Dr Ajay Awati, Senior Scientist at Danisco Animal Nutrition, a subsidiary of DuPont Industrial Biosciences, will present a lecture on the topic ‘The Role of Probiotics in Animal Production Profitability and Sustainability’ at Animal Nutrition 2014 on Wednesday 22 October 2014 at 16:00 hours.

The topics that Dr Awati, a qualified vet and doctor of Animal Sciences with over ten years of experience in the feed industry and an extensive back catalogue of peer-reviewed publications, will cover in his talk include:

• The sustainability and profitability challenges that animal production is facing now and could face in the future
• The symbiotic relationship between nutrition, the gut microbiota and immunity, and how probiotics can help address physiological challenges and improve healthy bird performance
• The role that probiotics can play in resolving external sustainability and profitability challenges, such as pollution and food safety

Dr Awati will argue that profitability and sustainability challenges can mainly be met by supporting the development of healthy gastrointestinal micro-biota. He will also reveal newly published research that points to the vital role that probiotics have played in resolving poultry production challenges such as foot pad dermatitis and necrotic enteritis (NE).

Dr Awati commented: “Numerous scientists have made the connection between healthy nutrition, a balanced gut micro-flora and animal immunity and performance. In my talk, I look at how probiotics can help solve sustainability and profitability challenges posed by animal physiology and ‘gut reactions’ and how this can be of broader benefit in terms of reducing pollution, increasing liveability and improving food safety and quality.”