Mr. Satti Pandu Raju, a progressive fish farmer in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, India, has been in the aquaculture business for over 20 years. Andhra Pradesh state is the largest producer of shrimp in India and one of the largest areas of shrimp farming in the world. Raju farms more than 80 hectares of fish culture. He started farming shrimp culture on 10 hectares two years ago after seeing a great opportunity for shrimp in the global market. Unfortunately, he lost all of his investment in shrimp culture on his first try.

This is the story of how he bounced back and turned a profit with his shrimp farm. 

The problem: 100 percent shrimp mortality due to elephant gill disease

Penaeus vannamei, also known as Pacific whiteleg shrimp, is an extensively cultured species along coastal India. Raju started farming Penaeus vannamei on 7 hectares — a single pond — in 2016.

At the beginning of the season last year, Raju lost approximately $60,000 due to elephant gill disease. His shrimp’s gill appearance resembled an elephant ear. Eventually, the shrimp mortality rate was 100 percent.

The shrimp’s gill appearance resembled an elephant ear due to elephant gill disease.

In the second season of the year, Raju restocked his farm with fresh shrimp seed. Within 10 days, he noticed the outbreak of elephant gill disease again. Many other farms in the surrounding areas had the same problem.

Strengthening the immune system to overcome shrimp health challenges

Raju discovered Alltech On-Farm solutions through an aqua dealer in Eluru who introduced him to Tausif Ahmed, an Alltech assistant business development manager. Ahmad recommended using Bioplex® as well as Sel-Plex® to support immune response in shrimp. To resolve other issues related to growth, gastrointestinal health, water quality, ammonia and sludge, he recommended a range of Alltech solutions.

The result

Within 15 days of proper technical guidance and good management practice, 80 percent of the shrimp recovered from the disease. By the end of the season, Raju harvested 30 tons of shrimp. Not only did Raju avoid a massive potential loss — he made $45,000 in profit.

 “The Alltech team gave me step-by-step technical guidance on how to make a profitable business,” said Raju. “Alltech solutions are world-class and amazing in performance. I highly recommend them.”

Currently, Raju is running his third crop of shrimp with Alltech On-Farm solutions and is anticipating another successful harvest.

I would like to learn more about aquaculture nutrition and best practices.

The summer season sets the scene, not only for picnics and pool parties, but also for pests lying in wait for a chance to prey on your precious pup — and potentially you, too. But, before you send Fido packing, know that you have a plethora of options available to combat these would-be invaders.

First, let’s consider what we may commonly be up against:

• Ectoparasites: These are perhaps some of the most well-known insects associated with dogs. These pests prefer to live on or just under the surface of your dog’s skin and can easily be picked up on outdoor adventures and introduced to your home.

  • Fleas: Dogs typically get fleas from other animals. Fleas are notoriously challenging to see with the naked eye, but their bites can cause severe irritation and inflammation. Your dog will undoubtedly be scratching and biting at their skin almost incessantly if infected.

  • Ticks: Ticks can easily be picked up in tall grass and wooded areas. More than just disgusting bloodsuckers, infected ticks can transmit Lyme disease, a serious bacterial illness that can also be passed on to humans.

  • Mites: Just as with people, mites exist naturally on dogs, but if found in excessive quantities, they can cause serious skin problems. Ear mites are another common concern. They are highly contagious and are typically passed from outdoor cats to canines, though humans are generally immune. Excessive head shaking and scratching at ears/the head are usually dead giveaways.

• Internal parasites: Dogs can contract internal parasites from a variety of situations, but they are typically transmitted when an animal unintentionally ingests parasite eggs in contaminated soil, water, food or feces.

  • Heartworms: One bite from an infected mosquito can lead to an unprotected dog developing heartworm disease, by far one of the most preventable and potentially deadly infections.

  • Tapeworms: There are several types of tapeworm, but the most common is caused by swallowing an infected flea. They typically set up shop in your dog’s small intestine, where they continue to feed and grow. Tapeworms compromise your pet’s nutrition and can contribute to weight loss, lethargy and a variety of other issues.

  • Hookworms: These nasty intestinal parasites can be ingested by sniffing or eating contaminated soil or feces. Hookworms literally hook themselves into the lining of your dog’s intestines and leave holes in their wake, potentially leading to anemia, weakness, weight loss and death.

Of course, these are just a few examples of the many possible pests that might afflict your canine companion. So, what’s a concerned dog mom or dad to do?

An ounce of prevention

First and foremost, let’s remember that we are our dogs’ biggest advocates. It is up to us to ensure that they have a clean, safe environment to thrive in. And, as responsible owners, we should all be taking the following recommended actions:

• Feed a chewable heartworm preventative, year-round, as prescribed by your veterinarian. It is a cheap and highly effective way to prevent disease.

• Flea and tick preventatives abound. You may choose from chewables, collars and topicals. Choose what works best for your dog and your lifestyle, as recommended by your veterinarian.

• Brush and bathe your dog regularly. This will not only allow for some quality bonding time, but it will also allow you to address any potential skin issues.

• Schedule time to regularly clean up your yard. Keeping it relatively free of feces and overgrowth will go a long way in keeping your pet healthy.

• Always check your dog’s skin (and yours, too!) after spending time in heavily wooded areas. If you should happen to find an embedded tick, take care in removing it. There are many affordable tick removal tools on the market today.

Building a defense

Another thing to consider is your nutrition regimen and what role it might play in immune defense, especially against would-be pathogenic or viral invaders. Much like us, dogs have a natural immunity that they have built up over the course of their life, but, unfortunately, that’s not always enough to prevent harm or illness. One thing you can do to help support your dog’s immunity is feed a high-quality diet containing trace minerals such as organic selenium (think Sel-Plex^®). Selenium can help to maintain proper function and strength of the immune system and counteract oxidative damage caused by infections.

As the late, great Benjamin Franklin so wisely proclaimed in 1736, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Nearly 300 years later, this advice still rings true.

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When you hear the word “nutrigenomics,” your first reaction may be “What in the world is that?” Nutrigenomics is an up-and-coming research field that aims to understand how nutrition can influence an animal’s genome and what that means for animal health and production. It isn’t genetic engineering or modification, but rather a way of measuring changes in the activity of genes that result from changes in an animal’s diet. This field of research opens many doors that were previously closed in classic animal nutrition and allows us to better understand how “you are what you eat,” or rather, your chickens are what you feed them.

What is nutrigenomics?

Before we can talk about nutrigenomics, let’s do a quick review of molecular biology. Each animal has what’s called a genome that contains all of the genetic material, or DNA, of an animal and provides the basic blueprint for life. These carefully drawn out plans provide the blueprint for that animal’s life. However, outside influences, such as nutrition, can have a strong impact on the expression of this genetic information, or essentially how that blueprint is read.

Over the last decade, genomes have begun to be sequenced. This means that we know the approximate makeup of an animal’s entire genome. Identifying the genome sequences opened the door for cutting-edge research approaches to understand the molecular mechanisms behind everyday life. Even more importantly, we can now use genomic technologies to understand how each of the genes in that genomic sequence responds to outside influences and how this relates to the health and disease of an animal. The genomic sequence is very stable, so changes in function and activity come from up-regulating (“turning on”) or down-regulating (“turning off”) individual genes to produce (or decrease) products called transcripts in response to a stimulus like nutrition.  These transcripts code for the proteins that make up structures and functions in the cells, so the result is that changes occur in physiological processes like energy production or immune response.

Nutrigenomics is the field of research we use to study these changes in gene activities that occur because of changes in the animal’s diet. This information can help us better understand how nutrition influences animal health and production by giving us insights into what is going on within the cell in response to changes in the diet. We can measure the response in animal tissue using a technology called DNA microarrays. These tools are the basis of nutrigenomics studies and allow researchers to profile the activity of all the genes on a genome at once. The information gathered from nutrigenomics studies can provide us with a better understanding of nutrition by giving us clues to how nutrients work, why different forms of nutrients have different effects and how such nutrients can be optimized for health and production.

How can we use nutrigenomics to further poultry nutrition?

Current research can paint us a picture of how nutrigenomics is being applied to poultry nutrition. For example, recent work at Alltech has helped decipher why different forms of nutrients in the diet, such as Bioplex® organic minerals versus inorganic forms of minerals, can have very different effects on animal health. Before nutrigenomics, analyses like animal growth and tissue nutrient content gave us only part of the picture. But now, we can understand why changes occur.

Mineral matters

We know that Bioplex minerals support increased tissue levels. Through nutrigenomics, we identified changes in important transport proteins in the intestine that lead to increased mineral uptake into tissues when Bioplex zinc is used in poultry diets. In a similar fashion, we used nutrigenomics to understand why Sel-Plex® has a greater effect on reproduction than inorganic selenium. Traditional poultry nutrition studies were only able to reach the conclusion that it was due to selenium’s role in antioxidant defenses. However, nutrigenomics data confirmed this and, more importantly, indicated that selenium in the form of Sel-Plex could alter genes involved in energy production and reproductive signaling in the oviduct. In males, it made a clear impact on genes involved in tissue structure and function.

Early birds

Another area in which nutrigenomics is leading to a new understanding of the importance of nutrition is nutritional programming. This concept is the idea that nutrition, especially early in life, can have lasting imprints on an animal’s entire life. By understanding the gene expression patterns that are targeted by early life nutrition, we can begin to determine how this programming occurs and use it to our advantage in poultry production. For example, nutrigenomics studies have shown that changing the trace mineral content in the post-hatch diet can have long-term effects on genes in the gastrointestinal tract that are important for nutrient transport and for intestinal tissue structure. These genes remain changed in the adult bird weeks after the post-hatch period.

In the future, the information that nutrigenomics provides us could change the way we feed birds and make poultry nutrition a more precise field. Molecular findings can add to our understanding of how nutrition influences animal production and health and how we can use nutrition to get the best out of our animals. Nutrigenomics provides a way to know preciously what nutrients, timing of nutrients or combinations of nutrients are optimal. Through this information, we can not only streamline nutrition, but improve performance, efficiency and health.

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Trace minerals are essential to maintaining health and productivity in livestock animals. Traditionally, trace minerals were fed based on the minimum level required to overcome a deficiency symptom and not necessarily to promote productivity. Feeding adequate amounts and sources of trace minerals is essential to optimize production, health and feed costs and to minimize effects on the environment.

The growing uncertainties associated with trace mineral requirements and supply puts nutritionists in the dilemma of balancing the costs of either underfeeding or overfeeding trace minerals. A deficiency will impair health in dairy cows, leading to problems such as retained placenta and mastitis, and can decrease reproduction and lactation performance. On the other hand, excess supply will inflate feed costs and increase the risk of environmental pollution and toxicity, and it may also result in unwanted antagonistic interactions among minerals, leading to poor absorption.

Dietary trace minerals are supplied from feedstuffs and mineral supplements. The National Research Council (NRC) requirements are based on both sources of trace minerals, accounting for their absorption coefficients. Feed trace minerals usually have lower absorption coefficients compared with supplements. Furthermore, mineral supplements differ in their bioavailability. The NRC (2001) requirements appear to be adequate for most minerals, except for manganese and cobalt, for which new data suggests higher concentrations.

Inorganic minerals generally have lower bioavailability compared with organic minerals. Inorganic minerals become free in the rumen and can interact with other feed components. They can also bind to other minerals and pass through the gastrointestinal tract unabsorbed. Inorganic minerals may also include a source of contaminants, such as the heavy metals cadmium and lead. The presence of inorganic trace minerals in premix feeds can negatively affect the stability of enzymes and vitamins. To circumvent these bioavailability and absorption uncertainties, inorganic minerals are often supplemented at multiples of NRC requirements, which may further reduce their absorption and may reduce animal health and performance.

The Total Replacement Technology™ (TRT) mineral program at Alltech offers trace minerals (Bioplex®, Sel-Plex®) to provide highly available and traceable sources of minerals that support the animal’s requirements.

Most lactation diets will supply adequate to excessive amounts of iron, while other trace minerals will be supplied at amounts below NRC requirements, ranging from 40 percent to 85 percent. The TRT program should accommodate most situations but may need to be adjusted for specific situations in which extreme dietary concentrations are found. Regular assessment of trace mineral levels in forages is critical to building a more efficient mineral nutrition program.

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This year at the Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show, Alltech sponsored the Mineral Myths Forum, which featured industry representatives and their discussion on the myths behind mineral supplementation. We interviewed two experts who were present at the forum to hear their takeaways from the event.

Mineral quality over quantity

Dr. Vaughn Holder, ruminant research director at Alltech, was interested in the discussion surrounding the levels of minerals in supplements.

“The key point to take away from this forum is that you cannot judge a bag of mineral supplements by its cover,” said Holder. “The fact that a certain bag has higher levels of minerals in it does not mean it should be worth more to your enterprise. It is more about the quality of the components that are inside of the bag, and sometimes you can get away with using much lower levels of quality minerals and actually achieve better results. Remember, sometimes less is more!”

The saying “less is more” is one that we hear often, but not always when it comes to mineral supplementation. Holder emphasizes the fact that some companies focus strictly on quantity of minerals, not necessarily quality. However, in a University of Florida study featuring Alltech’s Bioplex® and Sel-Plex® organic trace minerals, it was found that, even when included at lower rates than their inorganic counterparts, Alltech organic trace minerals still managed to outperform the standard mineral in various areas, including weaning weights, pregnancy rates and even colostrum quality. For a full recap of this study, which was featured in the February issue of Progressive Cattleman magazine, click here.

Mineral antagonists

Another point discussed during the forum was the concept of “mineral antagonists,” a complex-sounding topic that is actually very simple — something that blocks or decreases the absorption rate or metabolic function of a nutrient. We pulled in Mark Robbins, manager of research and technical services at Ridley Block Operations (the makers of CRYSTALYX®), to speak on the issue.

“If you have mineral antagonists, which is where you have situations in which inorganic trace minerals aren’t your best option, the Blueprint® program that we have formulated with Total Replacement Technology™ using organic trace minerals is the way to go,” he said. Research has shown that certain organic trace mineral complexes resemble those found naturally in plant proteins, and this may be the reason that they do not act as antagonists in the ration.

We hope you enjoyed the Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show as much as we did this year, and if you didn’t get a chance to attend, visit our Facebook page for recaps of the event. We hope to see you next year in New Orleans, Louisiana!

Panelists Dr. Vaughn Holder, Dr. Tanya Covey, Mark Robbins and Dr. Matt Hersom at the Alltech Mineral Myths Forum during the 2018 NCBA conference. 

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As much as we try to keep our pets healthy and protect them from illness, they can still get sick. Luckily, much like ours, your pet’s body has a built-in line of defense to fight pathogens that cause illness. Optimal selenium nutrition can help strengthen these defenses and enable your pet to fight its best battle against disease.

What happens when your pet is infected by a virus?

When your pet is exposed to a virus, their body launches a series of defense mechanisms that make up the immune system response. The immune system is responsible for identifying foreign intruders called pathogens that can cause disease and mounting a defense against them before they can make your pet sick. The immune system has two main components: the innate and the adaptive immune systems. The innate immune system is the first line of defense and includes barriers like skin and non-specific immune cells like macrophages, whose sole purpose is to attack at the site of infection. This general, non-specific immune response is a rapid onset, taking only a few hours.

But what happens if this isn’t enough and the virus or pathogen continues to infect? This is where the adaptive immune response kicks in. The components of this part of the immune system remain quiet until they are activated and adapt to the presence of the virus. The adaptive immune system is comprised of humoral, mediated by antibodies produced by B cells, and cell-mediated response, mediated by T cells. B cells make special proteins called antibodies that locate the virus and help the body destroy them. T cells, on the other hand, take a less direct route and form helper T cells and killer T cells. Killer T cells find and destroy viral-infected cells, while helper T cells coordinate the effort. The cells are destroyed and viral shedding to other cells is reduced.

To better help your pet during subsequent exposure, components of the adaptive immune system can produce memory cells. These cells “remember” the pathogen so when the same pathogen infects your pet again, the response is faster and stronger. The challenge with some viruses is that they mutate, causing small changes that make it so your pet’s body doesn’t recognize it as the same pathogen.

What role can organic selenium play in your pet’s health?  

Selenium is an essential trace mineral that is required in the diet of animals. Once consumed, selenium is incorporated into a family of proteins called selenoproteins. Selenoproteins are expressed in almost all tissues of the body and have vital biological roles. Selenoproteins function in hormone metabolism, redox regulation and antioxidant defenses. Selenium can be found in the diet in two primary forms: inorganic (a salt form) and organic (selenium yeasts).

You may wonder how your pet’s immune system, viruses and selenium relate. Selenium has two roles: maintaining proper function and strength of the immune system, and counteracting the oxidative damage associated with infection.

In chickens, selenium can reduce viral shedding and increase the expression of important anti-viral genes like interferons. In horses, selenium increases the expression of cytokines in immune cells. This link between selenium status and innate immune system function becomes clearer when you look at studies using selenium-deficient animals. These animals not only have higher pathogen loads, but they have reduced numbers of immune cells. The cells that are present do not function as properly as those of a normal animal. Luckily, these problems can be reversed simply by adding selenium back to the animal’s diet. At the adaptive immunity level, selenium can improve antibody production by B cells and accelerate T cell proliferation and total numbers.

Conclusion

A healthy immune system is your pet’s first line of defense against sickness and disease. If you remember when you were little, your mom might have said you have to “feed a cold.” While it might have sounded silly at the time, she wasn’t far off. Proper nutrition, especially selenium, is essential to make sure your body can fight off viral infections. The same is true for your dog or cat. No one likes when their pet gets sick, so ensuring they are eating a healthy diet containing optimal levels of selenium can help prevent this.

Sel-Plex^® is Alltech’s proprietary organic form of selenium yeast and is manufactured to mimic what is found in nature. Click here to learn more about Sel-Plex.

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The brooding period is a critical time of development for many systems within a bird, and it occurs from the time of placement — even beforehand as the farm prepares for the new flock — to around two weeks of life for the young chicken (chick) or turkey (poult).

Getting the flock off to the right start during brooding can help to positively impact health and performance throughout the flock’s life. There are five areas that must be monitored carefully during the brooding period:

1. Regulation of body temperature

Chicks and poults are unable to regulate their internal body temperature during the first four to six days post-hatch (poults: 39.4–40°C or 103–104°F; chicks: 40–41°C or 104–106°F).

While environmental temperature control is important for the entire flock, it is particularly critical during brooding, as it is important to not overheat nor overcool birds, which can greatly impact performance. Management guidelines for the breed will include the appropriate temperatures for the flock, and these temperatures may differ depending on whether the flock is from younger or older breeder hens. The producer must also consider the temperature of the floor and litter so that the entire environment, and not just the air, is at the correct temperature. 

2. Skeletal and muscle system

During their first week of life, poults and chicks gain around four times their original body weight. This significant increase in weight suggests rapid growth of the bird. A large part of this growth is aided by the first feeding phases given to the bird, which focus on nutrients to help with growth, as opposed to the end of the flock, when nutrients are focused on body maintenance. Nutrients such as protein, calcium, phosphorus and various minerals are required to help with this growth. Using minerals that are more bioavailable to the bird (e.g., Bioplex^® and Sel-Plex^®) and highly digestible proteins (e.g., NuPro^®) can optimize growth during this time and the life of the flock.  

3. Immune system

Some breeder hen antibodies are passed on to the offspring through the yolk. These maternal antibodies help to protect the chick/poult during their first two to three weeks of age. However, these maternal antibodies do not complete the immune system of the young bird. Immune organs and immune tissue start developing in the embryo and the hatched bird. Additionally, active immunity is developing in the young bird from in ovo to the field through vaccinations and exposure to pathogens. If there is any stress on the bird, the immune system can be suppressed, negatively impacting health and performance. Depending on the situation, supporting the immune system during this period with various feed additives, such as Actigen^®, Natustat^®, Bioplex and Sel-Plex, can be beneficial to encourage the building of natural defenses.

4. Gastrointestinal system

The gastrointestinal tract has many purposes, including barrier and immune function for disease protection, as well as the breakdown, digestion and absorption of feed and water that can be translated into production parameters. The small intestine is the main area where most of the feed is digested and absorbed. To efficiently absorb feed, there must be a large surface area in the intestinal tract. Increased villi numbers and villi height help to increase the surface area for absorption. The small intestine has rapid development from 17 days of incubation to about 10 days post-placement. During this critical time, the bird’s ability to efficiently digest and absorb nutrients, in addition to mounting strong disease defenses, is developed.

5. Microbiome

Different areas of the bird have different microbiomes, such as the skin and intestinal tract. The intestinal tract microbiome is a part of the barrier function of the intestine. The stability of the microbiome involves a balancing act between the beneficial and opportunistic microbes, the latter of which are disease-causing under stress. Within a few hours of hatching, the small intestine is colonized by different bacterial groups. As the bird ages, the intestinal microflora population changes from immature to mature, reaching a stable balance within two to three weeks in the small intestine and up to six weeks in the ceca. Supporting the early establishment of a beneficial microflora community will allow villi to flourish, absorption to be maximized and the presence of pathogenic bacteria to be minimized. The diet of the bird, including nutrients and feed additives (such as Actigen, All-Lac^® XCL and Acid-Pak 4-Way^® 2X), as well as the water the bird drinks, can have an impact on the intestinal microflora. The poultry barn, especially the litter, has its own microflora that is highly influenced by the gut microflora, and vice versa. It may take several flock cycles to positively change the populations and profile of the poultry barn microflora.

When the birds are first placed in the barn, it is critical that they gain immediate access to feed and water. Supplemental feed and water are generally used to allow for easy transition to the permanent feeding and water system.

Many factors must be taken into consideration to help the birds get off to the right start during brooding, including best management practices, with particular attention to biosecurity, nutrition and health status.  

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2017 was a hard year for many producers, with many difficulties that could not have been prevented. However, the new year is an opportunity for a fresh start. Here are three simple things you can do to bounce back and make 2018 your best year yet:

STOP problems before they start — give your cattle the minerals they need.

When we see sick cattle in the field during the spring, we follow the trail of breadcrumbs back to January. Most of the time, we find that these cattle were not given the right minerals to prepare them for the winter and early spring challenges of calving and wet conditions. Alltech’s Bioplex®organic trace minerals, when combined with Sel-Plex® organic selenium, provide mineral nutrition in a form as close to nature as possible and are scientifically proven to be more bioavailable than inorganic mineral sources.

LOOK: Keep an eye out for mycotoxins.

2017’s hurricanes have left the ground wet in the southern U.S., and this can be a harbinger of mycotoxins, but don’t let this stop you from having a good year.

If you’d like to know what you are dealing with, take the Alltech 37+® mycotoxin analysis. This test checks for more than 40 different kinds of mycotoxins, detecting them before you put your cattle at risk.

SAVE time tidying your farm — leave these barrels in the pasture!

Eliminate labor and costs associated with collecting and returning steel barrels or disposing of plastic containers. The CRYSTALYX® BioBarrel® is designed with Single-Trip Container (STC^®) technology, which biodegrades naturally in the field. The end result is environmentally friendly and labor-friendly, with virtually no cleanup or disposal issues.

Because the barrel disappears, it's easy to see how much is left as you check pastures.

“The BioBarrel pays for itself,” said Felix Serna from Kingsville, Texas. “You don’t create any extra labor to go pick them up, and it’s not an eyesore because it disappears as the cattle eat the product!”

Find out where you can get BioBarrels and save time on your farm next year.

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Eggs have long been regarded as an excellent source of high-quality “complete” protein, as they contain all of the essential amino acids — dubbed “essential” because our bodies cannot synthesize them and we must get them from our diet.

But eggs are not only a great (and inexpensive!) source of protein; they have a high nutrient density, because they provide a number of nutrients in proportion to their calorie count. One egg has 13 essential vitamins and minerals in varying amounts, high-quality protein and antioxidants, all for just 70 calories.¹

Additionally, the enrichment of eggs has made it possible for consumers to get even more nutrition from each egg. Producers have begun increasing key nutrients — like selenium — in layer diets in order to increase the nutrient content of eggs. By increasing the amount of this essential mineral in the layer diet, farmers have the opportunity to naturally increase the nutritional value of the eggs that they produce.

What does this mean for consumers?

Selenium is nutritionally essential for humans — it plays a role in healthy reproduction and metabolism and may help maintain a strong immune system.^2-6 Selenium is also being studied for its potential role in reducing both the risk of cardiovascular disease and age-related decline in brain function. ^8-10  

Selenium-enriched eggs can help to fill the “nutritional gap” in our diets, delivering this essential nutrient through a food that’s delicious, inexpensive, readily accessible and easy to prepare. 

Sel-Plex® is Alltech's proprietary organic form of selenium yeast and is the first European Union-approved and only U.S. Food and Drug Administration-reviewed form of organic selenium. Sel-Plex is supported by more than 19 years of research and is now being used to enrich layer diets.

References:

1.  Egg Nutrition Center of the American Egg Board 2017
2. Sunde RA. Selenium. In: Ross AC, Caballero B, Cousins RJ, Tucker KL, Ziegler TR, eds. Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease. 11th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2012:225-37
3. Sunde RA. Selenium. In: Bowman B, Russell R, eds. Present Knowledge in Nutrition. 9th ed. Washington, DC: International Life Sciences Institute; 2006:480-97
4. Rayman MP. Selenium and human health. Lancet 2012;379:1256-68.
5. Allen NE, Appleby PN, Roddam AW, Tjonneland A, Johnsen NF, Overvad K, et al. Plasma selenium concentration and prostate cancer risk: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Am J Clin Nutr 2008;88:1567-75.
6. Combs GF, Jr and Gray WP. Chemopreventive agents: Selenium. Pharmacol Ther 1998; 79:179-92.
7. Dennert G, Zwahlen M, Brinkman M, Vinceti M, Zeegers MP, Horneber M. Selenium for preventing cancer. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2011:CD005195.
8. Rayman MP. Selenium and human health. Lancet 2012;379:1256-68.
9. Akbaraly TN, Hininger-Favier I, Carriere I, Arnaud J, Gourlet V, Roussel AM, et al. Plasma selenium over time and cognitive decline in the elderly. Epidemiology 2007;18:52-8.
10. Shahar A, Patel KV, Semba RD, Bandinelli S, Shahar DR, Ferrucci L, et al. Plasma selenium is positively related to performance in neurological tasks assessing coordination and motor speed. Mov Disord 2010;25:1909-15.

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In the U.S., pet food safety is overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). These organizations each have different roles but are closely linked. The FDA is charged by federal laws to ensure that pet food is safe and truthfully labeled.

Misbranded pet food labels are prohibited under state and federal law. According to the FDA, a truthfully labeled pet food product contains:

1. An ingredients list: everything used to make the pet food product must be listed as an ingredient and must be deemed by the FDA as safe for use.
2. Appropriate identification of the product: for example, puppy food must be formulated for the nutritional requirements of a puppy.  
3. Quantity: how much product is contained in the packaging.
4. The manufacturer’s or distributor’s name and address: to ensure traceability of the pet food product and its ingredients.

Safety and quality starts with ingredient sourcing

The pet food ingredient panel may list cereal grains such as corn, barley, rice and also seeds, legumes and fruits, ingredients that are susceptible to mold growth. If mold is present, the risk for mycotoxin presence increases significantly, and certain types of mycotoxins cause a health threat to pets through acute toxicity and chronic health issues.

Trace minerals are also listed in the ingredient panel, but the form of the trace mineral used is very important. Are they sulfates, oxides or proteinates? Inorganic trace minerals (sulfates and oxides) may be contaminated with heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium and lead, as well as environmental pollutants like PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and dioxins, carcinogenic substances that pose a health risk to pets.

Peace of mind: When it comes to safety, a step forward is better

Ingredient contamination throughout the supply chain is always possible, and avoidance and minimization of risk is achieved by checks, verifications and validation processes. These processes are all part of a food safety system designed to ensure high standards of ingredients used and total transparency from suppliers to pet food manufacturers.

Manufacturers should ensure pet food safety by sourcing ingredients from approved suppliers — those who have passed rigorous quality and food safety audits and are able to demonstrate a thorough traceability system.

Know your supplier inside out

Quality assurance control programs such as the Alltech Q+™ (Quality Plus) program and the Alltech 37+^® mycotoxin analysis are examples of programs developed by Alltech.

Alltech 37+ is designed to reduce the risk of mycotoxin contamination and improve food safety. It tests for more than 40 types of mycotoxins in one sample.

Alltech Q+ is a quality control system unique to Alltech Bioplex^® and Sel-Plex^® trace minerals. It guarantees that all incoming raw material ingredients (and final products) are tested for heavy metals, dioxins and PCBs and are rejected if they do not comply with Alltech’s standards.

When it comes to our beloved pets’ food, traceably sourced ingredients matter.

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