In this podcast, Valentine Van Hamme (Business Manager Health, Kemin Animal Nutrition and Health EMENA) and Matias Jansen (Regional Business Director, Kemin Biologics) talk about the health challenges in the animal industry and how to move towards more preventive strategies. It is important to prevent diseases and this can be done through several strategies with nutritional solutions like probiotics and immune supplements, but also with vaccines. Kemin offers the animal production industry a successful combination of these tools, including analytical services and technical support.
Why is a close collaboration between the departments of Biologics and Animal Nutrition and Health so important?
Matias Jansen: Ultimately, it's because we want to serve our customers better. The animal protein production industry is continuously faced with challenges. Due to rising feed costs, the industry is forced to use alternative raw materials. These alternative raw materials put additional stress on the animals, and eventually lead to challenges for animal health but also for the overall production industry. In addition, we have the drive to continuously reduce the use of antibiotics in the industry, and this highlights for us the need for an alternative and more preventive strategy. All of us in the industry know there is no silver bullet solution. To manage these ever-evolving type of challenges, we need to offer the industry a successful combination of tools. This can be vaccines and nutritional ingredients, but also analytical services and technical support.
So you're both focusing on prevention. Why is this the way forward?
Valentine Van Hamme: Of course we believe that prevention is the way forward. As Vets, we have been educated to treat animals when they become sick. Nowadays, the options for treatments are reducing, certainly with the restrictions on antibiotic use. Actually, if you need to treat an animal, you're too late. So you need to focus on preventing the disease and switch your mindset from a curative approach to a more advisory, preventive role. If you prevent diseases, the need for treatment reduces and the need for antibiotics as well. Prevention can be done through several strategies, such as nutritional solutions but also vaccines. To reduce the use of antibiotics, we offer a wide range of nutritional solutions like probiotics and immune supplements.
This way of working is probably not considered as being conventional. Is it?
Matias: No, Kemin is considered more like a nutritional type of company, providing nutritional ingredients to support growth of the animals and ultimately the industry. But the last couple of years, we evolved more towards an animal health company where we strengthen our nutritional solutions to improve animal health, focusing on that preventative approach. In addition, we have been heavily focusing on our vaccine business since two years. This reinforces our strategy to prevent animal diseases. Those products and related services are a unique combination for the industry, and it fosters our idea that prevention is the way to go.
Can you tell us more about those related services?
Valentine: Actually, we have a specialized team of Veterinarians, experienced in composing preventive strategies. They visit farms in cooperation with the responsible Vet and the owner. Together, they make a complete assessment of the health status of the farm, its general management, the nutrition, and so on. Based on the results, they will design a preventive strategy. This will include vaccines and nutritional solutions. To do that assessment, our team is equipped with rapid on-site diagnostics to detect all kind of pathogens. If further evaluation is needed, we have our lab which is specialized in performing analyses dedicated for our customers. Besides that, we have a broad network of external labs to do additional evaluations.
In May, the 13th edition of the ESPHM is taking place in Hungary. This conference is known as the biggest veterinary conference in the pig health industry, and it usually gathers a large audience of veterinarians and health professionals. Why is Kemin a golden sponsor?
Matias: For us, it's the perfect occasion to highlight our vaccine business and position Kemin as a leading animal health company towards all Vets. We have a booth available where our expert team is ready to answer any questions or provide information on our products and services.
Valentine: One of our pig experts, Ricardo Neto (pig Veterinarian), has been invited by the scientific committee of the ESPHM as a keynote speaker. He will participate to the plenary session with his presentation ‘New trends in pig nutrition for future challenges in pig production’. Furthermore, we have several abstracts that were approved for poster presentation, flash or oral presentations. Through this work, we will mainly share our experience with our product called Aleta™, which is an alga beta glucan.
Matias: These scientific presentations and contributions are a testimony of how we want to fully support the industry. At Kemin, we firmly believe that scientific research and technical understanding are the cornerstone elements to tackle the diverse challenges that our industry is facing.
How does Aleta fit in the preventive strategy?
Valentine: Aleta is our immune modulator, so it supports the immune system. A well-functioning immune system is needed for good vaccination efficiency and resistance to disease. It's a successful preventive strategy if you support the animals’ immune system to make them better cope with disease or make the vaccinations more efficient.
It's clear that innovation is a key point at Kemin. What are the plans for the future?
Valentine: The expertise and the knowledge on nutritional solutions are our core business and we will continue to focus on that, related to product development, but also service development. We have clear plans for the upcoming five to 10 years with some new innovations. Of course, we cannot disclose too much because this is still confidential.
Matias: While we have only recently fully ventured into the vaccine business with Kemin Biologics internationally, the foundation of this business was made more than a decade ago. And over these years, innovation has been the key driver to grow the business. Through this innovation, we were able to develop a portfolio of a high degree of homology with circulating strains. And this ultimately gives the best protective performance. In addition, we are continuously working on new vaccine technologies through our own research and development pipeline, but also through acquisitions.
We are very curious to see what you will be bringing to the market to support our Vets even better.
© Kemin Industries, Inc. and its group of companies 2024 all rights reserved. ® ™ Trademarks of Kemin Industries, Inc., USA
Certain statements may not be applicable in all geographical regions. Product labeling and associated claims may differ based upon government requirements.