The development of a commercially scalable extraction process for Aramune™ a novel plant based immunomodulatory polysaccharide with ICURe substantiated commercial application in animal feed, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical markets

现代农业系统的目标是以最大的产量和最低的成本生产最高质量的食物。为了实现这些目标，农民积极管理牲畜的健康和福祉，以减少疾病。采用现代畜牧技术，农民可以预防许多疾病和感染，否则会给他们的动物造成痛苦，并损害他们的牛群或羊群的商业生存能力。农民历来部分依赖于在动物饲料中加入抗菌化合物来控制细菌感染。这导致了牲畜的抗生素耐药性，并助长了人类的耐药性。此外，一些抗微生物化合物如氧化锌（ZnO）通过牲畜的粪便，造成严重的环境污染。ZnO对环境的污染已经变得如此令人担忧，以至于从2022年起，欧盟将禁止使用ZnO，而在全球范围内，动物饲料中使用抗生素也越来越受到限制。这些监管措施剥夺了农民确保牛群/羊群健康和性能的有效治疗，现在迫切需要安全有效的替代疗法。据估计，仅氧化锌禁令就将对养猪业产生深远影响，仅在欧盟就可能导致每年高达9.5亿英镑的生产损失。这种经济损失将不可避免地导致消费价格上涨。贝尔法斯特皇后大学（QUB）的Brian绿色教授和同事发现了一种天然多糖（碳水化合物）化合物，这种化合物在植物中发现，当纯化并添加到饲料中时，可以增强仔猪的天然免疫力。该化合物使猪能够对抗肠道感染并保持最佳生长速度。在农场试验中，新化合物的性能与ZnO相当。在由Innovate UK资助的一项商业可行性计划中，QUB研究科学家Gonçalo罗萨斯达席尔瓦发现，伴侣动物物种也同样需要对肠道细菌进行饮食控制，例如，Aramune Technologies Ltd（ATL）是一家QUB分拆公司，专门开发新的植物多糖技术。在该项目中，ATL将开发一种可扩展的化合物商业提取工艺，最初将用于猪饲料，随后用于其他牲畜和伴侣动物的饮食。

Modern farming systems aim to produce the highest quality food at maximum volume and lowest cost. To achieve these objectives farmers actively manage the health and wellbeing of livestock to reduce disease. Employing modern husbandry techniques, farmers can prevent many diseases and infections that would otherwise cause distress to their animals and compromise the commercial viability of their herd or flock.Farmers have historically relied in part on the inclusion of antimicrobial compounds in animal feed to control bacterial infection. This has led to antibiotic resistance in livestock and fuelled resistance in humans. Additionally, some antimicrobial compounds such as Zinc Oxide (ZnO) pass through livestock in their dung and cause serious environmental contamination. Environmental contamination by ZnO has become so concerning that it will be banned in the EU from 2022 onwards, whilst use of antibiotics in animal feed is becoming more restricted globally. These regulatory measures deprive farmers of effective treatments to ensure herd/flock health and performance, and there now exists an urgent need for replacement therapies that are safe and effective. It is estimated that the ZnO ban alone will have a profound impact on the pig industry and could result in production losses of as much as £950m per year in the EU alone. Such financial losses will inevitably result in increased consumer prices.Prof. Brian Green and colleagues at Queens University Belfast (QUB) have discovered a natural polysaccharide (carbohydrate) compound found in plants that when purified and added to their feed, boosts the natural immunity of piglets. The compound enables pigs to fight gut infections and maintain optimum growth rates. In farm trials, the performance of the new compound was equal to that of ZnO. This breakthrough offers a timely lifeline to pig and other livestock producers.In a commercial feasibility programme, funded by Innovate UK, QUB research scientist, Gonçalo Rosas da Silva, discovered that there is equal need for dietary control of gut bacteria in companion animal species, e.g., dogs and cats, to avoid associated allergic skin and other conditions which otherwise would be treated with antibiotics.Aramune Technologies Ltd (ATL) is a QUB spin-out created specifically to exploit the new plant polysaccharide technology. In this project, ATL will develop a scalable process for commercial extraction of the compound, which will initially be used in pig feed and later in the diets of other livestock and companion animals.