25th Scientific and Technical Conference on „Feed Additives”

The 25^th Conference on “Feed Additives”, organized by the Institute of Animal Production - the National Laboratory for Feedingstuffs in Lublin and the National Veterinary Institute – the National Research Institute in Puławy, was held in Puławy on the 11^th and 12^th December 2008. The aim of the conference was to present current legal requirements related to registering feed additives and their use in animal feeding in the light of the results obtained in research studies performed in Poland and abroad to feed manufacturers, inspectors of veterinary supervision and the employees of the Regional Veterinary Laboratories. The lecturers were the professors of University of Life Sciences in Lublin, University of Warmia and Mazury, the National Veterinary Institute, PIB, in Puławy and the Institute of Animal Production in Kraków. An interesting lecture on the assessment of the methods used to examine animal feed additives performed by Community Reference Laboratory for feed additives (CRL-FA) was given by Renata Leuschner, Ph.D., from the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) in Geel, Belgium. Current legal requirements regarding feed additives were presented by Andrzej Borowski, Ph.D., who is the Head on feed department at MARD. Next, the results of the enforcement of legal regulations through controlling activities undertaken by the Veterinary Institute, within feed supervision, were reported by Jacek Boruta, Ph.D., from GIW (General Veterinary Inspectorate). Much attention was devoted to the methods used to examine active substances in feed additives and the interpretation of the results of feed analyses. More information concerning the issues presented at the conference and the course of the discussion is presented below.

The participants of the conference were representatives of feed manufacturers, employees of veterinary inspectorates and Regianal Veterynary laboratories. The representatives of Noack Polen, Adi-Feed and Inter Yeast presented their offers. These companies, as well as Tigret, had their stands presenting their products and offers. There were also foreign guests at the conference, who were the employees of the Controlling Institute of Veterinary Preparations and Fees Additives from Lviv.

The primary aims and theses of the conference were to present the current regulations and requirements concerning the registration and use of feed additives in feed manufacturing and animal production. Attention was also paid to the assessment of the quality and safety of feed additives in the aspect of animal products’ safety. Interesting results of monitoring research and the results of official control regarding feed additives were presented. Another important issue was also some selected technological aspects of using feed additives, including the risk of cross contamination of their control and possible corrective measures. A lot of attention was paid to the homogeneity of feed additives in feed mixtures. Research methods and the results of the assessment of domestic feedstuffs were presented. Also, some elements concerning the assessment of risk in the aspect of using feed additives were discussed. One of the conference’s aims was to demonstrate the methods of feed additive analyses, their validation and the uncertainty of analyses. The results of inter-laboratory comparisons and proficiency testing of feed additives were presented, as well as the possibilities of using such results to develop a system of evaluating and interpreting the outcomes of the analyses of feed additives.