Environmental issues, or more specifically environmental protection is a global concern. Many governments and legislators are adopting policies to reduce the excretion of pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorous into the environment, resulting in practices to enhance nutrient digestibility and absorption within the animal.
Reducing excretion of minerals
Legislative bodies throughout the world have proposed the reduction of acceptable minerals levels in the diets of several production animal species. The goal is to reduce the pollution to ground water and to land created by the excretion of excess minerals from animals in production.
Given this mandate, producers of pork must adopt new methods of feeding in order to meet both government requirements and actual nutritional requirements of growing animals.
The key is absorption. Minerals fed as sulphates or oxides are generally poorly absorbed because, as weakly charged transitional elements, they interact with other minerals flowing through the digestive tract.
The most effective method of feeding minerals is to chelate them, thereby protecting these weakly charged transition elements for passage through the digestive tract. This results in increased absorption and the need for fewer minerals in the animal’s diet. The resulting effect is reduced mineral pollution through excretion, while obtaining the same production goals as previously seen with oxides and sulphates.
Reducing nitrogen excretion
Environmental damage as a result of commercial farming practices is a growing concern worldwide. Nitrogenous waste is excreted into the environment when the animal incompletely digests dietary protein sources. Increasingly, many countries are legislating the amount of manure, and more specifically the concentration of nitrogen and phosphorous which can be applied to land. As a result, the amount of dietary plant-derived protein, which the animal digests more poorly, is increasing. Consequently, there is an increased need for enzyme addition, to ensure that the protein from within the plant cell wall is released, allowing efficient digestion and absorption by the animal.
Reducing smell and high ammonia levels in barns
Odours are much more of a nuisance in intensive pig production. Noxious gases produced by pig waste, including ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, and carbon dioxide, have been proven to have negative effects on both the pigs and the humans who manage them. These compounds damage the pig respiratory system causing higher incidences of pneumonia, pleuritis and other respiratory diseases. High ammonia levels have also been proven to reduce feed intake, as well as having a detrimental effect on feed conversion meaning lost performance.
Due to the dangers of high ammonia levels to humans, many countries have imposed strict regulations on maximum levels allowed in livestock production facilities. Producers in these countries must find scientifically proven solutions to control ammonia and odour to stay in business.