I would bet that their use will increase in the future, but how far into the future I don't know.

A prerequisite of this, I believe, will be having regulations in place to ensure quality of those compounds that are on the market. This includes having testing standards, and like you said, data sheets. 

Timing of their inclusion into feeds and other products depends on interest (where the money is). This creates a sort of catch 22 since their use isn't as wide spread as it would be because of the lack of confidence in the quality and standards across batches, and without a market, R&D won't concentrate on improving methods of extraction since the big money isn't there. 

Anecdotally though, I see essential oils discussed and used more often in humans and in animals, so I don't think the lack of market is as bad as it was in the past. This gives hope that there will be more quality control,research, and regulation, bringing these compounds into the spotlight than they have been. I don't know much about manufacturing processes, but I think as quality standards regulations are developed and more of a market is created, extraction processes will evolve as well.

I think these natural additives will have a better place in the future with advancing analytical and extraction skills. But more research is needed exploring and evaluating all sorts of natural additives and their benefits and safe limits. As is the case with other additives, it is also important to investigate and determine possible positive and negative effects when such products are used for extended periods and under different regimen  

I agree with Kristen and Melkamu, I also believe that it should continue to explore the properties and and effects of different components, as we must also continue to research of traditional raw materials, because a little unknown effects are attributed to these materials.

I think they already are making inways into the commercial usage. The biggest obstacle does not seem to be analytically proven what the active ingredients are and that they can also be found in the feed. THe factthat there are plenty of people selling a "belief" in herbal solutions doesn't help those that have genuine verifiable effects.

Dear sir.

This is really an interesting topic...the raise in health concerns due to feed additives may be as growth promotors or artifial flavors paving a step towards use of natural additives. Here phytochemicals are the lead runners. When we are talking abput phytochemicals, their detailed properties are to be tested. And thorough analysis needed before its routine use. Again, since the ancient ages, sages used to use plant as medicine and they used to work also. So i feel this may help in finding some newer resources to add to our feed additives. 

must trover new nutrient source and use The com as food adittif the microorganism or Alges this very important.but also not the transgenic plants oblez

Thank you very much for sharing your opinions, colleagues.

Regards,

Alfredo J. Escribano.

It is difficult to say how this topic will evolve, because the future will mostly depend on regulations (feed and  food).

However, I think that it will be an interesting topic for the future and studies on plant extracts will be more and more welcome.

I think that the main issues for the plant extracts are the variability of the compositions and the ability to highlight compounds of concern (and possible interactions).

Dear Roberto,

I fully agree.

Use of these natural feed additives are of growing interest mainly due to their role in improvement of gut microbial health and immunity which although have shown some potential to replace antibiotics but the efficacy to replace antibiotics completely will be intresting

Hi Hijaz,

for sure the replacement of antibiotic is an interesting issue, however you have correctly stated "some potential".

I think that the future will be a complementary use of these additive with the antibiotics, following a strategy to reduce antibiotic resistance.

Hi Roberto,

I completely agree with you.

Hi Roberto,   definately it is quite interesting area and challenging also

In my little country Norway, far up north, we are in a different situation than most of you I think. We banned the traditional antibiotic growth promoters like avoparcin in 1996. For the broilers, we have since then used the ionophore Narasin, because it has a fairly good antibacterial effect as well as beeing a coccidiostat (as it is registered as in EU). We are now in the final part of a transitional period where we are phasing out even the use of the coccidiostats.

In this situation, totally without antibiotics, I find the phytochemical / plant extracts very interesting, - together with many different acids, probiotics, prebiotics and yeast products, beta-glucans and other immune stimulants, and an infinit number of combinations. Knowledge to mode of action, documentation and verification of active ingredients and the content of them are some of the challenges we face.

Since antimicrobial resistance is thought to become our biggest health issue within year 2050, causing the highest numbers of casualties caused by any disease, I don't think we have a choice. We have to dig deeper into the knowledge of the plant extracts and any other alternatives to slow down or stop the development of antimicrobial resistance.

Hi Dag,

Do you mean that Norway is phasing out soon every coccidiostats? Interesting, but how are the efficacy/safety results of other natural products? 

Transfer rate of these compounds to the products (meat, egg, milk) is very important  for asseing the value of phenolics. There need to be research on this area especially on rumen fermantation and product quality and their interaction, as well as their effects on animal health as effects of these coumpts vary.

Gurhan: Condensed tannins are not absorbed across the GI wall, thus no concern in meat/milk. As for any metabolites, not sure. However, humans consume CT all the time, thus I don't believe there is any residual problems in milk/meat.

Gurhan, the University of Kiel is pretty married to researching tannins across both ruminants and non-ruminants you might want to investigate the research that has been done there. As for human health I agree with Travis, no concern in the dosages that might if at all transfer into the milk or meat. The tannins in your morning tea are certainly a higher dose.

Thanks Susanne.

The phenolic in plant origin is different in type. I wonder if different type of these phenolic had the same tranfer rate from feed to the animal product? It is important, because most of the by-product like olive cake and some plant like buckwheat has a good source of these phenolic that shows high antioxcidant properties.

Condensed tannins are not absorbed across the GI wall, however there are also hydrolysable tannins and many other phenols compounds.

Absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination of Tannic acid and its main metabolites are described in the attachment (with useful references).

To Roberto Molteni:

Yes, in Norway we have now phased out all use of coocidiostats in broiler feed. There is an ongoing national project where 20 different additives (probiotics, acids, yeast based products and plant extracts) have been tested.

The effect of the different products seem to be highly variable, but it is interesting to see that there are products that seem to have a fairly good effect, although not necessarily at the level of adding narasin (like we used to do).

Dear colleagues,

Thanks for your contributions. It seems that currently and globally there are researchers involved in assessing the effects of tannins in both methane emissions reduction and coccidia. Interesting topic, it is a new world of chemicals that will bring lots of new knowledge and tools.

Thanks for your interesting questions/answers and I would like to thank Dag for the interesting information regarding the phase out of all use of coccidiostats in broiler feed in Norway.

It would be worthy to have more information regarding the on-going mentioned Norwegian national project (and other similar national projects).

Dear Roberto,

I will keep you updated on two research works I am involved related ro rumen fermentation modulation where tannins are used (among other compounds).

In my opinion this will be the future thrust in animal nutrition. As people are behind organic farming these type of products which also have some medicinal values will be of utmost importance. Again the limit of inclusion will be tje challenge. In this regards herbal feed additives as medicine as well as feed supliment will gain interst in recent future.

Please share your views

Regards

Partha