Chitosan as an environmentally friendly animal feed additive
Chitosan as an environmentally friendly animal feed additive
Chitosan is a sugar found in the outer covering of crustaceans in the form of chitin. Deacetylation of chitin forms chitosan [1]. It is a biodegradable, non-toxic and biocompatible polygluchitosanamine. It has amino and hydroxyl groups being essential reactive functional groups. It is being used in Veterinary feeds and medicines due to having multiple beneficial effects on the health of animals. Chitosan has an ability of simplifying the ruminant bacterial community structures hence inhibiting the production of methane gas if added as a feed additive in ruminant’s feeds [2].
Chitosan can be produced in bulk as the world contains a huge quantity of crustaceans and more can easily be produced due to their rapidly growing ability. About 7.9 million tons of crustaceans are produced annually by farming and fishery only in very few countries so it can be increased by spreading awareness of benefits. So, in countries having a large coastal area it is now an opportunity to use the crustaceans in their oceans to produce chitosan in bulk as a new feed additive for ruminant feed to get more production by lowering methane production. The use of chitosan in feed is environment friendly as it minimizes methane production which alone is a cause of roughly 30% of global warming being a powerful greenhouse gas.
References
- Kamal, M., Youssef, I. M., Khalil, H. A., Ayoub, M. A., & Hashem, N. M. (2022). Multifunctional role of chitosan in farm animals: a comprehensive review. Annals of Animal Science.
- Tong, J. J., Zhang, H., Jia, W. A. N. G., Yun, L. I. U., Mao, S. Y., Xiong, B. H., & Jiang, L. S. (2020). Effects of different molecular weights of chitosan on methane production and bacterial community structure in vitro. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 19(6), 1644-1655.
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Dr. Aashir Naeem Qureshi – LinkedIn
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