Study of students and scientists of PNRPU will help make animal food more useful

Therefore, microbial biopreparations (probiotics, prebiotics and symbiotics) are now used as an alternative. They are environmentally safe and do not cause side effects, and also have a positive effect on the microflora of the gastrointestinal tract, which allows you to maintain the HEALTH of farm animals and birds.

But the production of such drugs is not cheap, and therefore today a search is underway for a better and cheaper substitute. Scientists at the Perm Polytechnic University have identified factors that improve the biosynthesis of essential enzymes, and have also created a technology that will make food for animals more useful.

The development was carried out as part of the program of strategic academic leadership "Priority 2030".

An article with the results of the study was published in the journal Vestnik PNRPU. Chemical technology and biotechnology”.

To date, bran, which is a waste product of grain production, is used as an additive in the feed of farm animals and birds. To improve the digestibility of protein components, enzyme preparations are added to them, due to which the amount of amino acids and peptides in the feed composition increases. Such biological products are made on the basis of animal tissues, but their cost is very high and unprofitable for agricultural producers. Polytechnics believe that it is possible to replace the enzyme component with a safe bacterium of the Bacillus subtilis species, which can be easily grown on grain production waste.

- Spore-forming bacteria of the genus Bacillus secrete special enzymes that “process” indigestible bran feed into easily digestible proteins and amino acids. In the course of the work, we have optimized the nutrient medium for the growth of microorganisms and the production of proteolytic enzymes. In the initial experiments, protein was added in the form of albumin and casein. Further, in order to optimize, we chose waste: sunflower meal (a by-product in the production of vegetable oils) and wheat bran, that is, animal protein was replaced with vegetable protein. And instead of peptone and yeast extract, they began to use urea as a nitrogen source to reduce the cost of the nutrient medium, - says Anna Portnova, associate professor of the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, PNRPU, Candidate of Chemical Sciences.

During the study, scientists cultivated the bacterium of the species Bacillus subtilis in a nutrient medium containing a set of salts that provided the need for microorganisms in magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium ions, as well as 5% bran. As a source of carbon polytechnics used glucose in various concentrations. They introduced a culture of bacteria into nutrient media in an amount of 1%. Next, the scientists carried out incubation in a thermostatic rocking chair, observing a temperature of + 370 C and a stirring speed of 130 rpm. Every 24 hours, they determined the amount of amino acids formed.

- According to the results of cultivation, it can be concluded that proteolytic enzymes have a good effect on the waste added to the media. By breaking down proteins into amino acids, they convert them into a more accessible, more easily digestible form for consumption by farm animals. The proteolytic activity of the obtained feed additive is 0.025 units per 1 gram of bran and its cost is lower than that of its analogue, for example, Protosubtilin. In addition, we calculated the application rates of the drug in bird feed. In comparison with other additives, ours is quite convenient to add to the feed mixture, - says Elena Kravtsova, a student of the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, PNRPU.

Based on the data that the scientists obtained during the experiment, a bioreactor with a stirrer for the culture liquid used to enrich wheat bran was designed, and a technological scheme was developed for obtaining a feed additive based on Bacillus subtilis bacteria and bran for the purpose of saving resources in agriculture.

Research by scientists from the Perm Polytechnic University will help make the nutrition of farm animals more healthy and safe. The development will allow abandoning the preventive use of antibiotics in animal husbandry, and will also be able to solve the problems of import substitution in the field of feed additives for agriculture.