December 18, 2012                           

Academics attend Second International Phytase Summit in Italy

More than 70 of the world's leading academics in the field of phosphorus, phytate and phytase nutrition attended the Second International Phytase Summit (IPS 2) in Rome, Italy on December 11-13, 2012.

Schothorst Feed Research, NL, Massey University, NZ, University of Maryland, USA, University of Sydney, Australia and AB Vista were joint hosts of the successful event.

The original IPS took place in Washington DC in September 2010, and IPS 2 moved the collaboration between the world's leading phytase experts to the next level. The delegates participated in the event over the two and a half days to hear speakers deliver the latest news on phytase, spanning a range of disciplines. 

Presentations at the summit covered whether phytate should be considered as the enemy, how to deal with phytate, and finally how to destroy phytate, including an evaluation of phytase 'superdosing'.

Hadden Graham, AB Vista's Technical Director, said, "IPS 2 built on and exceeded the success of the first IPS event in 2010. There was an interesting blend of papers on a diverse but inter-related series of topics, from plant breeding through human nutrition to formulating animal feeds with phytase. The major focus of the summit was on the anti-nutritional effects of phytate, and the subsequent benefits in animal performance of destroying phytate through the use of highly effective phytases."