Proposal for a New COST Action

171stCSO meeting – 18/19 June 2008

Proposal for a new COST Action

COST Action FA0802

“Feed for health”

Proposer: / Dr. Luciano PINOTTI
University of Milan- Dept. of Veterinary Sciences and Technology for Food Safety -VSA
Researcher
Via Trentacoste 2
20134 Milano
Italy
E-mail:
COST National Coordinator: / Ms Maria UCCELLATORE
Ministry of Education, Universities and Research Piazza J.F. Kennedy, 20
00144 Roma
Italy
Tel: +39 06 58497639/7742
E-mail:
Domain: / Food and Agriculture (FA)

DRAFT

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

For the implementation of a European Concerted Research Action designated as

COST Action FA0802

Feed for health

The Parties to this “Memorandum of Understanding”, declaring their common intention to participate in the concerted Action referred to above and described in the “technical Annex to the Memorandum”, have reached the following understanding:

1. The Action will be carried out in accordance with the provisions of document COST 270/07 “Rules and Procedures for Implementing COST Actions”, or in any new document amending or replacing it, the contents of which the Parties are fully aware of.
2. The main objective of the COST Action is to develop an integrated and collaborative network of research groups that focuses on the roles of feed and animal nutrition in improving animal health and also the quality, safety and wholesomeness of human foods of animal origin.
3. The economic dimension of the activities carried out under the Action has been estimated, on the basis of information available during the planning of the Action, at Euro 40million in 2007prices.
4. The Memorandum of Understanding will take effect on being accepted by at least five Parties.
5. The Memorandum of Understanding will remain in force for a period of 4years, calculated from the date of the first meeting of the Management Committee, unless the duration of the Action is modified according to the provisions of ChapterV of the document referred to in Point1 above.

A. ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS

As in human nutrition, concepts in animal nutrition are changing. Optimal nutrition is now considered fundamental whereas in the past adequate nutrition was considered sufficient. Optimal nutrition implies that feeds must be considered not only in terms of their nutritional properties but also in terms of their ability to promote health and protect against disease. The health of the animal is fundamental in determining the quality, safety and wholesomeness of foods of animal origin for human consumption. This COST Action aims to create a research network concerned with: the role of animal nutrition in improving animal health; the role of animal nutrition in designing functional foods for humans; and the development of the concepts of feed safety, feed quality and feed functionality, as counterparts of these ideas as they are currently applied foods for humans. The main task of the network will be to promote the acquisition and facilitate the dissemination of knowledge in these areas and encourage cooperation between various groups working in the area.

Keywords: Feed, food, health, safety, functional food, functional feed

B. BACKGROUND
B.1 General background

As in human nutrition, concepts in animal nutrition are changing. Optimal nutrition is now considered fundamental, whereas in the past adequate nutrition was considered sufficient. Optimal nutrition implies that feeds must be considered not only in terms of production efficiency but also in term of their ability to promote health and protect against disease. The health of the animal is fundamental for determining the quality, safety and wholesomeness of foods of animal origin for human consumption. These new nutritional concepts need to be developed and disseminated, and the health-promoting aspects of feeds and feed components need to be optimised. To do this, research on the relationship between bio-active components in feed and bio-active components in foods is necessary, as is research on health-promoting aspects of feeds (e.g. in areas such as the maintenance of gastrointestinal integrity, maturation and potentation of the immune system and modulation of oxidative stress).

Attention to health-promotion and animal wellbeing in animal production is also important to satisfy consumer demands for increased food quality and food safety. Wholesome and balanced feed is essential not only for promoting animal growth, production and health, but also for producing high quality food products. This is particularly likely to be true in large scale animal production, where nutrition-based interventions for health can offer a practical and efficient solution to maintaining animal health.

Thus, animal nutrition and human nutrition are intimately linked: Foods of animal origin are an important source of human nutrients, furnishing about 60%, 55%, 20% and 20% of the dietary intake of calcium, protein, iron, and vitamin A, respectively, in western countries. Furthermore, the concentrations of many specific nutrients (e.g. omega 3 fatty acids, CLA, vitamins, and trace elements) in animal derived foods can be enhanced by modifying the diet of the animals. A major advantage of augmenting some of these nutrients in foods of animal origin by animal nutrition rather than by fortification, is that they can also safeguard the health of the animal. Although it is known that certain components of some animal-derived foods, particularly saturated fatty acids, have potentially negative effects on human health, it is also known that their occurrence in foods of animal origin is not fixed and can vary considerably in response to changes in the animals diet. The lipid content and fatty acid composition of various animal-derived foods can be manipulated by animal nutrition. This feed-to-food approach makes it possible to reposition animal products as key foods for the delivery of important nutrients to humans. The modern consumer demands natural, fresh and nutritious foods but also functional foods that can have health benefits. As a consequence, the role of animal nutrition in designing foods closer to the optimum composition for long-term human health are becoming increasingly important.

Several issues have severely shaken the publics confidence in the quality and wholesomeness of foods of animal origin. These include the outbreak of mad-cow disease, repeated episodes of dioxin and mycotoxin contamination, use of antibiotics in farm animals and foods exacerbating the problem of resistant bacteria, and the reluctance of manufacturers to adequately label their food products (e.g. by specifying that they contain ingredients from genetically modified organisms). As a result farmers, nutritionists, industry and governments have been obliged to pay serious attention to animal feedstuff production processes, and have acknowledged that animal feed safety is an essential prerequisite for human food safety. Concerns about these issues have produced a number of important effects including the ban on the use of processed animal proteins, the ban on the addition of most antimicrobials to farm animals diets for growth-promotion purposes, and the implementation of feed contaminant regulations in the EU.

The economic dimension of feed production system also needs to be considered. The latest review of livestock production and trade (FEFAC, 2006) indicates that more than 45 million tonnes of meat, and more than 135 million tonnes of milk and eggs were produced in the EU in 2006. To sustain this scale of livestock production, about 450 million tonnes of feedstuffs are required each year within the EU-25. Clearly, ensuring such high outputs of these traded products conform to adequate quality standards is a major undertaking and it is fair to say that the EU has made significant progress in defining standards and promoting legislation in this area. As a consequence the explicit and detailed formulation of the concepts of food/feed safety and food/feed quality, has given rise, within the EU, to legislation on the traceability, control and labelling of both feed and food. The result is that feedstuffs are now required to be equivalent to foods in terms of nutritional quality, technical aspects, safety and so forth. Nevertheless special attention has to be paid to non-EU countries exporting feed to the EU, in particular developing countries which often have climates that favour microbial and fungal contamination, less structured supply chains, and limited resources to conduct monitoring and testing, so that health and safety problems may be more likely to arise in products from these countries.

B.2 Current state of knowledge

Several nutritional and safety issues are already under investigation or have been addressed by national or European research projects. Multidisciplinary projects concerned with the production of conjugated linoleic acid- enriched dairy products [BIOCLA], the role of dietary lipids in metabolic syndrome and interaction with genotype [LIPGENE], quantitative effects of the presence of contaminants (dioxin, PCB, PAH, PBDE) and lipid degradation products in feeding fats on the quality of meat obtained, as well as data on repercussions of these contaminants and degradation products on animal health and productivity [FEEDING FATS SAFETY] are nearing completion. Safety-oriented projects on screening and identification of methods for the control of banned animal by-products [STRATFEED, SAFEED-PAP], antibiotics and growth promoters [SIMBAG FEED] and for the monitoring and control of mycotoxins in feedstuffs [EMAN, COFIN 2003, COFIN 2005], have been proposed and funded by the EU or by national agencies.

Other ongoing EU projects [REPLACE, Feed for PIG HEALTH and SAFEWASTES] are concerned with improving feeds and developing healthy feeds to promote the health of livestock and of humans . In this area attention has focused on feed additives that can be used as alternatives to the growth-promoters recently banned by EU. In animal production, the terms "growth promoter", and "performance enhancer" include various types of product from simple chemicals to antibiotics. The continuous low level feeding (growth-promotion or sub-therapeutic use) of certain antibiotics improves feed intake, growth rate, and feed conversion efficiency in several farm species. Only a restricted number of antibiotics have been used for growth promotion in recent years, and these have no role in human medicine, and little or no role in animal medicine.

Another concern in the area of animal nutrition and livestock production is that feed markets are growing and feed production is in direct competition human food production and bio-fuel production. The competition is likely to affect feed price and availability.

B.3 Reasons for the Action

Connections between feed, animal health, animal nutrition and healthy animal products for humans have been mainly investigated considering one or a limited number of nutrients at a time. Feed safety aspects have also been investigated on a piecemeal basis: at the level of individual contaminants. Furthermore there is little if any cross-talk (pooling of experience) between the world of large scale land livestock production and aquaculture. The recent expansion of the EU to 25 countries has meant that food production systems across the Union are even more heterogeneous than before. For all these reasons a research network specifically concerned with pooling, integrating and disseminating information in nutritional optimization and safety of all food-producing animals (including fish) is highly desirable. This FEED FOR HEALTH Cost Action will involve the formation of multi-disciplinary group of researchers whose tasks will be to integrate existing and new knowledge, pool expertise and experience, and generally cooperate in the feed food - health and safety triangle (see Figure 1). This cross-disciplinary collaboration will have the effects of increase the competitiveness of the EU livestock production system, and of renewing and enhancing public perception of this system.

Figure 1. The Feed food - health and safety

B.4 Complementarity with other research programmes

The COST Action instrument will offer an optimal framework for both, integrating research, and capitalise the EU-6 Framework Programme projects results on feeds, livestock and food safety. This is important because, in the ongoing EU-7 Framework Programme, most attention has focused on fields of primary production other than feeds and feed safety.

C. OBJECTIVES AND BENEFITS
C.1 Main/primary objectives

The main aim of the COST Action is to develop an integrated and collaborative network of research groups that focuses on the roles of feed and animal nutrition in improving animal health and also the quality, safety and wholesomeness of human foods of animal origin.

C.2 Secondary objectives

This aim implies the facilitation of cross-talk between research projects and groups that are studying areas such as:

Animal nutrition and its effects on the health and well-being of food-producing animals.

Land animals nutrition and aquaculture nutrition.

Feed production systems and technology for improving animal performance and welfare.

Analysis of feeds with the aims of improving nutritional value, identifying new quality markers and developing reliable methods of feed authentication and detection of contaminants.

Relations between feed and food safety and feed and food quality and functionality.

Protocols and models quantify bioavailability and functionality of specific compounds and nutrients in feed and food.

Design of functional and nutritious foods of animal origin that can have human health benefits over and above basic nutrition.

Additional objectives will be to facilitate standardization of protocols, the collection storage and statistical analysis of data, and cross-fertilization in animal and human nutrition research.

C.3 How will the objectives be achieved?

Members of the network will pool their profession knowledge and experience with consumer perceptions, in order reach an understanding of the socioeconomic factors that affect the supply and demand of foods of animal origin.

The Action will therefore not only promote the acquisition and integration of knowledge, facilitate the dissemination of information, and encourage cooperation, but also identify new areas of research, identify trends and suggest policies, and promote and optimise collaboration in research on the integration of animal and human nutrition.

C.4 Benefits of the Action

The major benefit of the Action will be at the research level. Because funding from governments and industry for research into feedstuffs and farm animal nutrition is reducing (although interest pet nutrition is expanding), there is a growing need to optimize research in this area, and this is a principal aim of the COST Action. In addition, the network will allow dissemination of result and experience carried out at National and Regional levels.

A further research-related benefit will be that it will create of a training and exchange program, for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and young researchers focused on feed and animal health.

C.5 Target groups/end users

Beneficiary and users of the expected results of the Action will be:

European Institutions. The results provided by the Action may serve as basis for suggesting new regulations in the areas of feed, livestock production, and food.

Feed and food agencies and authorities The results obtained will be useful for developing and promoting the concepts that feed and food safety, and feed and food quality and functionality, are equivalent. These developments are expected to contribute to the development of methods to test unsubstantiated claims for feed and food properties, with possible implications for labeling.

Control of feed and food quality and safety. By networking research groups that are studying different aspects of feed quality and safety it will be possible to improve the availability of methods for feed authentication and detection of contaminants, contributing to the improvement of existing control systems across the EU.

Livestock production system. A succession food crisis has severely shaken the publics’ confidence in the livestock production and food supply systems. The dissemination of the results generated by the Action will improve confidence in food products from animals, and enhance public perception of their value. This Action will provide an opportunity to integrate within a single network the work and the results of research groups in land animal production and aquaculture, with expected cross fertilization benefits.

European consumers. One result of the Action will be to improve the quality of information available to the consumer, to thereby increase awareness about animal food production and control systems, and as a consequence, improve consumer confidence in the quality and safety of animal food products (which in some cases are considered suspicious).

D. SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME
D.1 Scientific focus

The scientific programme is that of setting up an integrated and competitive research network to attain the following goals:

Improvement of animal nutrition research and development new nutritional concepts (e.g. bioactive components of food, functional additives of feed and feed).

Better understanding of the role of animal nutrition in the design of foods closer to an optimum composition that promotes long-term human health.

Promotion of the concepts that feed and food safety, and feed and food quality and functionality are substantially equivalent.

Improvement of consumer confidence in the safety of food products of animal origin.

Assessment of consumer attitudes to functional foods of animal origin.

The scientific programme was developed by scientists from 18 institutes in 13 COST countries, to achieve the objectives set out in Section B. The programme activities will be assigned to four Working Groups (WGs) that will remain in close contact, exchanging ideas and information, throughout the period of the Action. The four Working Groups proposed are: WG1 Feed & food for health; WG2 Feed safety; WG3 Feed supply; WG4 Consumer concerns and perceptions

Working Group 1 Feed and food for health. This WG will integrate and collate basic knowledge on (a) the roles of feed and feed components in animal health, and (b) the role of animal nutrition in designing functional foods. The study of the bioactivity and functionality with regard to feed components is only at the beginning. Little is known about the potential benefits of either mixtures of nutrients or specific substances on animal health, and although many are reported to have positive effects (such as controlling enteric infections) many claims have not be substantiated scientifically. Furthermore little information is available on how it may be possible to increase the bioactive-nutrient content of animal products by animal nutrition so as to produce new functional foods. An attractive way of enhancing levels of health-promoting constituents of animal products is by direct interventions at the level of the nutrition of the animals themselves. Such interventions are expectednot only enhance nutrient bioavailability in food products for humans, but also to improve public perception of foods of animal origin, since many nutrient (e.g. vitamins) can also safeguard animal health. Thus it is important to develop protocols and models (in vitro and animal) to quantify the bio-accessibility and bioavailability of bioactive components. Another area pertinent to feed and health is the ban of growth-promoting antibiotics. It is important to identify and develop alternatives to these substances. Although, projects are already addressing this issue, and a initial attempt at networking research groups in the area of plant-derived feed additives was made in FEED-SEG, the creation of a network that includes groups that are studying other feed additives will be very useful.