Advancia explores amino acids in young animals

“We decided to focus our 2012 seminar on the first steps of animal growth. Our motto was: Feeding the young animals: the challenge of the nutritionist for the best start of growth!” said Dr Pierre-André Geraert, Director Innovation Marketing at Adisseo.

“Our aim with specialists from this field was to better understand the changes faced by the young animals in the early phases as well as to revisit their needs in amino acids and the efficiency of methionine”.

Dr Michel Duclos (INRA, France) and Prof Eddy Decuypere (KUL, Belgium) set the scene of this Advancia 2012 seminar by giving a deep insight into the physiology of the muscle satellite cells as key players in muscle development post-hatch and into the hormonal and physiological context from the breeder to the early days post hatch, respectively.

Prof Horacio Rostagno illustrated such physiological needs by updating participants with his latest results on the amino acid requirements of young chicks.

He further demonstrated the need to revisit the requirement to take into account the higher growth potential of present breeds as well as its consequence on muscle growth and particularly breast meat deposition.

Prof Zhenfeng Fang (SAU, China) focused on the impact of the maternal feeding on the young piglet, showing the strong influence of the amino acid nutrition of the sow on the litter growth.

The final impact of dietary amino acids on muscle amino acid composition was also clearly demonstrated by Dr Alberto Conde-Aguilera (INRA, France).

Completing previous information, he illustrated the rapid change of muscle amino acid composition with dietary amino acid modifications prior to slaughter. Such rapid effect could even be better valued on muscle properties and potentially meat quality.

Advancia, the Scientific and Technical Community launched by Adisseo in 2007 gathers worldwide scientists and nutritionists to share research progresses on amino acids showing that these nutrients and particularly sulphur amino acids are involved not only in growth performance but also in various metabolic functions: anti-oxidant potential and animal health, as well as, meat quality and its technological properties.