PolyPig: Biorefining of agri-food by-products for enhanced pig welfare and nutrition

**PolyPig旨在满足可持续生产饲料的商业和动物福利需求，以保护仔猪的健康并提高断奶后的存活率和生长。由于氧化应激等因素会导致肠道损伤，猪的早期发育阶段死亡率和疾病发生率很高。直到最近，仔猪饲料中含有高水平的氧化锌作为抗菌剂和生长促进剂;然而，这已被确定为环境污染和抗菌素耐药性（AMR）的贡献者。从2022年6月起，欧洲已禁止喂食治疗水平的氧化锌;因此，必须提供更可持续的替代解决方案。PolyPig的目标是开发先前的研究，证明在仔猪饲料中补充多酚可提供理想的保护作用;改善仔猪肠道健康和存活率。多酚是天然存在的抗微生物、抗炎、抗氧化化合物，存在于广泛的植物材料中，特别是红甜菜根。甜菜根的收获和加工过程中会产生大量的甜菜根废物供人类消费，这些副产品的开发将提供可持续的多酚来源，用作饲料补充剂。另一个目标是实施可持续的方法，从农业食品副产品（AFBPs）中有效提取多酚。这对于将多酚与不期望的植物纤维分离是必要的。仔猪饲料中的纤维会加剧与断奶相关的肠道健康问题。将对以前开发的节能“绿色”提取和纯化方法进行评估和优化，以实现甜菜根产品的大规模加工。** AFBPs的可扩展生物精炼的创新组合可持续生产多酚补充仔猪饲料将为农业社区创造重大利益。**提高生产力和增长率，提高肉类质量和产品保质期，可以增加猪产品的出口，减少进口。AFBP的开发将为农民带来额外的收入来源，将废物从垃圾填埋场转移，并有助于实现净零碳排放目标。PolyPig最初将专注于从红甜菜根中提取多酚，但也可以利用其他农业和食品废物流。将为创新动物饲料配方和新产品开发创造更多机会，而该项目期间开发的生物精炼工程设计将可扩展并适用于新的副产品。** 基于AFBP衍生补充剂的创新动物饲料的制造将有助于促进英国经济增长和创造就业机会，同时支持向低碳循环生物经济的过渡。

**PolyPig aims to address a commercial and animal welfare need for sustainably produced feed to protect the health of piglets and improve survival and growth post-weaning.** This is desirable because of high mortality rates and disease incidence associated with early stages of pig development, due to factors such as oxidative stress that causes gut damage.Until recently, piglet feeds contained high levels of zinc oxide as an anti-microbial and growth promoter; however, this has been identified as a contributor to environmental contamination and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Feeding of therapeutic levels of zinc oxide has been banned in Europe from June 2022; therefore, it is imperative that more sustainable alternative solutions are available.**The objective of PolyPig is to develop prior studies that demonstrated supplementation of piglet feed with polyphenols provides desirable protective effects; improving piglet gut health and survival.** Polyphenols are naturally occurring anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant compounds present in a wide range of plant materials, especially red beetroot. Large quantities of beetroot waste are generated from harvesting and processing for human consumption, exploitation of these by-products would provide a sustainable source of polyphenols for use as feed supplements.**A further objective is to implement sustainable methods for efficient polyphenol extraction from agri-food by-products (AFBPs).** This is necessary to separate the polyphenols from the plant fibre which is undesirable. Fibre inclusion in piglet feed exacerbates gut health problems associated with weaning. Previously developed energy efficient 'green' extraction and purification methods will be evaluated and optimised to enable large-scale processing of beetroot by­products.**The innovative combination of scalable biorefining of AFBPs for sustainable production of polyphenol supplemented piglet feed will create significant benefits for the farming community.** Improved productivity and growth, with enhanced meat quality and product shelf-life, enable increased exports of pig products and reduced importation. AFBP exploitation will generate additional revenue streams for farmers, divert waste from landfill and help achievement of net-zero carbon emission targets. PolyPig will initially focus on extraction of polyphenols from red beetroot, however, other agricultural and food waste-streams can also be exploited.Additional opportunities for innovative animal feed formulations and new product development will be generated, whilst the biorefinery engineering designs developed during this project will be scalable and applicable to novel by-products. **Manufacturing of innovative animal feeds based on AFBP-derived supplementation will help grow the UK economy and create employment opportunities, while supporting a transition to a low-carbon circular bioeconomy.**