Glacier FarmMedia � Preventing disease in poultry has new urgency, as recent outbreaks of avian influenza in North America and other parts of the world have shown. Now there�s good news from research by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, which...

Glacier FarmMedia � Preventing disease in poultry has new urgency, as recent outbreaks of avian influenza in North America and other parts of the world have shown.

Now there�s good news from research by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, which shows a link between improved gut health and disease prevention in chickens by feeding cranberry and blueberry pomace. Pomace is the solid remainder of fruit and berries after they�ve been pressed for juice.

Why it matters: Healthy broiler chicks have higher productivity and lower reliance on antibiotics.

Moussa Sory Diarra, a research scientist with AAFC�s Guelph Research and Development Centre, has been studying the effect of polyphenols, a group of compounds found in the pomace of the two berries.

The antimicrobial and antioxidant properties have shown promising results in disrupting the growth of pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli, which can cause severe illness and death.

Recently, the terms �microbiota� and �microbiome� have been added to the vocabulary of everything from human and animal gut health to soil health. Diarra and his team have been exploring the role of �good� and �bad� bacteria in a chicken�s microbiota/microbiome, trying to establish the right balance so birds can better defend themselves against harmful bacteria and parasites.

They believe they have found the answer in berry pomace.

�The collaborative work of our laboratory and the industry led to the characterization of berry pomaces showing their contents in carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, minerals and several phenolic compounds, including anthocyanins and flavanols,� says Diarra.

�Pomace is added to feed as a prophylactic or preventative additive with the aim of modulating the gut microbiota to improve health, immunity and growth performance of birds.�

Turning berry pomace into a value-added feed component could reduce waste.

The use of pomace has not extended to remedial or treatment aspects but with improved immunity, it could reduce the disease threat to poultry when infected by pathogenic microbes.

Some of the numbers

Diarra and his team tested different pomace inclusion levels, from 3.5 per cent down to 0.5 per cent. The latest trials compared one per cent against 0.5 per cent inclusion and found the pomace of each berry has its own biochemical and physiological advantages and drawbacks at different stages of broiler development.

More research on optimum feed levels is needed, although Diarra believes they�ve made progress since starting the research on berries and poultry in 2005.

Use of berry pomace is a potentially transformative concept for the poultry sector, helping to maintain or improve chickens� health while decreasing antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance.

�We developed innovative pilot scale techniques capable of generating substantial amounts of value-added shelf-stable berry bioactive products,� says Diarra.

A main benefit from use of berry pomaces is the reduction in early chick mortalities due to gastrointestinal illnesses such as necrotic enteritis, he said.

�The costs incurred by farmers due to sick bird syndromes and mortalities translate to upwards of millions of dollars in lost revenue and close to $6 billion to global poultry production.�

Use of berry pomace as a feed additive is also a value-added component for Canadian berry producers, who traditionally dispose of it. Fruit processing in Canada results in roughly 38.1 million tonnes of fruit waste annually, potentially contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and groundwater contamination.

�There are still unanswered questions in our research which need pursuing, including investigating the variations in effects of inclusion levels on the performance of chickens and microbial population alteration,� says Diarra.

�As well, we�re looking into the plasma and cellular bioavailability and metabolism of polyphenols in birds.�

Among the fruit producers who participated in Diarra�s research were Fruit d�Or of Villeroy, Quebec, Wild Berries Association of North America and Van Dyk Blueberries from Nova Scotia.

Rosebank Farms in B.C. and the Deschambault Animal Science Research Centre were the primary farm collaborators.

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