The global feed manufacturing industry is among the most important to a country’s annual turnover. Lately, an increase in demand has been observed for animal protein, especially in livestock, dairy and fish, as pet owners worldwide are expanding their companion’s meals in an effort to elongate their lives. This trend results from pet humanization, which enables different attitudes toward animals compared to a decade ago. Nowadays, pets are part of one’s family, which has been accentuated since the pandemic when many types of customers changed their behaviors regarding desired products and services.
However, the feed industry is among the most challenging because poor welfare is still common among companies. What institutions don’t realize is that the welfare of animals is directly linked to the quality of the end products. Maltreatment, pain and suffering are some of the difficulties the EU is trying to overcome through the Lisbon Treaty. Animal-based measures are required for the feed industry to flourish morally.
How can food animal companies tackle the health challenges of animal production?
There are many ways to approach this challenge, and improving animal welfare conditions is just one of them. For example, one of the best ways to mitigate this issue is by finding solutions to maintain business productivity without relying on antibiotics, which can be achieved through health monitoring programs.
Regardless, the way companies treat animal welfare is essential in bringing the best products for the feed industry, according to https://alfraequipment.com/en. That’s because it includes numerous aspects to be prioritized, starting from hygienic housing and bedding material to temperature and air quality. These are only a few ways to avoid animal stress, which is detrimental to their health and well-being and is also affecting the product. At the same time, ensuring animals are fed with the necessary betaine, probiotics and enzymes is essential for proper welfare parameters. These elements are part of heat stress impacts and footpad lesions, so they must be treated highly.
Why adapting to new societal concerns is necessary for a company
As technology develops, it’s obvious that there are ways for animals to be treated more fairly, which is 100% achievable with the right mindset and systems. Therefore, legislation has drastically changed in the past years, bringing the animal feed industry to a place where animals are treated as humans, which results in production and manufacturing.
Regulations will continue to develop and bring better norms for companies because customers demand better conditions for animals to be provided; otherwise, the purchasing power will decrease substantially. Elements like proper food processing equipment and quality control will have to develop for companies to continue operating.
Reducing environmental impact and adhering to animal welfare
Unfortunately, like any other industry, livestock production can contribute to climate change, a severe issue worldwide governments struggle with. An entire cycle repeats itself, from the need to feed livestock to the water required to grow crops and the methane emission. Although reducing livestock is currently not targeted by farmers and companies, there are ways to minimize the emissions by feeding livestock better meals and properly handling manure.
At the same time, there are more complex ways to deal with the problem, such as introducing enzymes like phytases as an assessment method for the environmental footprint of each animal to decrease.
Improving animal feed performance through innovation
Animal feed performance is also important for companies and manufacturers, so they must adopt better practices to increase productivity. For example, some interest areas include improving animal performance characteristics, such as developing better feed-to-weight-gain rations. At the same time, minimizing costs is a great solution, consisting of the use of affordable base ingredients and more efficient utilization of grain for feed.
One way of development is brought by the regular enzymes, which can be introduced, at least through poultry nutrition, with naturally produced endogenous enzymes and exogenous enzymes that are not native to the animal’s digestive system.
How has animal welfare been achieved until now
Until now, many laws and guidelines have been developed for companies, and some important objectives have been reached lately. The movement started when the EFSA openly discussed the welfare of farmed animals from a scientific perspective, and this led to methodological guidance being completed.
Recommendations were firstly provided for the welfare of farmed pigs, then for chickens and calves. From increasing space and lowering temperatures during animal transport, important aspects were reinforced. At the same time, EFSA recommends avoiding feed restrictions and the use of cages for farmed broiler chickens and laying hens. Dairy cows and ducks, geese and quails are also targeted in these plans.
Why is animal welfare important?
For someone who doesn’t understand the importance of a good life for animals, we must take into consideration the five domains of animal welfare. These include elements like nutrition, environment, health, behavior and mental state. Although animals may not feel things as humans
do, it has been discovered that they’re conscious and can experience some sort of emotions.
Of course, this means that treating them poorly will affect their health and, therefore, the quality of the final product, but there’s more than how good the meat is. Ultimately, animals, too, have the right to live happy lives and avoid stress since they’re also giving up their lives for the good of the world. In other words, regulations and guidelines have emerged from the idea that animals don’t deserve suffering because they’re important providers of both human and animal life, so it’s a matter of morality. There’s also a discussion about the end of the exotic pet trade and the use of wild animals for entertainment, which will probably take longer to enter the legislation.
Final considerations
The feed industry is essential for the health of animals, as livestock is used for their meals. And although the sector has improved incredibly since the pandemic due to pet humanization, the animals in the manufacturing companies need to be treated better and more fairly for them to live happy lives.
