DSM recently conducted a Balancius research trial

DSM Animal Nutrition and Health recently conducted a research trial on the use of Balancius.

DSM Animal Nutrition and Health — a global science-based company focused on nutrition, health and sustainable living — recently conducted a research trial on the use of Balancius, a broiler feed ingredient designed to support gastrointestinal functionality by potentially overcoming the problems typically associated with peptidoglycans. The trial evaluated broilers, raised to 56 days, in different phases of a feeding program.

April Levy, Ph.D., regional technical services director for DSM, says this trial allowed DSM to take a closer look at the benefits of Balancius at every stage of a feeding program — from 0 to 56 days.

“In more than 50 studies completed throughout the world, Balancius has shown to significantly improve feed conversion, but we wanted to understand exactly where those improvements are found in a phased feeding program. The goal being to better target the duration of Balancius,” says Levy.

768 one-day-old male, Cobb 500 broilers were allocated to a total of 48 pens and fed four different diets: a control, Balancius fed during starter and grower only (0 to 28 days), Balancius in the starter, grower and finisher feeds (0 to 42 days) and Balancius in starter, grower, finisher and withdrawal feeds (0 to 56 days).

At the end of the grower phase (day 28), birds fed Balancius had better gains and feed conversions than the control group. At the end of the finisher phase (day 42), the birds who stayed on the Balancius diet continued to have better gains and feed conversions than the control birds. Conversely, birds that had Balancius removed at 28 days had performance that was no longer significantly different from the control. At the end of day 56, birds fed Balancius throughout the study had the best body weight (BW), gains and feed conversions.

In a recent DSM interview, Levy summarized what these results mean for producers.

“If you want to have the continued body weight gain and feed conversion, you have to continually feed Balancius. If it’s pulled out of the feed at the end of the finisher phase, you don’t continue to have that performance response.”

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