May 20-23, 2007
Alltech Inc.
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
The New Energy Crisis: Food, Feed, or Fuel?
Will ethanol displace gasoline or simply take food off our plates and feed from our animals?
How can new technologies help?
The shift in corn use toward fuel ethanol has wide-ranging implications for the animal feed industry in terms of feed costs, availability, and ration formulation. It also raises the crucial question of whether ethanol production might place an important human food source out of reach of the world's population, particularly the poor.
Some of these questions need immediate answers. For example, we find ourselves with an urgent need to know as much as possible about distillers by-products such as distillers dried grains, the problematic aspects of variability, and high level of mycotoxins they may contain.
If grain prices continue to increase, what energy sources will we use in the future? Alternatives of all sorts are getting a fresh look.
How far are we from having the ability to utilize cellulose? Are there new strategies to improve the use of fibrous plant material for maximizing nutrient extraction during digestion or by pre-processing?
These topics and related health and welfare issues are on the minds of livestock producers and feed manufacturers who are looking to industry and academia and asking, ''What progress is being made?''
As such, a special goal of this year's Symposium is to look at how practices, products, and programs will ultimately affect how we utilize feed energy as well as protein ingredient resources.
Join us for Alltech's 23rd International Feed Industry Symposium
The New Energy Crisis: Food, Feed, or Fuel?
Attendance is strictly by invitation only.
This Symposium is approved for ARPAS CEU
Plenary sessions
Monday, May 21
Official welcome to Lexington, Kentucky
Home of the Bluegrass and the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010.
Mayor Jim Newberry, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
The New Energy Crisis: Food, Feed or Fuel?
Will ethanol displace gasoline or simply take food off our plates and feed from our animals? An insight into how new technologies can help us create an entirely new feed industry that is totally integrated into the food and fuel area.
Dr. T. Pearse Lyons, President, Alltech
Branding your product
The key steps to attaining and retaining a marketplace.
Kevin Murphy, Director of Market Development, Food 360
The 2007 Alltech Medal of Excellence: Conquering the mycotoxin problem
Mycotoxins - the most potent hazard on our farms today - contaminate nearly 25% of the world's grains. These are present at threefold levels in distillers dried grains and in virtually every ton of feed and silage. Mycotoxins have met their match in the science of glycomics.
This year's recipients, Dr. Alexandros Yannikouris and Dr. Jean-Pierre Jouany, of L'Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), will present their work in modeling and designing strategies for eliminating the
mycotoxin risk.
Tuesday, May 22
The world's most devastating health risk: AIDS
Are there lessons we can learn for the animal feed industry, from Avian flu to new vaccinations? Some remarkable observations in Africa.
Dr. Kate Jacques, Alltech
Living to be 250 - does the fountain of youth exist?
Is there something in nutrition that will ensure good health and longevity? What is the gastrogenomic factor?
Dr. Ronan Power, Alltech
2nd Annual Global Young Animal Scientist Award
What was launched in 2006 with over 100 contenders has grown to over 300 contestants from around the world. The field has been narrowed to the final four who will compete for this prestigious award by making brief presentations. Dr. Inge Russell will present the award to the winning contestant.
Dr. Inge Russell, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland
Wednesday, May 23
Science through the looking glass
Our industry, our lives, our destiny. The three key issues: Animal health, raw material costs, mycotoxins. Creating our future by using the scientific tools of tomorrow, today. An amazing array in our nutritional toolbox.
Dr. Karl Dawson, Alltech
Designing and opening the first ever animal Nutrigenomics Center
What insights will it provide into improving both animal and human health? Feeding the gene.
Dr. Ronan Power, Alltech
Dairy and Beef Session
Facing the challenges of rising costs of raw materials. How the ethanol industry will affect the dairy and beef sectors. The future of the dairy industry globally. Is it natural, is it organic?
Topics will include:
• The role of nucleotides in rapidly-growing animals. Re-thinking heifer development: Faster growth on less feed with less waste.
• Trials from two coasts with one conclusion: Improving dairy herd reproductive function and productivity with Sel-Plex supplementation. Is 5-7% more milk feasible?
• Selenium status: Its impact on lactation performance.
• A corn belt with no corn: Facing a future of dwindling corn supplies. Meeting the new challenges of feeding dairy cattle.
• Mycotoxins on farm: Summer pastures and endophytes. How the patented product MTB-100 can help.
• Building less expensive rations: Overcoming waterborne antagonists'' interaction on mineral absorption and effectiveness. Practical studies using Bioplex minerals.
• Maintaining aerobic stability: The strategies for turning down the heat in silage, the cheapest raw material on a farm.
• Farming in Arizona: Coping with the environmental stresses of heat. A comparison of nutritional and management solutions when dealing with a herd producing 20,000 lbs. of milk.
• The nitrogen platform of precision feeding for precision performance. Improving the value of distillers dried grains in ruminant diets by providing an alternative nitrogen source.
• Understanding the significance of genomics in reproduction and its impact on profitability.
• From fad to niche market to mainstream: Organic milk production. How we can tap into this emerging marketplace by adding value.
• One year of practical experience with Optigen across Europe and the Americas. How can this technology improve utilization of distillers dried grains, lower costs, and reduce nitrogen waste?
Pig Session
The future pig producer - assailed on one side by rising costs, on the other by environmental concerns. Will an increase in feed costs result in a decline in pig meat production at a time when the world needs more protein?
Topics will include:
• Feeding minerals to maximize performance and minimize pollution: What we have learned over the last few years about redefining mineral nutrition. Time for action!
• Organic trace mineral forms: A new paradigm for defining requirements - the Australian experience.
• Feeding the infant pig like a human infant. Three new concepts: Nucleotides, glutamates, and inositol.
• The new rules of pig production: Higher production with lower costs, lower costs with higher grain prices, higher profitability with lower pollution.
• Global acceptance of Sel-Plex® - What does it mean for vitamin E and do we need to redefine B-vitamin requirements?
• The key to a successful pig operation: Maximizing fertility in sows and boars - changing our strategy in line with new technology and higher raw material costs.
• Utilizing feed by-products: Dodging the mycotoxin bullet.
• Enteric disease: Opportunities with fibrous distillers dried grains.
• Building critical trace mineral reserves for immune defense and reproduction.
• Circovirus: How did it spread so far so fast? Control and prevention.
• Controlling nitrogen and phosphorous excretion and existing diet formulations with Allzyme®SSF.
• Improving reproductive performance with Bioplex minerals and Sel-Plex®: The Brazilian experience.
• Challenges of alternative raw materials for pig diets: from Asia to the USA.
Poultry Session
With an increase of $10 per ton of grain, representing one cent per dozen eggs or four cents per kilo of meat, how can poultry feed a protein-hungry world?
Topics will include:
• Breeder nutrition: A look at recent developments - challenging the status quo.
• The intestinal brush border - where profits are made or lost.
• Lessons from human nutrition: Nucleotides, glutamates, and inositol - improving pre-starter diets for broilers with nucleotides.
• The relationship between trace mineral nutrition and high quality broiler meat.
• Omega-3 fatty acids in broiler breeder diets - fad or future?
• Chick quality and breeder rations: Insights from Europe''s largest breeder company - how the start dictates the finish.
• A perspective from the wild: Domestic vs. wild bird egg mineral deposition - lessons on the key role of Sel-Plex® in lowering costs.
• The future: Veterinary and nutritional sciences working in concert. New training concepts involving postmortems and gut integrity.
• The health implications of broiler litter: Reducing E. coli in broiler litter
with Bio-Mos®.
• Coccidia: A critical control point. As time runs out, will we have a natural alternative to arsenicals?
• The possibility of the world producing more distillers dried grains from ethanol plants than from soy protein. What can we do with this fiber-rich protein source, and in what ways are we limited?
• The art of solid state fermentation becomes a science: Converting cellulose into energy. Its use in the feed industry.
Equine Session
Feeding for peak athletic performance. Preparing animals for sporting events. Novel concepts. The impact of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010.
Topics will include:
• The genetics of equine performance: Toward science-based breeding and selection? How the gene chip may help.
• Commitment to the future: Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010.
• The polytrack: Moving toward the safest possible racetrack in an era of public awareness.
• Doping and medication control: Programs and practices.
• The changing equine industry: Implications for education and research in training the nutritionists of the future.
• Laminitis: A veterinarian''s nightmare - lessons from the tragedy of the Kentucky Derby winner, Barbaro. Redefining mineral usage in equine diets.
• A new degree in equine nutrition and management at the University of Kentucky: What will be the educational requirement in the future?
• The U.S. horse industry: Nine million horses with an average animal cost of $3,000 USD - $160 billion dollar economic impact.
Companion Animal Session
Addressing challenges from mycotoxins to cancer, from longevity to appearance. Companion animals, for whom standards and demands are closer to humans than livestock.
Topics will include:
• A new topic of concern for the pet owner: GIT integrity.
• How nutrition can balance gut microbial population.
• Obesity: A problem for pets as much as for humans. Can gene expression help us understand how to control it?
• Food and behavior: Are they related? Does good food make a good dog? What properties are important?
• Companion bird nutrition: Art or science?
• Panel evaluations: How they are used to evaluate palatability and ''healthiness'' of foods. Getting at the truth. • Convenience, enjoyment, and health: Parallels between marketing human and pet foods.
• Cancer: What we have learned from humans and the applications for pets. Models for prevention.
• Egg selenium deposition is much higher in wild birds: A clue for improving companion bird diets?
• Form defines function: The role of Bio-Mos® in companion animals.
Aquaculture Sessions
With a $1 billion monthly deficit in fish, ever-changing raw materials, and escalating prices, what guidelines should we follow as we diversify species and methods used in aquaculture?
Topics will include:
• Organic aquaculture production: The pitfalls in this growing market and a growing role for NuPro® and nucleotides.
• Recognizing the reality of the aquaculture mycotoxin problem: Searching for a common and effective solution. • Why do different species absorb minerals differently? Comparative mineral nutrition.
• Sel-Plex® and Bioplex® trace minerals: Health and environmental progress.
• Organic iron and zinc: A new paradigm for meeting sea bass requirements and implications for health.
• Designing aquaculture feeds using new technologies. The fish meal crisis - necessity is the mother of invention.
• Livability, disease defense, and nutrition. Sea bass and sea bream experience with Bio-Mos®.
• Gene expression: The new tool for manipulating nutritional strategies in fish.
• Selenium and aqua nutrition: Half a century behind us - are there lessons for the future?
• Reducing reliance on fishmeal with NuPro® in Atlantic salmon diets.
• Gut health: The key to any successful aquaculture program.