Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Plant material is basic ingredient other than extract,...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-07
2001-03-27
Sayala, Chhaya D. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Plant material is basic ingredient other than extract,...
C426S049000, C426S807000, C426S623000, C426S630000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06207217
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to animal feed for livestock, and more particularly to improving the metabolizable energy content of that feed.
Feed is a major cost in the production of livestock for the meat industry, and a majority of the animals' diet is from grains, particularly corn, and oilseeds. Consequently, a major goal for improving the value of feed components is to increase the metabolizable energy content per volume of the feed. One example of this effort is the development of corn having a high oil content as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,160 to Bergquist et al.
New and improved plant species also have been developed for other, unrelated purposes, such as the production of polymers, for example poly [(R)-3-hydroxyalkanoates] (PHAs). Methods have been developed to recover PHA from the plant biomass for further processing into plastic resins useful in a broad range of industrial and biomedical applications (Williams and Peoples, CHEMTECH 26: 38-44 (1996)). Frequently, the PHAs or their derivatives must be recovered from oilseeds of certain plant, for example using methods described in PCT applications WO 97/15681, WO 97/07230, and WO 97/07229. However, it is not economically feasible to extract the PHAs from all types of oilseeds, unless, for example, the byproducts of extraction processing, such as oil and meal, have sufficient value.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide compositions and methods for enhancing the metabolizable energy content of animal feed products.
It is a further object of this invention to provide compositions and methods for enhancing the value of byproducts from the bioproduction of polymers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Compositions providing increased energy content of animal feed using plant crop biomass including polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are disclosed herein. The PHA should be metabolizable and preferably is produced in transgenic bacteria or crop species. The compositions can be prepared using conventional techniques for harvesting and processing plant crops into forms useful as animal feed, wherein the plant, or parts thereof, have accumulated PHA, preferably in excess of 2% by dry weight of the plant tissue. The plant having accumulated PHAs also can be grown and consumed directly by the animal without harvesting or subsequent processing.
In a preferred embodiment, the PHA is accumulated in corn or an oilseed, such as Brassica, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed, and flax. The feed compositions can include the meal byproduct from these oil seeds. The compositions also can include feed additives, such as animal and vegetable fats, salt, lysine, choline, methionine, vitamins and minerals. In another embodiment, the PHA can be provided with the green tissue of plants such as clover, alfalfa, sorghum, and silage corn.
Methods for preparing the feed compositions are provided, along with methods for enhancing the metabolizable energy content of an animal feed product by either accumulating a metabolizable polyhydroxyalkanoate in the animal feed product, or adding the polyhydroxyalkanoate to the feed product. Also provided is a method of increasing the growth rate of an animal including the step of feeding the animal a plant part comprising a polyhydroxyalkanoate.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
It was discovered that PHAs can contribute to the apparent metabolizable energy in animal feed, and that PHAs are tolerated by animals. These findings have led to the compositions and methods disclosed herein. In one preferred embodiment, PHAs can be produced in transgenic plants where the PHA would not have to be extracted, but would serve as a supplemental source of energy for animal nutrition. In another preferred embodiment, the PHA biosynthetic genes can be expressed in the green tissue of plants which are used primarily as animal fodder.
I. Composition Components
The feed compositions disclosed herein are intended to provide or supplement the nutritional requirements of a variety of animals, including cattle, poultry, swine, sheep, goats, other monogastric or ruminant livestock, as well as exotic and zoo animals. The compositions include PHAs, preferably in some combination with plant crop biomass, which is any plant or part thereof that is fed to and consumed by animals. The PHAs preferably are accumulated intracellularly in the plant tissues.
A. Polyhydroxyalkanoates
Poly [(R)-3-hydroxyalkanoates] (PHAs) are biodegradable and biocompatible thermoplastic materials, produced from renewable resources. In recent years, what was viewed as a single polymer, poly-&bgr;-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), has evolved into a broad class of polyesters with different monomer compositions and a wide range of physical properties. To date around one hundred different monomers have been incorporated into the PHA polymers (Steinbuichel and Valentin, FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 128: 219-28 (1995)). It has been useful to broadly divide the PHAs into two groups according to the length of their side chains and their pathways for biosynthesis. Those with short side chains, such as polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), a homopolymer of R-3-hydroxybutyric acid units,
—OCR
1
R
2
(CR
3
R
4
)
n
CO— (1)
where n is 0 or an integer and R
1
, R
2
, R
3
, and R
4
are each selected from saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbon radicals; hal- and hydroxy-substituted radicals; hydroxy radicals; halogen radicals; nitrogen-substituted radicals; oxygen-substituted radicals; and hydrogen atoms,
are crystalline thermoplastics, whereas PHAs with long side chains are more elastomeric. The former have been known for about seventy years (Lemoigne & Roukhelman, 1925), whereas the latter materials were first identified in the early 1980's (deSmet et al., J. Bacteriol., 154: 870-78 (1983)). Before this designation, however, PHAs of microbial origin containing both (R)-3-hydroxybutyric acid and one or more long side chain hydroxyacid units containing from five to sixteen carbon atoms had been identified (Steinbüchel and Wiese, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 37: 691-97 (1992); Valentin et al., Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 36: 507-14 (1992); Valentin et al., Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 40: 710-16 (1994); Lee et al., Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 42: 901-09 (1995); Kato et al., Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 45: 363-70 (1996); Abe et al., Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 16: 115-19 (1994); Valentin et al., Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 46: 261-67 (1996); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,331). A combination of the two biosynthetic pathways probably provide the hydroxyacid monomers. These latter copolymers can be referred to as PHB-co-HX. Useful examples of specific two-component copolymers include PHB-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate (Brandl et al., Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 11: 49-55 (1989); Amos and McInerey, Arch. Microbiol. 155: 103-06 (1991); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,860 to Shiotani et al.). Chemical synthetic methods have also been used to prepare racemic PHB copolymers of this type for applications testing (PCT applications WO 95/20614, WO 95/20615, and WO 96/20621).
The PHAs useful in the present compositions should be metabolizable. As used herein, the phrase “metabolizable polyhydroxyalkanoates” means that the PHAs can be digested by the animal to provide a source of useable energy to the animal.
PHAs useful in the animal field include compounds derived from PHA polymers by either chemical, biological or physical means. The PHA polymers or derivatives thereof may contain repeat units defined by the formula of Formula 1. These repeat units can be the same, as in a homopolymer, or can be selected from two or more units, such as in a copolymer or terpolymer. The PHA polymers may be converted to oligomers, monomers, dimers, trimers, etc., during processing of the plant biomass comprising PHA. For example, the PHA biomass may be subject to treatment with chemical agents such as acids, bases, metal ions, aqueous and organic solutions, oxidizing and reducing agents, nucleophilic and electrophilic reagents, free radicals, and/or conditions which result i
Beach Larry
Nichols Scott
Peoples Oliver P.
Saunders Court
Arnall Golden & Gregory LLP
Pioneer Hi-Bred International , Inc.
Sayala Chhaya D.
LandOfFree
Animal nutrition compositions does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Animal nutrition compositions, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Animal nutrition compositions will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2463142