demonstrating that our microbial-based solutions, namely probiotics and competitive exclusion products, help harness the power of the birds' microbiota and have the potential to support poultry gut health and immunity in both broilers and layers. They are readily available technical tools to help the poultry industry continue to grow in a sustainable manner."
Mitigating gut inflammation consequences in layers
Gut inflammation is a reality in poultry farming. It often goes unnoticed at first but can turn into reduced performance in the long run, Lallemand said.
The company's R&D team conducted a study including an inflammatory challenge in laying hens with the following objectives:
- To investigate the consequences of gut inflammation on laying performances;
- To evaluate the potential of the probiotic Pediococcus acidilactici CNCM I-4622 (BACTOCELL) to mitigate the negative effect associated to the inflammatory trigger on egg production (Barbé et al., 2023).
Results showed the locally induced inflammatory challenge drastically degraded all laying performance criteria, including feed intake, exported egg mass, laying rate and feed conversion ratio, as well as negatively affected egg quality.
Moreover, the study demonstrated fecal calprotectin levels has the potential to be used as a non-invasive biomarker of acute intestinal inflammation in birds.
When the layers were fed the probiotic bacteria, they experienced quicker performance recovery and improved egg quality parameters following the induced inflammation. Gut health was also more quickly restored as indicated by lower levels of fecal calprotectin.
Since coccidiosis remains a major threat in poultry production, live coccidiosis vaccines are gaining ground. However, numerous publications reported vaccination can have negative impacts on zootechnical performance. A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the early application of a competitive exclusion product (AVIGUARD) to mitigate the negative effect of a coccidiosis vaccine on broiler performance (Chevaux et al., 2023).
The study confirmed vaccination impaired growth performance as measured by body weight at days 28 and 35, feed conversion rate and average daily gain.
The early application of the competitive exclusion solution, AVIGUARD, allowed broilers to maintain zootechnical performance after vaccination against coccidiosis.
In addition, the treatment minimised the risk of intestinal lesions induced by coccidiosis in vaccinated birds, which is a known side effect of the vaccination.
Authors of the publication concluded this study presents an interesting strategy to mitigate some of the negative effects reported to be associated to live cocci vaccines. Moreover, it indicated the competitive exclusion solution did not alter the mode of action of the live vaccine, making it compatible with coccidiosis vaccine.
Lallemand Animal Nutrition's participation at the XXII Congress of the WVPA underscores the company's commitment to helping its partners and farmers sustainably feed a growing global population through improved animal performance and well-being with a strong research and innovation focus, the company concluded.
- Lallemand Animal Nutrition
