Onderzoek uitgevoerd bij TNO met behulp van subsidie MIT-Haalbaarheidsproject 2015 van EU en OP OOST.

Greenvalley International is a distributor of feed additives, but they also develop feed additives themselves. To ensure high quality of their products and to study the working mechanism of those, Greenvalley has a large interest in the research performed in this field.

Henk van Faassen, commercial manager at Greenvalley and veterinarian, explains more about the study performed together with TNO. “In this project we look for more effective antimicrobial agents based on mid-chain fatty acids. Literature shows a large potential for mid-chain fatty acids as antibacterial agents against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. However, most of the data are the result of in vitro studies and we were interested in a study in which the actual animal gut content was used, without doing large scale animal testing “.

TNO Food & Nutrition has a strong focus on improving the production, the health aspects and safety of food. Furthermore, they have several in vivo and in vitro models running , making them the perfect partner for Greenvalley to jointly work on the project.

Edwin Abeln, Business Development Manager Food & Nutrition at TNO explains how the project is conducted at TNO. “TNO and Greenvalley share a common interest in reducing the use of antibiotics in livestock. This project is one example of the work we do in this field. We sample the ingredients, provided by Greenvalley and investigate the modulating effect on microbiota. Since we use the intestinal content from chickens and pigs, we can mimic an in vivo setting, but in a controlled environment.”