One of the major issues discussed at the recently concluded G7 Leaders meet at Ise-Shima in Japan was about the growing antimicrobial resistance in humans.

The declaration issued thereafter committed to preserving existing antibiotics, and to “strengthening inter-sectoral surveillance of all sectors”, and it further supported the United Nation’s Global Action Plan through multi-sectoral global, regional, national and community collaborative efforts.

O’Neill in his report on antibiotic resistance has predicted that the highest number of deaths is expected to occur in Asia where on the one hand, rising income is driving meat consumption and on the other, antimicrobial usage is on the rise.

It is strongly believed that the usage of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) in animal feeds is one of the major causes for growing antimicrobial resistance in human population. Due to this reason, many countries including the EU have either fully or partially banned the usage of AGPs. This has led to the introduction of several alternate products that are regarded safe for feed, food, as well as the environment.

Plants have large variety of secondary compounds that protect them from microbial and insect attack. Some important compounds with specific interest to their application as growth promoters for poultry are enlisted here:

There are many combinations in the market having these compounds that are commonly termed as essential oils. To perform at the expected level, these essential oils are often combined with organic acids or other compounds as it is economically unviable to feed essential oils alone in required concentration.

Essential oils are present in some specific parts of plants and their extraction is an expensive process. For every pound of essential oil, several hundreds to thousands of plants may be required. For example, for one pound of Melissa essential oil, 6000 pounds of plant material is required which makes the oil prohibitively expensive. One pound of Melissa essential oil costs around 15000 USD

Majority of the compounds listed in the above table are Phenolic Aromatic Compounds (PACs). Techna Group, a France based nutrition company has developed a patented product, Aviance using PACs like those present in some plants.

Aviance is unique due to its multi-centric encapsulation that allows for not only pellet stability but also slow and gradual release of the active ingredients in the target area. Since Aviance consists of compounds that are very specific and precise in nature, the product is always standardized to ensure optimum and consistent results. This is often a challenge with plant extracts as plant derivatives differ in composition in every extraction leading to a wide variability in the final composition of the finished product. Standardization is extremely difficult due to presence of several compounds that may vary in proportion every time.

The major benefits of Aviance are mentioned below:

1)Increase in feed intake:

Aviance boosts feed intake by stimulating digestive secretions like bile and other digestive enzymes. Phenolic Aromatic Compounds in Aviance have been reported to increase secretion of trypsin, amylase, protease and lipase in broilers.

2)Aviance regulates gut microflora:

Phenolic aromatic compounds present in Aviance interact with GIT microflora and regulate the population of pathogenic microflora in two ways:
• They rupture the cell wall leading to a loss of cellular contents like sugar, liposaccharides and phospholipids
• By interference of ATP production by inhibiting electron transport and cellular respiration

3)Aviance increases absorption surface:

Aviance increases the surface of absorption in the small intestine by increasing the lenth of villi and improving the ratio of villi length and depth of crypts.

4)Aviance is proven as a potential growth promoter:

Various studies and trials done in several countries have validated the performance of Aviance. These tests meet Techna Group’s insistence that the product gives an ideal response in any production situation with all types of strains; different nutritional choices and various profiles of raw materials, with various climates and a variety of rearing conditions.

Aviance is being successfully marketed in over 40 countries because of its consistent performance. Avitech is the marketing partner of Techna, France for the Indian sub-continent.