Improving animal health with eco-healthy solutions

4th General Assembly in Tenerife (Spain)

November 28, 2023

Interview with Raquel Ausejo (Magapor) in ASAJA Magazine

January 29, 2024

Published by CTA_Angela on November 29, 2023

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In this success story NeoGIANT is developing innovative sustainable alternatives using grape marc to protect food production in the future.

Given the increasingly uncertain environmental conditions and Europe’s move towards sustainable production and consumption this project contributes to developing circular value chains in the global agri-food sector.

About NeoGIANT

NeoGiANT aims to improve the health and welfare of animals while reducing microbial resistance and ensuring a sustainable farm animal production.

NeoGiANT promotes holistic practices to reduce the risk of animal disease outbreaks whilst using natural compounds to fight the spread of pathogens and microbial growth. This enables animal rearing strategies which avoid the use of antibiotics.

Description of success

Grapes are the Solution: NeoGiANT offers innovative solutions based on the bioproperties of grape marc extracts.

Suitable bioactive molecules from white grape marc are identified and their beneficial properties validated (e.g., antimicrobial, antioxidant) before being recovered. These are then matched with sustainable sourcing and processing methods so they can be efficiently and cost-effectively used in animal production.

NeoGiANT validates solutions to ensure a sustainable food production in the future and move Europe towards a resource-smart, climate-smart, and “eco-healthy” production and consumption.

Highlights

Products obtained in NeoGiANT will be used for feeding, and animal therapeutical applications and will deliver a variety of benefits:

Environmental: Use of viticulture by-products as raw material, use of green technologies, zero waste process.
Economic: The functional products will be obtained through sustainable circular economy production systems, contributing to the reduction of costs in farms and the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Social: NeoGiANT products have antioxidant and health protective attributes. The reduction in the usage of antibiotics in farming will also lead to a subsequent reduction in the antimicrobial resistance of bacteria in humans.

Outputs

A cost-efficient, sustainable, and circular solution for antimicrobial resistance
Reduction of antibiotics in animal production
Improved animal welfare
A new value chain for the wine sector

Impact

Decreasing the dependency on antimicrobials in animal production and aquaculture.
Providing sufficient, safe, nutritious, healthy, and affordable food for all.
Improving the overall sustainability and resilience of food systems.
Reducing the EU sales of synthetic antimicrobials for farmed animals and in aquaculture by 50% by 2030.

Lessons

The most valuable conclusion is the need to develop sustainable alternatives to ensure sustainable food production in the future, considering the increasingly uncertain environmental conditions and move towards resource-smart, climate-smart, and “eco-healthy” production and consumption, while developing circular value chains in the global agri-food sector.