NUTRITION ▶▶▶
MRC: The start for new poultry solutions
With almost 300 trials per year and over 1,600 different animal diets tested, the MiXscience Research Center (MRC) is an important asset for companies to test and further improve their products and application. What are the latest insights for poultry?
BY EMMY KOELEMAN A
nimal diets or feed additives may look nice on pa- per, but it is all about how the feed and additives behave in real animals, kept under real farm con- ditions. Most of the feed companies therefore col-
laborate with external research farms or commercial farms to test the products in practice before they enter the market. The French animal nutrition company MiXscience, part of the Avril Group, has the luxury of owning its own research centre located in Pays de la Loire, a region in western France, consist- ing of 214 hectares of research facilities for cattle, poultry, pigs, rabbits and crops. The monogastric facility is shared with two other companies in a legal structure called
New solutions for poultry
MiXscience has developed the VSTAR technology® to vectorise feed ingredients. One of the latest solutions with this vectorisation technology for poultry is Lu- migard®, a feed solution that supports the intestinal microbiota balance, and performance. Gut microbiota balance promoting products are very important in the total solution to reduce antibiotic use in livestock. Also added to the poultry product portfolio from the French company is Betahit, a complex solution that is used to limit the effects of stresses in poultry. Trials at MRC with this product showed better growth performance (average daily gain) and a better feed con- version ratio (FCR) compared to the control group in hot conditions. Using the product also numerically increased water consumption, without changing the ratio of water/feed and without litter degradation. Also meat quality was im- proved, which is an economically interesting fact for poultry producers. The product was also tested in Senegal, and new trials are being planned in Colombia and Brazil.
30 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 2, 2019
Euronutrition. MiXscience does its own trials here, but can for example also collaborate on research programmes with the other two companies. The dairy facility is fully owned by MiX- science. In total, 55 people work at the MRC and 35 research- ers of MiXscience are linked with these facilities for their work. The MRC has its own small feed plant with a capacity of 2,800 tonnes. We caught up with Baptiste Lepauvre, head of communication at MRC to learn more about the facilities.
Focus on innovation and solutions Around 60 years ago, the first trials began at the MRC by the Sanders Group, the compound animal feed business and part of the Avril Group. Since then, the focus has changed from doing ‘simple’ trials to conducting more and advanced trials, involving many studies with specialised products. Consider- ing that a MiXscience product is mixed to feed 450 million broilers and 15 million layers per year, the impact on the global poultry feed sector is big. Innovation and product de- velopment are therefore key topics for this French company. “With the increased use of feed additives we also see more
PHOTO: FRED MOURAUD
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