Avimalt use extended to ruminants and maize-soya rations

Launched in 2006 and initially intended for poultry fed on wheat-soya rations, Avimalt has been the subject of numerous animal feed trials, at various scales and on a number of species, on several of the world’s continents.

 

The most recently conducted trials, which look to be highly conclusive, confirmed the advantages of Avimalt in animal feed for ruminants, and open up a highly promising future for the product, which is now meeting increasing commercial success.

 

Avimalt is made from malted wheat and wheat bran naturally fermented by a micro-organism of the Aspergillus niger family (non GM).

 

Avimalt Plus, a more concentrated formula developed in 2009, comes in the form of meal which is easily incorporated into animal feed.

 

Because of their complementary feedstuff status, both products can now be used for all species, both within the European Union and beyond.

 

The Soufflet Group, which gained the backing of Champagne-Ardenne Regional Council and of the FEDER European funds to develop its range of innovative products, regularly shares the results obtained with its feed distributor and manufacturer customers.

 

For broiler chickens fed on maize-soya rations, an industrial trial conducted by a customer in Taiwan early in 2009 on 64,700 broilers showed over 36 days an improvement in feed conversion of about 2% compared to the control.

 

In South Africa, another trial on the same type of ration showed an improvement of over 5% in FCR and a 2% improvement in average daily weight gain.

 

A station trial conducted at France’s national agricultural research institute INRA in summer 2010 showed a 3% improvement in FCR.

 

For beef cattle, an on-farm trial conducted in Alsace (France) on young Charolais bulls demonstrated an increase in average net daily gain of +10% compared to a negative control.

 

An ambitious programme of trials in ruminants is under way with the first results becoming available in the course of 2011.

 

The Avimalt range is produced with the expertise of the Soufflet Group, which is specialised in the collection and first conversion of cereals, and its Lyven subsidiary, one of the world main specialists in solid state fermentation.

 

The Soufflet Group, which wants to develop a new biotechnology sector centred on solid state fermentation and its applications, has initiated a €77M research programme, entitled Osiris, running over nine years (2008-2017) that is supported by the French OSEO agency.

 

The programme extends from the selection of micro-organisms through to the main applications which are ethanol, animal feed, nutrition-health and bio-protection of plants. It will also include an investigation of fermentation processes.

 

The Osiris project is interesting and original because it covers in parallel crops to finished products, biochemistry and for example animal performance trials.

 

In animal feed, the goal of Soufflet is to develop a range of functional raw materials that enable better added value from other raw materials such as by-products from biofuels.

 

The Avimalt range, which will be further developed for more animal species, can be considered as the precursor of the Osiris programme.

 

The Soufflet Group is France’s top private collector of cereals, with 3,372,000 tonnes of cereals collected in France and almost one million tonnes abroad.

 

The Champagne based cereal group employs more than 3,700 staff in fifteen countries, and in 2010 had sales of nearly €2.5 billion.

 

In the food and agriculture sector is specialised in the first conversion of cereals. With 37 plants in France and across Europe, the group is one of the major players on the world malt market and Europe’s top miller.

 

It also operates on the world’s cereal markets through its subsidiary Soufflet Négoce (the trading arm).

 

Avimalt is produced by solid state fermentation at a Soufflet Group malt plant at Arcis-sur-Aube in France’s Champagne-Ardenne region.

 

The production site has been GMP + B2 certified since May 2009, and the fermented malted wheat and wheat bran are themselves registered on the Dutch Product Board for Animal Feeds (PDV) positive list.

 

Lyven is Soufflet subsidiary specialised in producing enzymes by solid state fermentation, and markets the Avimalt range as well as the Feedlyve range of enzymes.

 

This range includes two enzyme complexes reinforced with xylanases and betaglucanases authorised in Europe for broilers, plus an alpha-galactosidase and a galactomananase more specifically designed for maize-soya rations.

 

For further information on Avimalt you can meet the Soufflet Group and its Lyven subsidiary at the VIV Asia trade fair from 9 to 11 March 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand.

 

Also read: Soufflet: A new player on the performance feed market