Research Profine: Adrienne Goode

Enzymes coupled with high-fiber feed could improve animal health.

Full story: http://www.ag.ncat.edu/research/research_11/ReSearch11.pdf#page=16

Adrienne Goode, an animal sciences major and undergraduate research scholar in A&T's Agricultural Research Program, carefully measures a powdery brown substance into a vial, places it in a caddy with similar vials, and lowers the assembly into a mechanical feed digester.
These are enzymes mixed with an experimental hog feed, she explains. And the reason she is studying them is that her faculty mentor, Dr. Abraham Woldeghebriel, earlier that year had discovered some interesting things about the experimental high-fiber feed: Namely, that it promoted faster growth and more robust health than commercial hog rations. There was also evidence that it might have reduced the incidence of scouring (diarrhea) in pigs, which is a costly problem for the hog industry. But that raised the question of how to make the fiber more digestible. Enzymes could be the answer, she says.
"We use this instrument to mimic what happens in the animal's digestive tract," Goode explains. "It's one of the scientific techniques I'm learning here."
Information gleaned from the laboratory process can provide leads that will enable further studies on real animals, she says. After collecting data from the mechanical digester, Goode will next feed hogs at the University Farm and collect data there. Her research observations will include growth rate comparisons, scouring incidence and the number of pathogenic organisms in the digestive tracts of animals fed the experimental feed and those fed conventional feed. Then, along with the other research scholars, she will present her observations at a professional conference. Maybe one day, the findings could result
in better feed and healthier animals for the benefit of the hog industry. After all, the feeds commonly used today were once the products of research at a land-grant university or U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) laboratory.

Aiding industry
Goode and Woldeghebriel are experimenting with enzymes provided by Dyadic International, an industrial enzymes manufacturer that maintains a research and development lab in Greensboro. The enzymes are used to soften natural fiber fabrics, but after a company representative gave a presentation at A&T, Woldeghebriel got the idea to try it on his experimental, high-fiber feed, to see if it renders it more digestible. If so, it could open a new market for Dyadic, while also benefiting the pork industry with an improved, digestible, high-fiber feed, he says. That's how research progresses, with one idea building on another, Woldeghebriel adds.
"I thought, well, if it works on cotton fibers, it might work on food fibers too," he says.
The impetus for his and Goode's research comes from the growing interest in antibiotic-free feed alternatives. For at least the past 40 years, animals raised in close confinement have been routinely fed small levels of antibiotics to keep disease down, and to promote rapid growth and efficient feed conversion. But public concerns about antibiotic-resistant pathogens are gradually putting a halt to the practice, and the livestock industry is looking to researchers for alternatives that will keep feed prices low and production high. The addition of friendly bacteria known as probiotics has emerged as one of the most promising alternatives. High-fiber feed helps these bacteria flourish, which is where Woldeghebriel and Goode's study comes in, and where enzymes also enter the picture. They could make the fiber more readily available during digestion.
Dyadic currently manufactures enzymes for paper and textile industries, but is interested in the animal feed market as well, said Wes Lowry, applications lab manager for the company's Greensboro office.
"This is a nice little study," he said. "We're kind of new in the animal feed market, so the kind of work you (A&T) do there is really good for us."

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Education

Tags:

• Adrienne Goode
• NC A&T State University
• Animal Science