Anne Möddel
Team Lead Technical Sales
Dr Eckel Animal Nutrition

Dr Bernhard Eckel
Vice President
Dr Eckel Animal Nutrition

Natural feed additives score with clear improvements in performance and product quality.

Modern animal husbandry faces the challenge of balancing animal welfare and performance. Consumer expectations of healthy, high-quality food and ingredients, alongside climate constraints, limited resources, increasing resistance to medications and legal regulations, create a demanding framework for livestock farmers. Additionally, the economic need for profitability is crucial for farm sustainability. Achieving high yields and product quality while minimising medication use, especially antibiotics, can seem like a contradiction. How can we increase performance and animal welfare at the same time?

The key to resolving this conflict and achieving both goals lies in the digestive system, which significantly influences animal performance and health.

FOCUS ON THE GUT

It is no coincidence that the gut is one of the most important parts of the immune system. A disrupted gut microbiota and a damaged intestinal barrier hinder the intestine’s ability to absorb nutrients efficiently. This can lead to malnutrition and reduced feed conversion, especially in high-performing animals. External stressors and climatic factors further impair nutrient transport and reduce the absorption of essential nutrients like amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Impaired nutrient uptake and the additional energy required to cope with stress in turn reduce the energy available for growth, leading to visible consequences.

The carcass and its marketability play a central role in fattening farm profitability. Parameters such as the proportion of valuable cuts and abdominal fat content are important indicators not just for marketability but also of carcass quality. High fat content indicates stress and unbalanced feeding. The direct negative consequences of stress on growth, feed conversion, and meat quality are clearly reflected in the carcass composition – the proportion of abdominal fat and the muscle content of the breast and thighs.

FEEDING IS THE KEY

In conclusion, besides genetic potential, gut functionality for nutrient supply and stress resilience is the decisive factor for production success. This can be summarised in a simple formula: a stable and functional gut leads to better performance and quality. An optimised feeding strategy that relies on the right feed additives can achieve precisely this by improving gut function, promoting nutrient absorption, increasing stress tolerance, and supporting animal health. Phytogenic additives based on plant-based ingredients are becoming increasingly important in this area.

PHYTOGENICS PUT TO THE TEST

High-yielding animals are particularly sensitive to external factors. For example, high outside temperatures can quickly become a stressor that threatens animal health and performance. A study investigated options available to livestock farmers to counteract this and maintain animal performance. The study used chicks fed a standardised basal diet supplemented with a plant-based feed additive based on hops. Hops, with its numerous valuable properties, has been a trusted biological resource for thousands of years. For use in feed, however, it depends on the overall complex with other phytogenics in order to be able to utilise these properties successfully.

Dr Eckel Animal Nutrition’s Anta®Phyt is a phytogenic solution developed in Germany based on years of experience with phytogenics. It tackles these production challenges, supports gut health and improves growth, performance and product quality in a natural way. Numerous trials have already demonstrated the positive effects of Anta®Phyt on feed conversion, growth, and resilience. This recent study randomly divided 200 one-day-old chicks (COBB 500) into two groups. The control group received a standardised basal diet, while the treatment group received an additional 200g of Anta®Phyt per day.

Animal weight was measured weekly to determine the growth rate. Feed intake was recorded daily to calculate feed conversion. After 42 days, 10 animals from each group were selected randomly for carcass analysis, focusing on abdominal fat and the relative weight of carcass parts like breast, leg, and thigh. The results were clear.

Table 1: Higher final weight, better feed conversion ratio in broilers with Anta®Phyt

Firstly, the animals in the treatment group receiving the phytogenic additive for seven weeks had a higher final weight with a lower FCR (Feed Conversion Ratio) and achieved over 2% more carcass weight than the animals in the control group. The plant ingredients in Anta®Phyt effectively supported the digestive system, leading to better absorption and utilisation of nutrients (Table 1).

Table 2: Phytogenics bring more quality and more yield for broiler production

Secondly, these animals had a visibly higher percentage of muscle and a lower percentage of fat, resulting in better carcass quality at the end of the study (Table 2). Why is this?

The higher muscle content, a key indicator of meat quality, suggests a more efficient conversion of ingested feed into muscle mass. Improved nutrient utilisation ensures that more of the supplied proteins and energy flow directly into muscle building, increasing the proportion of muscle compared to fat tissue. Additionally, increased stress promotes fat tissue formation over muscle tissue. Since housing conditions were identical for both groups, the results suggest that the animals in the treatment group had higher nutrient utilisation and resistance and were less influenced by external factors during development.

The improved nutrient supply and better digestion in the treatment group was also reflected in another parameter that is a clear indicator of intestinal health: the bedding moisture in this group was almost 17% lower than in the control group and therefore clearly within the optimum range.

CONVINCING ADVANTAGES IN EVERY RESPECT

High performance and good animal welfare do not have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, with the right strategy, both can be effectively combined, leading to more sustainable, long-term successful, and economically stable production. Dr. Eckel’s Anta®Phyt is a valuable tool for supporting yield, feed conversion, and product quality. For more information on feeding strategies, improving digestion and animal welfare, and the optimal use of Anta®Phyt, please contact Dr. Eckel Animal Nutrition.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Anne Möddel is Team Lead Technical Sales at Dr Eckel Animal Nutrition GmbH & Co. KG and has been with the company for more than half a decade. As an agricultural science graduate with a focus on animal science and with many years of experience in the feed market, she is especially proficient in phytogenics and their use in animal nutrition. Having grown up on a large pig farm herself, she has a deep connection and understanding of the livestock industry and is the first point of contact on all technical, nutritional and in-depth questions related to phytogenics and monogastrics.

Bernhard Eckel, an agronomist holding a doctorate in animal nutrition, knows the industry from scratch. He established Dr. Eckel with Antje Eckel and was the first employee. As Vice President and Chief Technical Officer, he plays a central role in the further development of technical sales, product development and animal welfare, thus making a significant contribution to the success of the company.