Lactulose-containing feed additives as a factor in the lifetime formation of high-quality and safe products

Abstract

Purpose. Evaluation of various types of modern lactulose-containing additives and the effectiveness of their use in feeding farm animals as one of the options for decision the problem of in vivo formation of high-quality and safe livestock products for the healthy nutrition of the modern population. Discussion. The revolution in feed production made by the Soviet scientist Minenkov A.R. in the middle of the 20th century, namely the use of antibiotics as a feed additive to stimulate productivity, became a failure by the beginning of the 21st century. By this time, the negative consequences of prolonged use of antibiotics were revealed, which led to the active rejection of them in animal husbandry practice as productivity stimulants. They were replaced by pro- and prebiotic feed additives that have a healing effect on animal organism, thereby beneficially influencing their productive characteristics. Prebiotics in feed production are more convenient to use than probiotics, as they have a greater degree of unpretentiousness to storage conditions, but at the same time they are easier to obtain than live microorganisms. Lactulose is the most well-known and proven prebiotic in animal husbandry. Feed additives based on it in the body of animals have an identical mechanism of action based on enzymatic cleavage in the large intestine of this disaccharide by bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, which triggers a number of interrelated processes that have a beneficial physiological effect. The considered results of the use of some lactulose-containing feed additives on broiler chickens, Saanen goats, pigs and rabbits made it possible to conclude that for the above animal species there is a similar positive effect from the presence of new lactulose-based feed additives in the diet: intensification of growth and development of animals, as well as strengthening of resistance to adverse external factors, which directly affects the life-time formation of better and safer livestock products. Conclusion. Reviewed studies on the use of modern lactulose-based feed additives and the results obtained confirm their ability to have a beneficial effect on the growth, development and resistance to negative factors from outside the body of farm animals, such as broiler chickens, goats, pigs and rabbits. This, in turn, contributes to the lifetime formation of improved quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the resulting livestock raw materials.