SBIR-STTR Award

Consumer pressure is forcing the egg industry to move towards cage free production. In addition, the Veterinary Feed Directive will significantly restrict the use of antibiotics in animal production. One of the primary consequences of these changes is that significantly more pressure will be put on the immune system of poultry; therefore, egg and poultry producers will need to seek novel solutions that will promote the health of their birds while maintaining optimal efficiency and profitability. The primary goal of this Phase I research is to prove the feasibility of using NutraMaize's high carotenoid orange corn in feed to protect poultry from disease. This will be accomplished by testing orange corn's effectiveness in lowering the rate and severity of coccidiosis and footpad dermatitis in broilers. A secondary goal will be to demonstrate that orange corn is an effective method for coloring egg yolks and broiler skin. If the proposed research is successful and NutraMaize's orange corn is adopted for commercial use in the diet of poultry, it has the potential to help improve animal welfare and decrease economic losses associated with disease such as decreased feed efficiency, mortality and carcass condemnation.

This project seeks to demonstrate that NutraMaize's nutritionally enhanced Orange Corn has thepotential to transform the United States' largest animal feed crop - corn - into a vehicle fordelivering more health-benefitting antioxidant carotenoids to both poultry and consumers.Orange Corn gets its color from significantly enhanced levels of carotenoids potent antioxidantsand anti-inflammatory agents that provide a variety of benefits to both humans and animals. Theuse of Orange Corn to enhance the levels of these beneficial antioxidants in poultry feed has thepotential to significantly improve animal well-being as measured by animal welfare andproduction metrics which would in turn improve producer profitability by reducing lossesassociated with poor animal health. This approach also has the potential to significantly enhancethe levels of health-benefitting antioxidant carotenoids in eggs an important protein source forAmericans.There are three primary objectives of this project: (1) demonstrate that Orange Corn can produceeconomically relevant health benefits for poultry (2) demonstrate that Orange Corn can enhancethe nutritional and functional quality of the animal products produced from birds fed OrangeCorn and (3) demonstrate that Orange Corn can meet the needs of the poultry industry by beingproduced efficiently and affordably. If successful this project will position NutraMaize OrangeCorn to make a meaningful impact on the well-being of both poultry and American consumersby increasing the amount of health-benefitting antioxidant carotenoids in their diets.