Some further thoughts on this study…
An improvement of 4.4% in the broilers’ Live Weight Gain was measured when Vitamin E as 100 ppm of “standard Vitamin E” (dl-α-tocopheryl acetate) was added to the feed.
In comparison, an improvement of 5.6% in the broilers’ Live Weight Gain was measured when Vitamin E as 20 ppm standard Vitamin E + 10 ppm of TPM was added to the feed.
Replacing 80 ppm standard Vitamin E with just 10 ppm TPM and improving on performance sounds good, but I questioned whether anyone would use as much as 100 ppm of Vitamin E in broiler feed.
I checked a copy of the 2016 Vitamin Supplementation Guidelines for Animal Nutrition put out by global vitamin and specialty feed additives supplier and world’s largest manufacturer of Vitamin E, DSM.
The guidelines divide the broiler life cycle into three phases. For starter broilers (1-10 days), supplementation of 150-200 mg/kg (ppm) of Vitamin E is recommended and it is suggested that the levels be increased to up to 300 ppm for optimum immune function. For both grower broilers (11-24 days), and finisher broilers (25 days-market), supplementation of 50-100 ppm of Vitamin E is recommended and it is suggested that up to 200 ppm be used for birds under heat stress conditions and for optimum meat quality.
DSM says that its vitamin guidelines are based on the most recent research for the usage levels of major producers as well as genetic progress with new breeds and that the guidelines reflect changing husbandry, management and feeding conditions.
So use of 100ppm of Vitamin E in broiler feed would certainly appear to fall within the supplementation guidelines and therefore be a fair comparison.
That just leaves the issue of comparative cost. I doubt that we’ll be enlightened on this but I also strongly doubt that Ross Murdoch would be chasing in this direction without first having done the sums. He has previously stated (in his Redchip interview) that TPM as a feed additive in animal health has strong margins, presents “a really strong value proposition” and has already received interest from several potential partners. He also noted at this year’s AGM that a leading animal nutrition company had indicated that the industry uses up to 50 million kg of Vitamin E per year.
DSM’s current Vitamin E feed additive is dl-α-tocopheryl acetate based (that is, the standard Vitamin E with which TPM was compared in the trial). It has ~ 30% of the global specialty feed additives market and 85% of its market is in poultry, swine and ruminants, in that order of importance.
https://www.dsm.com/content/dam/dsm/anh/en_US/documents/Vitamin_Supp_Guidelines.pdf
http://www.asp-inc.com/products/documents/prodinfo/e/E50.pdf
https://www.dsm.com/content/dam/dsm...nfo_Enhancing_Meat_Quality_with_Vitamin_E.pdf
https://www.dsm.com/corporate/investors.html
(20min delay)