Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Inhibiting chemical or physical change of food by contact... – Biocidal or disinfecting chemical agent
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-28
2001-03-20
Sayala, C. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Inhibiting chemical or physical change of food by contact...
Biocidal or disinfecting chemical agent
C426S053000, C426S321000, C426S807000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06203835
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to the use of a hydroxy acid or a product containing the same and a product made thereof.
Bacteria of the genus Salmonella are well known pathogenic organisms which are much feared when occurring in animal feed and foodstuffs of animal origin. A primary infection caused by Salmonella arises when the bacterium starts to multiply in the alimentary tract of animals and therefrom is capable of contaminating both the host body and the end products (eggs, milk) products by the animal and conventionally used as nutrients. If allowed to pass uncontrolled to distribution, such contaminated foodstuffs can cause serious health hazards and economic losses in the population. Besides pathogenic microbes such as Salmonella strains, enteropathogenic
Escherichia coli
strains and campylobacteria, the food production efficiency of animals is also negatively affected by a plurality of microbes normally present in the alimentary tract flora of animals when occurring in excessive amounts. These microbes utilize the nutrients contained in the feed in the same fashion as the host animal, thus competing with their host for the feed. To suppress these microbes, so-called growth-promoting antibiotics are conventionally added in the feeds. Microbes often isolated from the small intestine can be grossly categorized in three groups: coliforms, enterococci and lactic acid producing bacteria. The latter group species are claimed to have positive effects on animal health though the actual mechanisms involved are not known accurately.
The use of lactic acid producing bacteria for processing and preserving different material has been long known. In addition to silage processing, lactobacilli are utilized in the manufacture of, e.g., a variety of dairy products. As known from long-term practical experience of every-day use, such fermented diary products in particular have advantageous health-promoting properties. Today, products containing lactobacilli are also available for the normalization of the bacterial flora in the alimentary tract when the microbial flora has changed due to, e.g., a treatment with an antibiotic drug. Typically, lactobacilli form an essential component in the microbial flora of the alimentary tract. The metabolic products of these commensal bacteria are considered to have a great importance to the welfare of animals and man.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel use for hydroxy acids as antimicrobial components in animal feeds. It is a further object of the invention to provide a feed improver based on hydroxy acids. It is still a further object of the invention to achieve a method of producing and using such feed improvers containing hydroxy acids.
The invention offers significant benefits.
An important species in the genus of lactobacilli is
Lactobacillus plantarum
. This bacterium species is present in a plurality of different media.
L. plantarum
is a so-called homofermentative lactic acid producing species. Accordingly, fermentation by this species produces almost purely lactic acid with small amounts of acetic acid and ethanol.
L. plantarum
can by virtue of the present invention now be persuaded to use protein-containing animal and plant waste, whereby the fermentation forms beside lactic acid, also relatively high amounts of other hydroxy acids. Here, the invention makes it possible to utilize hydroxy acids particularly as a feed improver. The characterizing properties of the invention are disclosed in the annexed claims. Since hydroxy acids have a microbicidal effect, they can give the product a very long storage time as a feed. Simultaneously, any microorganisms pathogenic to animals or man contained in the raw materials are destroyed entirely.
The hydroxy acids, or mixtures thereof, utilized in accordance with the invention can be either synthesized chemically or produced biotechnically into, e.g., a fermentation solution containing the bacterium. An essential requirement herein is that the acid contains most preferably at least 4 carbon atoms and/or having a branched carbon chain or an aromatic or other suitable substituent. Particularly advantageous in this aspect are 2-hydroxy-3-methyl butyric acid, 2-hydroxy-4-methyl valeric acid or a mixture thereof.
Furthermore, the invention concerns a feed improver which contains a hydroxy acid in an amount which is effective either alone or in combination with other compounds. According to the invention, the feed improver is either added in the feed or produced therein. A feed improver is defined as a component added in the feed typically at a level of 0.01-1%, with its function being to improve the health, growth other productivity factor of an animal. The effect of the feed improver may be directed on the microbial flora, digestive enzymes, resorption of nutrients in the alimentary tract, metabolic processes of the host animal or some another selected object. Depending on the object animal, the feeds concerned are typically comprised of a cereal or other similar starch-containing component (wheat, oats, rye, corn, etc.), a protein source (soya, turnip rape, fish meal, etc.), a fat source (vegetable oil or animal fat), mineral salts, amino acid supplements if the protein source is unbalanced, and vitamins as well as trace elements. A feed ration for ruminants contains a substantial amount of fiber-rich forage (silage, grass, etc.) and less starch. According to examples to be described later, broiler chickens require about 400-1600 mg of hydroxy acid during their life (approx. 40 days). This amount corresponds to about 200-800 g of hydroxy acid per tn of feed. Other animals such as pigs and egg-laying hens received in said examples about 20-100 mg hydroxy acids per kg liveweight a day. According to the invention, the daily administration of hydroxy acid is less than 500 mg hydroxy acids per kg liveweight a day, advantageously 20-100 mg hydroxy acids per kg liveweight a day. Hydroxy acids were found to affect microbial growth in vitro already at a level less than 0.1% (1000 g/tn feed). Hence, the amount of hydroxy acids in feed is advantageously 0.01-1%, most advantageously not more than 0.1%.
The adapted
L. plantarum
strain forms significant amounts of alpha-hydroxy acids, the hydroxy acid concentration in fermentation media being about 2%. In addition to d,l-lactic acid, the most important acids formed are d,l-2-hydroxy-3-methyl butyric acid and d,l-2-hydroxy-4-methyl valeric acid. The formation according to the invention of d,l-2-hydroxy-3-methyl butyric acid and d,l-2-hydroxy-4-methyl valeric acid in the fermentation media of
L. plantarum
has not been disclosed earlier nor the effect of these compounds on the growth of microbes has been investigated. In the recovery of d,l-2-hydroxy-3-methyl butyric acid and d,l-2-hydroxy-4-methyl valeric acid from the fermentation media,
Escherichia coli
was used as the test organism for determining the distribution of the antimicrobial effect in the different fractions. Particularly unexpected is that these acids have an antimicrobial effect on a very large selection of different types of microorganisms. As can be noted from Example 5 later, these compounds have been shown to exhibit an antimicrobial effect on about seventy different micro-organisms. Further unexpected is that the alpha-hydroxy acids concerned in the invention are compounds which are considered to be normally occurring metabolites in animal organisms. On this basis, it initially seemed plausible that at least some organisms could in their metabolic pathways transform these compounds, thus inactivating them.
The fermentation is carried out in vessels of 2-10000 liter volume. The milled medium, which is preferably steamed to destroy an vegetative microbial cells contaminating the raw material consisting of fish cleaning waste, blood, leguminous material or abattoir waste is seeded with a suitable amount of cultivated seed suspension of
L. plantarum,
the medium is mixed and the fermentation is allowed to continue for 6-7 days. The temperature of the suspended medium ri
Apajalahti Juha
Hietala Pentti
Jaarma Maire
Westermarck Hakon
Westermarck Tuomas Walter
Armstrong, Westerman Hattori, McLeland & Naughton
Oy Extracta Ltd.
Sayala C.
Westermarcks by Jan Mikael
LandOfFree
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