Green technologies for poultry

Technology exists to keep animal agriculture productive and make it more sustainable, says Alltech's director of worldwide research.

Gary Thornton

June 23, 2009

Dr. Karl Dawson

While demand for animal proteins is rapidly growing, by 2050 this growth is expected to double in volume presenting ecological and environmental challenges for the animal production industry. This leaves many wondering, will animal agriculture be part of the greenest generation or the grimmest generation?

That's the challenge posed to over 1,700 animal agriculture professionals who attended Alltech's International Animal Health and Nutrition Symposium, where the company's director of worldwide research, Dr. Karl Dawson, said technology exists to keep animal agriculture productive and make it more sustainable.

"The livestock industry's role in solving these problems is as important as anything we will do in agriculture," he said. Dawson outlined nine technologies that can keep animal agriculture productive and sustainable.

1. Nutrient management strategies

Sustainable nutrient management strategies go beyond balancing nutrition to get the most efficient production from the system. Not merely changing nutrient levels, sustainable systems synchronize nutrients and use appropriate forms of nutrients and minerals, something that can decrease waste while increasing productivity. "It is a proven concept showing that you can decrease waste and increase productivity by synchronizing or changing the form of the nutrients going into that system so that it is fully synchronized," he said.

"A simple change in the form of a mineral, for example, can dramatically change required inputs," he said. "And by using the appropriate form of a mineral, excretion can be reduced by 75 percent."

2. Supplementation strategies

Economics usually drive supplementation strategies but can be used to decrease environmental impact. These include the use of functional carbohydrates, the use of microbial supplementation, strategic use of minerals and strategic use of antimicrobials. Strategies like this can improve the efficiency of livestock production by up to 25 percent.

3. Sequestering waste materials

Technologies that capture waste and convert it to energy represent new sources of income, not only in the form of the energy harvested and in the form of carbon credits.

4. Novel waste management systems

Advanced technologies for manure handling, which include aerobic, composting and biofilm reaction systems, have been shown in some cases to result in a 99 percent reduction in greenhouse gasses from swine production units. Their use can yield carbon credits and additional income for livestock producers.

5. Developing green feed processing systems

These include enzyme treatments and microbial fermentation systems. Some produce novel high-value ingredients like carbon dioxide, algae and carbohydrates. Microbial proteins from yeast could replace fishmeal as a feed ingredient.

6. The biorefinery

The integration of different components in a biorefinery can produce less waste and produce designer feeds using natural chemistry. For example, algae, which sequesters carbon dioxide, can produce a new "crop" every five days for use as an animal feed.

7. Enzyme and microbial biotechnology

Enzyme and microbial biotechnologies allow the use of orphan crop and agricultural byproducts (corncobs, wood products, dried distillers grain solubles) as raw materials for feedstock production. This improves the efficiency of livestock production systems.

8. Microbial systems for detoxification

These technologies could make previously toxic feedstuffs available for animal production. Deteriorated or contaminated feed could be rendered wholesome, resulting in an increase in available feeds. Known toxins could be sequestered in feeds.

9. Advanced monitoring technologies

New analytical tools (such as NIR biosensors) used to monitor the health and nutrition of animals can improve efficiency and nutrient utilization.

Live animal production is influential to the quality of the atmosphere, land and soil, water and the planet's biodiversity. While challenges exist, livestock production can also be an important source of solutions. These solutions, Dr. Dawson says, could be addressed at reasonable costs.

Dr. Dawson asks: Is carbon dioxide really the problem?

About 18 percent of greenhouse gasses are associated with livestock production. That's measured in CO2 equivalents. That's the equivalent amount of heat retained by CO2. While there's emphasis on methane control in the livestock industry, few people think about nitrous oxide.

The CO2 exchange is somewhat irrelevant to the livestock industry. CO2 is the third largest greenhouse gas in the livestock industry. The top two, in fact, are methane and nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide persists; it sticks around for about 120 years, 300 times longer than CO2. Methane also generates a great amount of heat retention.

Livestock production accounts for about 37 percent of the methane that comes from human-related greenhouse gas production. It comes from manure and the enteric system of the animal. The digestive process, itself, creates that methane.

Nitrous oxide (considered to be laughing gas) isn't so funny when it gets into the atmosphere. It's a very potent heat-retaining compound in terms of the atmosphere and the environment. It's very persistent, and the livestock industry accounts for 65 percent of the nitrous oxide released into the environment.

This is a tremendous problem that we don't really think about, but it is truly an opportunity. Now we have a way to start thinking about changing the systems and our impact on the environment by looking at that particular compound. Every nutritionist thinks about protein metabolism, what we're doing with it, but we don't think much about the waste in it. But it is there, and there is a role for animal agriculture in thinking about that problem."