More than 110 participants attended the 10th Advancia International Methionine Seminar, which was held recently in Beijing, China. Adisseo organized the event that took place before the WPSA World’s Poultry Congress. The program featured the concept of new horizons for methionine beyond its use as a building block.
Dr. Pierre-André Geraert, Adisseo’s Director Innovation Marketing, said, "After ten years of intensive scientific research, it is time to review what has been done, the progress and the remaining questions. Our Advancia 2016 addressed the additional benefits on immune system as well as the contribution of sulfur amino acids on the antioxidant metabolism and its impact on meat quality beyond its well-known ability to create proteins.”
Professor Mike Kidd, University of Arkansas, opened the seminar by reviewing the substantial progress that has been made on synthetic amino acid supplementation to improve animal protein production efficiency. He discussed the contribution of sulfur amino acids to this development.
Kate Meloche, member of Prof. Bill Dozier’s team at Auburn University, addressed extensively the requirement in sulfur amino acids for growing broilers.
On behalf of Dr. Sophie Tessereaud from INRA, France, a subject reviewed was the numerous interactions between metabolism of sulfur amino acids, methionine and cysteine, and energy, lipid and methyl metabolism.
Prof. Alain Lescure from CNRS, France, addressed the topic of thiol groups as key components of the antioxidant metabolism including biochemistry from sulfur to selenium. He showed the importance of methionine in activating myriad cellular signals.
Dr. Mario Estevez, University of Extremadura, Spain, addressed the meat quality issue and how sulfur amino acids can be involved through their antioxidant potential.
Prof. Sammy Aggrey, University of Georgia, spoke on the new area of sulfur amino acids and immunity through recent work. Indeed, methionine balance significantly affects immune capacity linked to the redox involvement of methionine and cysteine.
All participants had the opportunity to raise questions as well as recommend new areas to investigate on the potential of sulfur amino acids in poultry nutrition. The chairmen of this roundtable Mike Kidd and Yuming Guo stimulated numerous exchanges and discussions about the concept of requirements linked with better animal health and product quality.
