Post-pandemic sustainability of the Canadian pork industry: upgrading by-products to added-value goods. From feed to food and advanced purified hydrogels for cosmetics and health

加拿大猪肉产业是一个相当大的产业，每年有263亿加元的产值，涉及至少25,000名加拿大工人。早在大流行之前，它就面临着许多挑战，包括2018年中国出现非洲猪瘟导致价格大幅波动，随后中国于2019年对加拿大猪肉实施禁令。随后，新型冠状病毒（COVID-19）大流行带来了快速进化的病毒，给加拿大猪肉行业带来了额外的挑战。对动物出口的限制、物流限制以及屠宰场、餐馆和食品服务的关闭对肉类供应链的各个阶段都产生了不利影响。农民们找不到合适的市场来出售他们的牲畜。由于加工厂的关闭，肉类加工能力也有所下降。不幸的是，随着2021年经济复苏，大流行的结束并不是漫长危机周期的结束，这导致玉米和小麦等原料的价格上涨了近50%，主要原因是中国需求的激增。更复杂的是，新冠肺炎相关限制的放松可能会支持经济复苏，一方面推高石油和天然气的价格，从而推高粮食肥料的价格，另一方面，Omicron变体的威胁可能会引发新的行业危机。随着人口增长，全球动物蛋白产业面临着前所未有的挑战，预计粮食需求将增加48.6%1。在全球范围内，大约44%的生猪没有被人类食用。通过对这些不可食用的副产品的再利用和增值，该项目有望极大地提高加拿大猪肉行业的竞争力及其整体可持续性。我们建议利用高效的蛋白质提取和转化来生产：1)替代饲料中的抗生素和食品添加剂的生物活性肽；2)副产品生物质发酵的代谢物；3)可快速凝胶化并递送细胞和生长因子的高注射性水凝胶，以刺激再生医学和细胞移植领域的局部再生。

The Canadian pork industry represents a considerable industry of 26,3 billion of CDN$ annually, involving at least 25,000 Canadians workers. Already before the pandemic, it faced many challenges including high volatility of the prices due to the emergence of African swine fever in China in 2018, followed by the imposition of a ban on Canadian pork by China in 2019. Then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived with its rapidly evolving nature virus, inducing additional challenges to the Canadian pork meat industry. The limitations on animal exportation, logistics restrictions, and the shutting down of slaughterhouses, restaurants, and food services adversely affected all stages of the meat supply chain. Farmers were unable to find a suitable market to sell their live animals. Meat processing capacity also decreased due to the closure of the processing plants. Unfortunately, the end of the pandemic is not the end of a long cycle of crisis with the economic recovery in 2021 which has resulted in an almost 50% increase in the prices of ingredients like corn and wheat, due mainly to the explosion in Chinese demand. To complicate the situation, the easing of restrictions linked to COVID-19 is likely to support the economic recovery, pushing up the prices of oil, gas and, consequently, grain fertilizers on the one hand, and on the other hand, the threat of the Omicron variant could generate a new crisis in the industry. The global animal protein industry faces an unprecedented challenge with population growth that is predicted to increase food demand by 48.6%1. Globally, about 44% of pig raised for meat is not consumed by humans. This project is expected to tremendously increase the competitiveness of the Canadian pork industry, and its overall sustainability, by reusing and add value locally to these nonedible by-products. We propose to use efficient protein extraction and transformation to produce: 1) bioactive peptides as replacement of antibiotics in feed and additives in food, 2) metabolites coming from biomass fermentation of the by-product, and 3) highly injectable hydrogels able to gel rapidly and deliver cells and growth factors that stimulate local regeneration in the field of regenerative medicine and cell transplantation.