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Olmix on 15 October, organised the Immuno'Science forum dedicated to immunity and gut health in Porto

The forum which was enriched by the presence of representatives from 14 different countries brought together international keynote speakers covering various species such as poultry, swine, ruminants, and aquaculture. The attendees could discover the potential of seaweed and yeasts technologies to provide solutions to reinforce immune response and gut health. 

Poultry session

In his multidisciplinary research, Dr Rami Dalloul, the R. Harold Harrison distinguished professor of Poultry Science at the University of Georgia in Athens, focuses on areas investigating host-pathogen interactions during enteric challenges, particularly coccidiosis and clostridial diseases in chicken and turkey. 

In his talk, entitled 'Enteric defenses in poultry: dynamics and potential modulation,' Dr Dalloul gave a comprehensive overview of the birds’ immune system, and introduced the unique bacterial and parasitic co-infection model developed in his lab, to mimic a necrotic enteritis (NE) challenge. He also summarised the results that several nutritional strategies targeting immunity, gut integrity and microbiota obtained using this model, opening the floor to Olmix speaker, Maria Garcia, immunity product manager, to present the results obtained using this coinfection model with Algimun, a seaweed based solution. 

In this trial on broilers, Algimun not only improved performance but also significantly reduced the inflammatory response and enhanced gut integrity, thereby indicating Algimun's ability to improve broiler performance and combat the negative effects of NE. 

Swine session

In his presentation, Nicolas Bertho, a senior scientist at INRAE in France provided an overview of key swine immunology concepts. He revisited previous collaborative research with Olmix and shared findings from the ongoing immunity project ONIRIS which focuses on the effects of oral seaweed extracts (MSP) supplementation during the delivery of an attenuated PRRSV vaccine. The study highlights that this supplementation modulates systemic inflammatory cytokines and improves the anti-PRRSV humoral response. 

Following his presentation, Francisco Rocha Pinto, product manager for the Vet range at Olmix, discussed the positioning and application of Searup in swine. A number of experiments have been carried out on Searup. Two types of effects namely short-term pro-inflammatory response and long-term anti-inflammatory and antiviral benefits have been observed on two types of immune cells: monocytes and alveolar macrophages. A second experiment also noted an enhanced immune response that was observed when Searup was administered one day before and two days after vaccination. A third and final experiment is planned for 2025, where further promising results from oral seaweed supplementation are anticipated to address the significant challenges posed by PRRS. 

Ruminant session

During his presentation, Matteo Mezzetti, who holds a PhD from the Doctoral School in the Agro-Food System Agrisystem brought interesting and deep information on the inflammation during the transition period and all the consequences on early lactation, health and performing in dairy cows. Matteo presented several nutritional strategies that can be used as tools to promote proper immune functions of the cows.

After Matteo’s presentation, Elise Nacer-Khodja, product specialist at Olmix, presented field applications of Algimun in dairy cows in heat stress conditions, in which the benefits of using Algimun during the transition period of dairy cows were highlighted. This included lower inflammatory status and improved immune response around calving, resulting in a higher milk production during the 3 first months of lactation.

Aqua session

Professor and head of the Aquaculture and Fisheries group at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, Dr Geert Wiegertjes in his presentation entitled 'Immunomodulation in aquaculture: managing expectations' provided deep insights into the challenges that affect fish health in aquaculture and an overview of the components of the immune system and mucosal barrier function. 

Following the presentation, Raquel Pereira, aqua specialist at Olmix, gave an overview of Algimun effects on fish and shrimp immune response and growth performance in both scientific and commercial conditions, highlighting how Algimun reinforces natural defenses in a complete approach, promoting systemic immunomodulation and mucosal barrier functions (gut, skin and gills).

By promoting overall health status and improving animal performance in different contexts, particularly in challenging conditions, Olmix has demonstrated to be a reliable partner and supplier of natural solutions to support the growth and sustainability of modern livestock farming stakeholders.  

AgroCares and Trouw Nutrition have announced the renewal of their NutriOpt On-site Adviser agreement, aiming to provide real-time, comprehensive nutritional insights that can directly benefit farms’ and feed mills’ operational efficiencies, economics and sustainability efforts

Combining Trouw Nutrition’s institutional knowledge and nutrient database with AgroCares’ proprietary portable NIR scanner technology, the partnership aims to provide real-time, comprehensive nutritional insights that can directly benefit farms’ and feed mills’ operational efficiencies, economics and sustainability efforts.

Leveraging Trouw Nutrition’s extensive nutrient knowledge and database, the NutriOpt On-Site Adviser can assess raw ingredients and finished feed for a specific species in less than five minutes. Species-specific nutrients are available for swine, ruminants, and poultry. New hardware developed and manufactured by AgroCares empowers farmers and feed producers to apply the nutrient profile of raw materials, silages and complete feed to make species-specific decisions.

Trusted by thousands of farmers and feed producers worldwide, the NutriOpt On-site Adviser helps producers meet market demands, such as information on the environmental footprint of food production. Henri Hekman, CEO of AgroCares, remarked that the technology draws on the innate strengths and market leadership of each partner.

The renewed contractual agreement reflects both partners’ commitment to make the equipment and nutritional data insights available to even more businesses worldwide. Ultimately, the collaboration aims to accelerate feed management, feed efficiency, sustainability and farm profitability for users, while aligning with both partners’ continued ambitions to invest in innovation and sustainability.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with AgroCares, whose technology has been instrumental in delivering the precision and reliability our customers expect. Our joint efforts have already made significant impacts in the industry to date, and we are committed to driving further innovations that benefit both our customers and the planet,” stated Hekman. “We are convinced that our species focused knowledge/ingredient profile offers the opportunity to further boost precision nutrition.”

NutriOpt Technologies was also one of the exhibitors at EuroTier 2024 which took place from 12-15 November in Hanover, Germany.

Specialist agricultural investor AgDevCo has announced its latest invstment into the farmer-owned business Agventure to help the latter expand its canola oil and seed processing business in Kenya

Comprising a collective of farmers, researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs working to model, promote, and share regenerative production methods throughout the food system, Agventure's objective is to enable Kenyan farmers to develop more sustainable farming practices.

AgDevCo’s mezzanine loan of US$9.5mn will enable Agventure to continue to develop its canola oil production capabilities, which sells oil under the Pure Mountain brand in Kenya, allowing the company to increase its volumes purchased from outgrower farmers. It will also help to build Agventure Seed’s platform to supply high quality certified seed to farmers.

“We are excited to be supporting Agventure in its journey to add more value commodity crops, which increases the availability of high quality, locally produced food for the domestic market and reduces reliance on imports,” said AgDevCo’s managing director for East Africa, Rebecca Sankar. The company's vision is a thriving commercial agriculture sector, which benefits both people and planet by investing in and supporting agribusinesses to grow. 

Global precision agronomy platform, CropX recently announced its new digital connection with global agri machinery manufacturer, CLAAS, allowing users of CLAAS equipment to bring their machine data into CropX for visualisation, analysis, and creation of variable rate application tasks

The CropX agronomic farm management system combines data gathered from satellites and the field with agronomic knowledge and advanced AI-assisted machine learning to offer a comprehensive understanding of what is happening in the soil.

Users receive a snapshot of field conditions and receive recommendations on irrigation timing and quantity, nitrogen leaching, and fungal disease crop protection. In addition, users can import data from the world's most popular agricultural machinery brands, of which CLAAS is the latest. The data can be visualised and used to create maps for variable rate application of seeding, fertigation, and irrigation, and harvest yield maps can be added for planning future seasons.

"With CLAAS Connect and the new interface with CropX, we offer our joint customers enhanced interoperability between systems," said Wolf-Christian von Wendorff, SVP of Global Digital Solutions at CLAAS. "The seamless integration of agronomic data into the CropX platform enables customers to boost their productivity through informed decision-making, thereby enhancing the efficiency of practices such as irrigation."