All living organisms, including farm animals, must adapt to their environment and defend themselves against threats. For livestock producers, this translates into challenges related to animal health, stress and ecological footprint, all of which can directly impact profitability.

High yielding animals such as dairy cows, laying hens and sows must cope with a variety of stress factors, including pathogenic infection, heat and social stress. Animals adapt themselves to unfavorable environmental conditions by activating defense mechanisms at the expense of production functions like growth and reproduction. This results in lower productivity and a significantly higher environmental footprint.

Inflammation is part of the body's natural defense mechanism. It is the reaction by which the immune system recognizes and removes harmful and foreign stimuli and begins the healing process. While inflammation is a crucial function for every organism, the level of inflammation (whether acute or chronic) and its root cause can have a potentially significant negative impact on animal performance, as any kind of stress or external aggression can induce acute inflammation as a first immune response.

Excessive inflammation that is slow to resolve can lead to chronic inflammation, which can be described as an overreaction of the body that can last for prolonged periods of several months to years.

The inflammation process is extremely demanding on the metabolic function, as it diverts a significant amount of energy and essential nutrients away from other functions. When the environment is favorable, available resources are primarily used by animals for growth and reproduction. However, in hostile environments with chronic inflammation, resources are shifted away from growth and reproduction to maintenance programs. The consequence is poor feed intake and a lower productivity yield (growth, egg or milk), which ultimately leads to productivity decline and carbon footprint increases.

One key aspect for breeders is making sure their animals do not develop chronic inflammation syndrome to ensure good health and maximize the animals’ performance and energy efficiency.

Flavonoids are secondary plant metabolites. This large molecule family of more than 8,000 compounds has been investigated to understand their metabolic effects and it has been scientifically reported that some flavonoids, in particular a select few, have an anti-inflammatory effect by targeting specific biochemical pathways.

PhytriCare® IM is an aroma premix of carefully selected plant extracts with a minimum content of 10% flavonoids. The plant extract selection covering several flavonoid subclasses is known to affect a wide range of inflammatory pathways modulating but not suppressing the inflammatory response, as the regular immune response should never be jeopardized. Furthermore, the flavonoids in PhytriCare® IM are small enough to ensure good digestibility and absorption compared to other less digestible compounds.

In addition to ensuring an efficient diet formulation and healthy gut, it is important for producers to take a holistic approach to their animal production system to achieve their goals.

PhytriCare® IM can withstand the feed production process, including the pelleting stage, making it the ideal and sustainable solution for today’s animal feed industry.