14:28 PM | November 19, 2020 | Emmy Koeleman
The role of animal nutrition, and in particular the use of feed additives, in animal health is stronger than ever. IHS Markit Animal Health correspondent Emmy Koeleman takes a closer look at the major companies that may now be considered leading players in an ever-expanding animal care sector. The research around feed additives and their contribution to animal health has been intensifying tremendously over recent years. Farmers, nutritionists and veterinarians are increasingly looking at certain feed additives to target particular problems on farms, such as laminitis or mastitis in ruminants, post-weaning diarrhea in pigs or digestive problems in poultry. A large proportion of the feed additives that enter the market strongly focus on preventing diseases by: increasing immunity and reducing oxidative stress in tissues; reducing the bad bacteria load in the gut; and/or restoring the bacteria balance in the digestive system. Therefore, feed additives often contain a mix of different molecules – for example, a prebiotic and probiotic or a plant extract and an organic acid in one product – to have a health-promoting and economic effect (improved digestibility, feed intake and growth). The global feed additive sector is growing at a fast pace for all species and across all regions. The poultry segment continues to see the biggest growth, due to its size and the fact poultry meat is consumed everywhere around the world. The region with the fastest growth in feed additive use is Asia Pacific, while North America is the largest producer of feed additives. Below are the leading businesses that own animal feed additive divisions or subsidiaries. Increased knowledge of the health-promoting effects of feed additives, combined with consumer focus on animal wellbeing and the need to further reduce the total use of antibiotics for farm animals around the world, has significantly boosted the growth and sales of feed additive companies over the last several years. As well as organic growth, many firms have been boosted by acquisitions. While takeovers are a common phenomenon in the core animal health industry, this trend is also emphasized in the animal nutrition sector. Large ‘traditional’ animal nutrition companies are buying more specialized, smaller feed additive companies. A recent example of this is the A major acquiror of feed additive businesses over the last 10 years is US-based Cargill. In 2011, the company – with more than €95.6bn in annual revenues and 166,000 employees – completed the An interesting range of takeovers have been executed by China's Bluestar Group, which is the largest subsidiary of ChemChina (a Fortune 500 company). In 2006, the company acquired French business Adisseo. More recently, in 2018, it completed the purchase of Belgian feed additives producer In 2014, InVivo Group – the French leader in animal nutrition with annual sales of €5.2bn – In 2014, Dutch animal feed firm Nutreco acquired In 2015, Nutreco entered into an agreement to acquire The Heritage Group – the owners of In 2017, Cargill sealed a strategic equity investment in Austrian phytogenic feed additive company Heads turned in 2019, when Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) – one of the world's largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers – finalized its Most recently, in September 2020, DuPont Animal Nutrition (part of DowDupont) entered into a