On March 27, the Third Suifeng Feed Nutrition Forum hosted by Guangzhou Feed Industry Association was held in Nanjing city, China. Dr. Xue Lin, the Technology Director of Guangzhou Tanke Bio-tech Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Tanke"), delivered a technical presentation on "Improving quality and efficiency, starting from ‘micro’ mineral - Qilimix granulated organic mineral premix". She said that, the application of trace mineral in feed should be considered the homeostasis between minerals, which not only reduces the antagonism between minerals, but also improves the bioavailability of minerals.

In the practical breeding, laying hens are extremely sensitive to various environmental and management factors, and are easily suffered from various stresses, which results in oxidative stress damage in the body, decrease of laying performance and eggshell quality.

Dr. Xue Lin said that, for the growth of animals, on the one hand, trace minerals play a very important role in the growth of the skeletal system, which will determine the subsequent growth and egg production performance. On the other hand, the proportion of trace minerals in the feed formula is very small, but they participate in almost all metabolic activities of the body. They are essential nutrients and components of the animal body, and have irreplaceable physiological and biochemical effects. As the constituent and active component center of a variety of enzymes, trace minerals regulate the metabolic process of energy, protein and other nutrients in animals at various levels from digestion, absorption and utilization. They also regulate the endocrine system, ion balance and osmotic pressure in the body.

Dr. Xue Lin emphasized that the supplementation of trace minerals should be considered the dynamic balance between minerals. A complete laying cycle takes about 24.5 hours. Thereinto, the egg shell glandundergoes biomineralization of calcium for 10-12 h to form the eggshell and then excrete it. Here, zinc is the structural and activating factor of carbonic anhydrase, which directly influences the deposition of calcium carbonate in eggshell formation. Therefore, good eggshell quality requires that the egg shell gland fluid has enough calcium ions and enough zinc ions activated to form carbonate ions. High calcium is required in the diet of laying hens, but calcium and zinc antagonize each other, high calcium will inevitably affect the utilization of zinc. Simply increasing zinc level will antagonize copper, manganese... and then results in secondary trace mineral deficiency, leading to eggshell quality reduction and serious bone problems. Besides, the laying peak will cause serious damage to the reproductive tract of laying hens, which will aggravate the above problems.

Dr. Xue Lin indicated that, the digestive tract of poultry is short, the residence time of chyme is short, so diet digestion does’t completed. In addition, poultry are more likely to eat relatively bigger particles of feed due to their sharp beak, resulting in powder deposition at the bottom of the trough, and the total intake of trace mineral is seriously unbalanced. Therefore, we should pay attention to the application of granulating technology to guarantee the dynamic balance of trace minerals.

Over 26 years, Tanke Industry Group has focused on the R&D and application of organic trace minerals. The top sale products QILI mono-mineral amino acid chelates are produced by state-of-the-art technology, have high bioavailability, high stability and high safety. Besides, in order to supply balanced mineral nutrition according to the different requirement of poultry in different stages, Qilimix granulated organic mineral premixes were developed. Firstly, Qilimix could adapt to the pecking habits of poultry and improve the intake rate of trace minerals. Secondly, the granulated mineral premix could avoid stratification in feed processing, and reduce waste. Thirdly, Qilimix lengthens the staying time of minerals in muscular stomach and improve the utilization of trace minerals, and finally improve the health and growth performance of poultry.