COVER STOR ▶▶▶Y
Unlocking the power of functional nutrition
Recent scientific and technological advances have provided new insights into how the digestive system works and its impact on animal metabolism. These developments open up the use of bio-functional components to meet today’s challenges in livestock production.
BY JOSE LUIS CANO MUÑOZ*, DVM, PHD U
Dietary components Sugars, sweeteners Carbohydrates Peptones and AA
Free fatty acids Phytomolecules
ntil recently, the digestive system of animals was thought of as a sequence of three processes which extract and absorb nutrients from food: mechan- ical, such as crushing food during chewing or in
bird gizzards and mixing in the stomach; chemical, such as the action of stomach acids and bile salts; and biochemical, via the action of enzymes such as amylase, proteases and lipases that fraction large food molecules. This model, how- ever, gives the wrong impression: the intestine is not an inert pipe. It’s covered by mucosa, formed by enterocytes and un- derlying cell layers that ensure diverse functions depending on their structure and cell type.
Figure 1 - Receptors in digestive system for nutrients and phytomolecules.
Receptors T1R2-T1R3 T1R2-T1R3, SGLT1
CaSR, GPR9s, T1R1-T1R3, GPRC6A
FFA rec 1-3, GPR119, GPR220
Different receptors: transient receptor potential (TRP)
Source: Furness et al (2013), Nature Reviews, Premkumar, ACS Chemical Neuroscience. TRPV1 TRPA1 TRPM8 TRPV3 TRPV2 TRPP2 TRPV3 TRPA1
TRPV1 TRPA1
Bio-functional components The surface of the mucosa is covered with a multitude of receptors that are essential to the digestive process and over- all homeostasis. These receptors can be mechanosensitive, detecting the torsion, stretching and tension of the intestine or they can be receptors of physical parameters such as tem- perature, osmolarity or acidity. Some of them detect internal secretions such as bile secretions while others are sensitive to microorganisms and toxins. When these receptors are activat- ed, they influence the digestive process and have a significant impact on the endocrine, circulatory, muscle, nervous and immune systems1
. What’s more, new receptors that influence
digestion and metabolism are constantly being discovered, such as specific receptors for bio-functional components of plants. Most of these belong to a superfamily called Transient Receptor Potential (TRP), which is currently divided into six families: A, C, M, ML, P, V, according to their protein structure and genomic sequence2
. TRP receptors have been the focus
of intensive study due to their strong regulatory activity. In addition to influencing taste, they are involved in the met- abolic signaling pathways for heat, pain, fatigue, protons, phospholipase C, etc2
.
Application in feed Using bio-functional feed products to stimulate these receptors is a compelling method to achieve potential im- provements in the health, productivity and sustainability of animal production. Laboratory research has demonstrated that stimulating TRP receptors with a diet containing cap- saicin or turmeric increases secretion of bile acids3
. Subse-
quent research on farm animals confirmed increased energy in the diets of broilers fed with carvacrol, cinnamaldehyde and capsicum oleoresin leading to improved productivity4
.
Stimulating ruminants’ TRP receptors through a bio-func- tional product-enriched diet also proved beneficial, result- ing in improved daily feed consumption pattern in calves fed with capsicum5
secretion in dairy cows fed with capsicum protected from 18 ▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 29, No. 9, 2021
. Another study showed reduced insulin
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
