Issue 3 of All About Feed now available online

Electrification has been a buzzword for some time in many industries. In transport, the superior efficiency and lower operational costs of electrical drive-trains have already triggered a revolution. In home and office-construction, electrical heat pumps have proven that connections to the natural gas grid are no longer required. Feed equipment company Geelen Counterflow in the Netherlands further studied the principle of recovering energy from the exhaust air and re-use this for feed drying. The electric dryer developed was tested extensively in 2016 at 1:8 pilot scale, connected to an operational 11 mtph extrusion line in a super-premium pet food plant. Read more on page 6 of this issue.

Canola meal in pig diets

In this issue of All About Feed we also take a look at the use of canola meal (CM). This feed ingredient offers an alternative in swine diet as it is a cost-effective protein source. In a preference trial, weaned pigs were offered a choice between a soybean meal (SBM) based control diet and CM at 5-20% inclusion level. Results indicated that pigs preferred to eat the SBM based control diet more than any of the diets containing CM. There was also a significant reduction in the amount of feed consumed when the CM inclusion level was increased from 5 to 20%. More trials are discussed in this article on page 12 of this issue.

Previous studies reported that canola meal can be used to replace only up to 50% of the supplemental protein from soybean meal in grower pigs. Photo: Dreamstime

Formaldehyde ban and Salmonella

Since the start of 2018, the use of formaldehyde in poultry feed has been banned in the European Union. Formaldehyde can no longer be used as a preservative and hygiene condition enhancer, potentially increasing Salmonella risks. The decision to ban formaldehyde, which will be published in the Official Journal in due course, brings an end to a complex tale of U-turns and an indecision. The Commission originally recommended re-authorisation of the chemical but member states were unable to come to an agreement for two years. The current ban comes just a week after the European Centre of Disease Control said in a report that after years of decline, Salmonella cases attributed to poultry, were on the rise. Read more about this issue in the cover story on page 22 of this issue.

Following reclassification of formaldehyde from a biocide to a feed additive in 2013, the European Commission supported re-authorisation. Photo: Hans Prinsen

Also in this issue:

• Review of the Victam Asia
• Ruminants: different needs, different feed

• Full focus on health pig production systems

• Interview with Dominique Cantin, CEO of Asserva

• Avian influenza impact on South African feed sector