Prairie Plant Systems Inc. is looking to develop new technologies that have the potential to replace antibiotics in animal feed using health boosting properties of plants such as mustard seeds.
The goal is to develop feed supplements that would stimulate an animal’s own immune system to resist infection, Prairie Plant’s CEO Brent Zettl said.
“This is the first step in finding alternatives to the use of antibiotics in animal feed,” Zettl said. “The longterm goal of our research can have benefits for farmers and consumers alike.”
Conservative MP Kelly Block (Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar), on behalf of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, announced the federal government will invest about $101,000 in the project.
“This research could help create new income opportunities for farmers who wish to diversify their products or capture new niche markets,” Block said. “Improved herd health reduces losses and costs, improving the bottom line of livestock and poultry producers.”
Zettl said there is a movement afoot to stop using antibiotics in feed. He said once an antibiotic is approved for human use, there is no regulations that prevent the feed industry to use those antibiotics in livestock feed.
“As soon as they use those antibiotics for chickens and pigs, when it comes time for human beings to rely on them to deal with infection the bugs that they were defending (against) have become resistant. As a consequence it makes the antibiotics less effective for human beings,” he said. “We are using those antibiotics after we have discovered them too soon in the food system.”
With better science they can design antimicrobial, naturally occurring proteins.
“If we tap into that, and have a seed promoting that, then it can essentially produce a healthy gut (in the animal),” Zettl said. “It would mitigate or displace the antibiotics used in feed.”
Using the husks of mustard seeds to deliver the protein would be very cost effective, he said.
The oil is being looked at as jet fuel and meal for feed.
“It would cost-effective for the feed manufacturers, it would be cost effective the farmers to grow, it would be cost effective for the people in the livestock industry that would use it because it is considered a waste already,” he said.
Zettl said it will likely take about three years to know if it this idea will be an effective alternative to antibiotics.
The project is funded under the $50 million Agricultural Innovation Program
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