10th International LEVUCELL SB technical meeting: from a ‘gut feeling’ to metagenomics…

Lallemand Animal Nutrition’s 10th International LEVUCELL SB technical meeting organized in Münster, Germany, gathered around 160 swine professionals from more than 20 different countries (Germany, but also all around Europe, Asia, North and South America, South Africa and Australia). This tenth edition was the occasion for Yannig Le Treut, a pioneer in the application of this specific live yeast in sow and piglet nutrition, to recap the story of Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. boulardii CNCM I-1079 (LEVUCELL SB) modes of action and benefits in sows, from a “gut feeling” to solid science to back it up. International experts, such as Dr Jean Noblet from France and Professor Bruno Silva from Brazil, brought their contribution on swine metabolism.

Once again, the swine gut microbiota was the common thread of this seminar, from the sow to the piglet, which, with the advent of the “omics” technologies has come to a new age. This was the topic developed by Dr. Caroline Achard, research scientist at Lallemand Animal Nutrition.

As Dr. Mathieu Castex, R&D Director for Lallemand Animal Nutrition said, “the company is committed to invest more and more in the new generation omics technologies to better understand swine gut microbiota and its interactions with the host,” predicting a bright future for the probiotic yeast story!

Imourana Alassane-Kpembi, Researcher at INRA-Toxalim in Toulouse, brought an immunity angle to the live yeast modes of action, focusing on mycotoxins as a model of gut health and immunity challenge.

Finally, science would be worthless if it could not be applied to the field. This is why the seminar was concluded by Raúl Herrer-Barcos, swine vet. at french coop. La Cavac, who shared his experience of reducing antimicrobials in piglets feed.