Breizh Algae Tour 2016: Thanks to Algae!

21-11-2016

The Breizh Algae Tour 2016 took place in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) from 13-17 November, 2016. This year's Olmix Group's annual meeting shed light on the more and moremore important topic of the healthy food chain and the Olmix Group's current programmes to grow plants, raise animals and process food without pesticides antibiotics and chemical additives.

With open arms, Amsterdam (the Netherlands) welcomed 400 delegates from 44 different countries that gathered together in the 'Venice of the North' to attend the Breizh Algae Tour 2016 and Melspring International B.V.'s 80 anniversary.

As if no time has passed from last year's Olmix Group's annual meeting, the event shed light on the more and more important topic of the healthy food chain. This challenge can be achieved through the presented innovative programmes to grow plants, raise animals and process food without pesticides antibiotics and chemical additives that Olmix Group is currently working on thanks to its algae technology and its unique active molecules: the MSPs (marine sulfated polysaccharides).

Sunday, 13 November: visit to the A'DAM Tower and welcome speech at Het Scheepvaartmuseum

The first day of the event gave it quite a special touch. After enjoying the magnificent view over Amsterdam from the A'DAM Tower, guests took a short boat trip to the National Maritime Museum, which opened its doors to hold the Breizh Algae Tour official kick-off. Olmix CEO Mr Hervé Balusson and Mr Jean-Marie Bocher, Melspring Managing Director, delivered an introduction speech in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

'It is a pleasure to open the Breizh Algae Tour 2016. This year's event will shed light on the incredible potential of algae and their specific extracts, the MSPs, in different markets worldwide', Mr Balusson said, while Mr Jean-Marie remarked that the Breizh Algae Tour is always an 'opportunity to exchange opinions and thoughts on how to build a healthy food chain to better feed 9 billion people in 2050'.

Monday, 14 November: conferences at the Ocean Diva boat

In order to face an intense day ahead, there was no better place than the Ocean Diva venue to hold the Breizh Algae Tour's symposium programme. Plenary sessions in the morning featured top-class speakers that dealed with diverse speeches related to the 'One Health, Thanks to Algae!' concept. They updated the audience on how algae can be a powerful tool to reduce antibiotics in livestock production and pesticide use in crop production.

Dr Martin Scholten, from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, kicked off the morning session by talking about the undiscovered nexus between livestock and seaweed production. Dr Scholten explained that 70% of the world is covered by oceans. 'We need the sea and there is a yield gap in the sea. We can harvest so much more valuable ingredients from the sea. The challenge is to apply these products in food and feed. Algae is a very interesting and valuable source of protein, lipids, but even more important, the fine biologically active elements contained in the algae, the so called marine sulphated polysaccharides [MSPs]', Scholten addressed. He also named the potential to 'further select and breed algae varieties, just like we did the last 50 years with rice and grains. There is a large variation of the algae found in the sea, and variation means that you can select!'.

Secondly, Dr Thomas P. Van Boeckel, postdoctoral research fellow at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) gave a nice overview of the antibiotics use in feed and the related antibiotic resistance. 'If we don't take actions, due to the increasing demand for meat consumption that is placing pressure for bacteria to evolve antibiotic resistant, use could rise with 67% resistance by 2030'. This is a worrying prediction, but luckily already several countries have taken the lead to take measures to reduce the antibiotic consumption. Dr Van Boeckel named the Netherlands as an example. 'This country invested in hygiene measure, nutrition and overall management, against relatively small investments by farmers [1,000 - 10,000 Euro]. However, these may be relatively high investments for famers in other regions of the world', Dr Van Boeckel said. He also mentioned that the approach of consumer media is influencing the way that people look at the use of antibiotics in livestock production. Some headlines in the US for example are very insinuating and have a huge effect on the public perception of agriculture and the way the food is produced: 'The public perception is changing and that is even stronger than legislation: the livestock sector has to listen to this'.

On the other hand, Olmix Group was represented on stage by Dr Thomas Pavie, Olmix's 'One Health' Director, and Mr Johannes Tuinhof, Melspring's Commercial Director.

Dr Pavie showed the way Olmix is working with the different products in its portfolio to get the best out of the animals without using antibiotics. 'The MSPs found in algae are unique components and a real treasure. They are known to have a positive effect on immunity and gut health, but also have potential to act as antimicrobials', Dr Pavie explained. Olmix has developed the SAGA concept, a programme including a range of products to boost immunity, gut health and reduce mycotoxins during the whole production period of the animals (for use by the farmer, products in the feed or products applied by the veterinarian). MSPs are an important part of this approach. 'The newly opened Breizh Algae School in France is teaching the farmers, vets and nutritionists about the right way to apply these products', Dr Pavie said.

Last, but not least, Mr Johannes Tuinhof explained the need to reduce pesticide use in the global crop production: 'The intensified use of current cropping systems has led to increased pesticide use. China is the biggest consumer of these products. But also North America and Europa are heavy users of pesticides. At Melspring we offer algae-based products that make the plants stronger and more resistant and increase its own stress relief possibilities, hence reducing the need for pesticides. It is the Integrated Plant Health Management approach. This is also beneficial when you think of the changing weather patterns (climate change) where plants will be more subjected to drought and increased rain in some parts of the world'. Mr Tuinhof addressed that the 'natural' approach of reducing pesticide use thanks to algae-based products is 'only possible with a change of attitude and a change of focus'.

Workshops in the afternoon: Animal Care, Plant Care and Human Care

After an intense and productive morning session, guests had the chance to choose between 3 different workshops, each of them focused on the Olmix Group's main strategic fields of activity: Animal Care, Plant Care and Human Care.

The animal care conference started with 2 plenary sessions. In the first one, Dr Carlos Mallman, from Laboratory of Mycotoxicological Analysis (LAMIC) at Santa Maria University, (Brazil), addressed the impact of mycotoxins on animal health and how fighting them can reduce the use of antibiotics in animal raising. He also showed the ways to evaluate the toxin binders that are used to fight this issue worldwide. Then, Mrs Julia Laurain, Technical service Manager for Europe at Olmix Group showed the extraordinary results that Olmix obtained with its toxin binder using this evaluation method. In the second one, Dr Alfons Jansman, Senior Scientist in Animal Nutrition at the Wageningen Livestock Research in Lelystad, delivered a speech focused on the multifactorial approach to gut health and immunity and how nutrition can play a key role in modulating the immune system. After that, Mr Matthieu Le Goff, Olmix's ForVet Product Manager showed the research conducted at INRA showing the inmonumodulatory activities of Olmix MSPs.

In the dairy session, Dr Frank van Eerdenburg, associate professor at the Veterinary Faculty of Utrecht University, presented the first results of the 'Sense of Sensors' project. Data from pedometers showed that you can detect ketosis in an early phase: 'To prevent problems, it's important to monitor activity post-partum and monitor feeding time pre-partum'. Also, Mr Piotr Cierpinski, from Olmix Technical Service, presented DigestSea, Olmix's solution that can help to prevent ketosis that has anti-hyperlipedemic activities. According to the French research institute 'Reseau Cristal', DigestSea lowers the ketone bodies and decreases weight loss after calving.

Later, Dr Jan Lievaart, owner of Dutch Hoof Health Center, discussed how we can prevent hoof problems and reduce the use of antibiotics. He showed in a practical and informative way that hoof health needs a multifactorial approach. Finally, Mr Franck Gaudin, Big Gain Inc's Dairy Business Director, explained the importance of digestive welfare during calve raising. He pointed out during his speech that 'there's a huge genetic potential, but we then need to make sure we feed the calves in the right way'. Mr Matthieu Le Goff showed that with Diet Powder we can protect the digestive tract to optimize performance. Diet Powder contains specific algae extracts which can protect the mucosa by stimulating the mucin production.

In the pig session, Mr Francesc Molist, PhD and Head of swine nutrition research group at Schothorst Feed Research (the Netherlands) highlighted the different factors able to influence the 'Digestibility in growing -fattening pigs'. He pointed out that technological processes can greatly influence the digestibility of feed and feedstuff. Feed additive can also be of great help. He finally concluded that it is crucial to find a balance between promoting feed efficiency and gut (stomach) health. To illustrate the talk, Mrs Marie Galissot, from the Olmix Technical Service, presented the positive effects on MFeed+ on pig ileal digestibilty obtained at INRA.

Mr John Vonk, Co-owner and swine vet of De Varkenspraktijk, Chairman of the Department for Pig Health within de Royal Dutch association for Veterinary Medicine, presented Dutch plan to reduce antibiotic use. The motivation of the whole chain has led to 56% reduction in 2015. He concluded that 'the success will only come if there is a better understanding between farmers and the people in the community they live in, in order we are all proud again of the achievements we reached together'. Mrs Julia Laurain went on stage again to share some data obtained with Ecopiglet, wich targets digestive welfare, on reduction of PED prevalence in piglets and thus helps to reduce antibiotic use.

Finally Mr Olivier Biannic, 'Antibiotic-free programmes thanks to algae' Manager at Olmix presented how to get better hygiene in the environment of sows and piglets. Then he illustrated the whole session with practical results obtained with in pig farm in France with the Olmix programmes. 'Antibiotic-free production is not easy, but it is possible!' he said.

In the poultry session, Dr Marinus van Krimpen, Senior Poultry Researcher at the Wageningen University Livestock research, gave a presentation on current developments on feed efficiency (technical performance evolution in the last decades) and nutritional support (amino acids requirements for maximal production) of feed efficiency in broilers. Dr Marinus stressed on the importance of the interaction between intestinal microbiota and protein digestion, including an interesting explanation of how feed additives can improve protein digestion. To conclude he explained how modern techniques are being used to study interactions between microbiota, host and nutrient supply that will allow a better understanding of gut health and immune competence and thus improved feed efficiency. To add some more information on this topic, Mrs Julia Laurain presented the latest results of MFeed+ broiler feed trial in which an improved performance within the MFeed+ group was observed.

On the other hand, Dr Gerwin Bouwhuis, poultry veterinarian and owner of the poultry veterinarian clinic GVP-Emmen shared with the audience the Dutch classification of pododermatitis lesions and the approach to the health and production problems caused by the onset of this disease. He also talked about the risk factors and implementation of prevention plans to fight against footpad lesions. Litter quality was named as one of the most important risk factors. Also, Mr Olivier Biannic gave a presentation about the use of Mistral in broilers production systems and how Mistral can be used as a tool to control litter quality which is one of the most important risk factors of pododermatitis.

To close this workshop, Mr Benoit Quero, poultry veterinarian and consultant gave a presentation on the importance of the first days of life in poultry species, the first week of life determines the health and technical performance of the whole production cycle. Mrs María Rodríguez, from the Olmix Technical Service, showed how specific algae extracts contained in SeaLyt are able to stimulate the production of mucin in the small intestine, which protects the gut mucosa and can be part of the management of young chicks.

In aquaculture the session started with Dr Johan Schrama, senior scientist at the Wageningen University and Research, Aquaculture and Fisheries Department, who presented 'Nutrient digestibility; a challenge for future research'. Many factors influence ingredient digestibility which is essential for aquafeed formulation, such as the increasing variation of ingredients being used, the processing of these ingredients, the different species for which feeds are being made, the varying environmental conditions and a lack of standardization to evaluate ingredient digestibility including the role exogenous enzymes may or may not play.

Dr Karin van de Braak, from Sustainable Aquaculture Solutions, presented the value of health management and how this helps reduce the risk of disease outbreaks on farms and surrounding areas, and therefore also the potential use of antibiotics to control these outbreaks. More attention should be paid in educating the smaller stake holder because added up these form a large part of aquaculture production in different areas of the world.

Mr Chris Mitchel, from Pharmaq, presented the importance of reducing antibiotic use and how fish vaccination has played a role in this in the UK. However, a lot still needs to be done in preventive treatments against disease outbreaks, because antibiotics are not an effective measure.

The session was closed with a summary presentation by Mr Maarten Jay van Schoonhoven, Aqua Care Manager for Olmix, who illustrated the role Olmix is playing in sustainable aquaculture, highlighting the growing risk of mycotoxins due to the increasing inclusion rates of plant based ingredients in aquafeeds, the difficulties due to variable digestibility of ingredients and finally the early successes of MSPs which promises to gain an important role in natural preventive measures against diseases and improved animal health.

As for the Plant Care Turf session, Mr Bruno Hedlund, chairman of the Scandinavian Turfgrass and Environment Research Foundation, highlighted the industrial scientific partner programme between STERF and Melspring, and how STERF is aiming for sustainable maintenance of turf without the use of pesticides. Mr Trygve S. Aamlid, research scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, described the ongoing research projects of NIBIO about the effects of the use of Melspring products on turf quality, how the first results are very promising and that NIBIO is looking forward to continue collaboration on the development of more sustainable solutions for golf courses and other turf grass areas. After that, Alejandro Reyes, golf course and real estate manager at Le Golf National explained about the challenges preparing for the Ryder Cup and how Melspring products have contributed to this process. Mrs Pi Nyvall Collen, Olmix Group R&D Manager, highlighted that algae contain different molecules providing nutritional and biological effects to the plants (nutrition, biostimulation and elicitation) and that Olmix and Melspring are experts in algae processing and algae based products. Due to this presentation a lot of the guests are now looking on algae differently. The Plant Care Turf workshops ended with an interactive discussion lead by Ton Terlouw, business development Plant Care Melspring, about Melspring's products and vision (Integrated Plant Health Management) and about the importance of feedback from Melspring's customers.

The Plant Care Horticulture & Field Crops session started with the explanation of the value of organic matter (by Mr Ton Terlouw) and algae (by Mrs Pi Nyvall Collen) in Melspring's Plant Care DNA. Melspring offers complete programmes that boost plants' resistance to environmental stressors to increase yield and crop quality while reducing the use of pesticides. Melspring's agronomical knowledge and experiences makes them unique in this area of the business. Therefore, Mr Henri Beekers, the new R&D manager of Melspring, described how to use these stones (DNA) to build the right concepts for sustainable horticulture and agriculture in the near future. The current R&D activities have developed from science into field practice, therefore a practical update was made by Mrs Sara Boeke, which she did consistent and emphasized that a promising future is ahead of us. The actual and really reproduction was told in an interactive leaded discussion by Mr Bart Hagenbeek and Mr Florian Tilly describing Melspring successes from all over the world, from France, Mali, Vietnam, United States and many more. The ultimate goal is to reach a more environmentally friendly form of crop farming to help feed the ever-growing world population more healthily. The general conclusion form the workshops is that there is a great future in front of us, we have to build the right data and work with a (great) focus towards the market.

In the Human Care workshops, professor Michel Neunlist, Director of research UMR INSERM U913, Neuropathies of the enteric nervous and digestive diseases, Nantes (France), started the Human Care session by presenting the central role of the gut in health and the correlated-evolution between brain and gut. He pointed out the post-natal period as key period for the development of gut and concluded by presenting an experiment where microbiota transplantation in mice affected their behaviour, showing how the gut influence the brain.

Then, Mr Attila Pulay, from the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Semmelweis University, Budapest (Hungary), explained how depression develops by presenting different models and highlighting the new hypothesis: the neuroinflammation model caused by the disordered communications between neurons and immune cells. Then he showed how antidepressants work and, despite their high efficiency pointed out important drawbacks of common antidepressants (side-effects, treatment issues). He concluded by explaining the importance to develop antidepressant targeting the immune system.

Later, Mr Hervé Demais, Scientific Advisor for Olmix Group, presented the results of a clinical trial in human evaluating the use of an algae extract (MSP) to decrease depression syndrome. This clinical study showed that the algae extract significantly improves the depressive component of subjects. These results offer prospectives for its potential use in daily clinical practice.

Finally, Mr Tony Da Cruz, Food Applications Project Manager for Olmix Group, showed how the food industry is moving to reflect consumers' desire for natural, healthy and trustworthy products. He highlighted the worldwide tremendous increase in clean-label products (additive-free, chemical-free, and allergen-free products) the last years. He showed how algae are an effective solution for clean-label formulation by presenting practical case studies of food products without additives thanks to algae.

Melspring's 80th Anniversary Gala Dinner

But the Breizh Algae Tour had yet more to offer. At night, the Ocean Diva turned its outdoor deck into a whole first-class lounge to hold the Melspring's 80th Anniversary. Accompanied by live music, one by one all delegations came up on stage and sing together some traditional songs from every different country gathered in the hall.

In this context, Mr Hervé Balusson took the lead and made the most important announcement of the night: Melspring's recent acquisition of Farmers House factory in Rogat, the Netherlands! With the acquisition of the factory Melspring is able to further develop innovative fertiliser solutions and to increase its production output to serve the growing demand Melspring's customers worldwide.

'A lot has changed in Melspring these past years. This announcement is very important for the Group and I am convinced we are going to work together towards a brilliant and very successful future', Mr Balusson said.

The Breizh Algae Tour ended in a warm atmosphere, where people could exchange and discuss their views and ideas about the seminar and plan further fruitful collaborations Thanks to Algae!

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