Adisseo Research Grant 2021

Enhancing the sustainability of animal protein production is a major challenge for the future of our planet. Better nutrition programs will help reduce its environmental impact: reduction of the carbon footprint, decrease in nitrogen and phosphorus outputs, lower water footprint, etc. A global approach is becoming increasingly necessary, for example by reducing dietary protein levels, adjusting amino acid supplements, modifying animal phase feeding, extracting the maximum value of raw materials, and so on.

The proposed research will investigate the impact of reducing antibiotic use on animal performance, physiology, metabolism, and so on. The objective will then be to identify strategies for restoring animal performance without medication, by means of a better nutrition program. The scientific investigations could be based on a study of the nutritional requirements that could change when medications are reduced (specific needs of amino acids, for example) and on the identification of new nutritional approaches and their impact on microbiota and animal resilience.

In most countries, monogastric nutritionists work with a rather small variety of feeds. To improve sustainability and secure future developments, it will be important to consider local raw materials, co-products of new food industry developments, etc. A better understanding of the characteristics of those new raw materials will define their nutritional value, limits and constraints, to enable their adaptation for feed formulation. Considering the impact of those raw materials on microbiota and how they will be used by the microbiota will also help define their correct nutritional values. As an example, fibers are important to gut function and should, therefore, be balanced between their nutritional components and their health value.
In order to facilitate the use of those raw materials, quick and easy methodologies should be developed to assess the quality of raw materials.
Optimizing the cost of feed by means of new raw materials should also consider their impact on animal welfare and performance. The tools used for quality investigation will also have to incorporate those aspects.

In their first days of life, livestock animals face multiple challenges: birth, maternal separation, first feeding and transportation. It is critical to find ways to reduce early mortality but also to give animals a good start for their future welfare, health and growth, thereby optimizing the entire production chain. The starter and pre-starter phases could represent an important part of the lifecycles of poultry and piglets, justifying increased investments in the early phase, so as to prepare poultry and piglets for subsequent challenging conditions. The objective of this early phase might not be to stimulate growth but rather to focus on the optimal development of important functions for the rest of the animals’ lives.

During heat stress, several adaptive strategies are used to dissipate excess heat, such as the reduction of feed intake and changes in protein and lipid metabolisms. As a result, most nutritionists have enhanced fat supplementation and decreased protein content, to reduce the heat increment and stimulate feed intake. Those strategies fail to restore animal performance under hot conditions, so it will be important to reconsider the metabolic and physiological changes induced by heat exposure, in order to define optimal nutritional strategies. Moreover, heat exposure is known to exacerbate oxidative stress, leading to consequences on gut health, including the immune response of the animals and the quality of the end products.