Through a combination of need, inventiveness, and economics realities, animal scientist and feed technologists the world over have often succeeded in turning to alternatives from the traditional or established patterns in search of new benefits. New feed products, such as mineral bioplexes, probiotics and silicates, have entered the animals diet because creative and dynamic individuals pursued a belief that there is “a better way.”

That same kind of inventiveness and enterprise may well serve our present and future needs in the livestock and feed milling industries as we explore other sources of animal feeds. With the rising prices of imported feed ingredients, brought about by the international or local economic disturbances, it is imperative to look for alternative sources of animal feeds for the country’s livestock, poultry and aqua population.

Alternative or non-conventional feeds are those which are not being fully utilized or commonly used for feeding livestock, poultry and marine species (prawns and fishes) but which are produced or available in volume that would warrant economic utilization.

Fortunately, the Philippines has been endowed with those naturally occurring alternative feeds like zeolites and diatomaceous earth (DE), with proven performance in animal nutrition and health. Aside from being cost effective, these alternative feed additives do not promote tissue residues. Hence, they are “environmentally friendly”.

Properties and Applications of Natural Zeolites in Animal Feedingstuffs

 Zeolites are a group of crystalline hydrated compounds mainly of aluminum, silicon, sodium, and potassium. Widely distributed in nature in clay deposits and in volcanic tuffs, zeolites have been used for centuries in folk remedies and by farmers to reduce moisture in animal litter and to adjust the pH of acidic soils.

The beneficial properties of zeolites reside in their unique crystalline structure which permits the reversible retention and release of water and essential cations. The family of natural zeolites comprises over 40 significant compounds, each with a specific chemical composition and structure which is reflected in physical properties such as crystalline configuration, particle size, thermal stability and the ability to retain ions.

These characteristics have been applied to a range of agricultural and industrial situations including situations including the purification of water, odor control, sequestration of mycotoxins, toxic pesticides and radioactive residues, reducing the severity of diarrhea (scouring) in calves and pigs, and improving feed efficiency in livestock, poultry and aqua species.

Researches on Natural Zeolites

Considerable research has been conducted into use of natural zeolites as animal feed supplements and in animal husbandry. The results of such studies have been reviewed by Mumpton and Fishman (1977), Mumpton (1984), Nestorov (1984), and Tsitsishvili et al (1984). 

Work on pigs, calves, lambs, and chickens has sometimes indicated faster growth rates certain improvements in health, coupled with a decrease in the amount and cost of feed, and less odiferous and drier excrement. In addition, the excrement containing zeolite is claimed to be a more valuable fertilizer (Mumpton 1977, 1984). Since 1975, studies have been conducted in Czechoslovakia on the effect of feeding it to farm animals. When five percent was added to the diet of pigs, less malodorous feces were noted and they suffered less from scours (Barker 1991). They also gained weight substantially faster than the control group of animals.

Japanese farmers have used a similar product for many years to reduce both moisture and odor in animal wastes. They have utilized zeolites in pigs, cattle and chickens, with improvements in weight gain and general health.

In the Philippines, three to five percent of natural zeolites (clinoptilolite and mordenite) was added to hog rations. Significant results included reduced ammonia levels and general odors and decreased scouring in weaners.

Contract growers in Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Laguna and Batangas reported a reduction in ammonia level, drier excrement and less fly infestation when the above combination of clinoptilolite and mordenite was fed to broilers.

Benefits in layers included larger eggs and reduced cracked eggs (Gerpacio 1991).

In the United States, natural as well as synthetic zeolites (e.g hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicates) are being used to sequester a broad spectrum of mycotoxins, thereby reducing mycotoxicosis in animals (Philips 1991).

Filipino researches have tried combining natural zeolites (clinoptilolite and mordenite) with other non-metallic minerals such as diatomaceous earth (DE and montmorillonite clays, with satisfactory results, both in vitro and in vivo (Sision, Sam and Villa 1990, 1991) experiments.

This has resulted in the production of a locally processed mycotoxin binder which is now a demand here and abroad.

The zeolite group of minerals has been suggested as a means of decreasing the uptake of radio-caesium by humans and domestic animals, and also to accelerate the excretion of said radioactive material which has already been absorbed following the Chernobyl accident fallout (Forberg 1986).

The zeolites being considered for this purposes, was dispersed in liquid paraffin and administered to goats and lambs fed radio caesium-contaminated hay. Feces and urine were collected separately and analyzed by gamma spectrometry on each day of the experimental period.

At a dose of 10g per day of mordenite, the amount of radio-caesium excreted was more than double the amount ingested with the fodder, due to the extracrion of the radiocasium stored in the body. Initially, the effect/dose ratio was even higher.

It is shown conclusively that mordenite can reduce the uptake of ratio-caesium by goats and lambs, and also, without changing the fodder, reduce their body burden (Forberg, Jones and Westermark 1989).

Mode of Action

How do natural zeolites work? One hypothesis is that high cation exchange activity of zeolite particles serves to improve the utilization of calcium and other nutrients in the diet (Dawkins and Wallace 1990).

Another theory is that zeolite particles act as a natural nitrogen reservoir in the digestive system of the animal, allowing a slower release and more efficient use of ammonium ions produced by the breakdown of ingested rations in the development of animal protein (Pond et al 1981).

Like other growth or performance enhancers, natural zeolites improve rate of gain and efficiency of utilization of dietary energy, amino acids, vitamins and minerals elements in livestock, poultry and marine species due to delayed rate of passage and absorption of nutrients in the intestine.

Slower gut motility means more time for nutrient assimilation.

Zeolites have been observed to stimulate the linings of the stomach and intestinal tract causing the animal to produce more antibodies, and thus inhibiting diseases such as scours.

The ad-sorptive (attaching to surface structures) and ab-sorptive (binding into the cage structures) capacities of natural zeolites can results in the sequestration of various toxic compounds like mycotoxins (Shane 1989), and this dramatically lessens the detrimental effects. 

Natural zeolites are also capable of absorbing poisonous compounds of a more microbiogenic nature, such as cadaverine and putrescine.

Safe Alternative to Chemical Pesticides

Many farm and feed mill pesticides of flu migrants are dangerous and persistent environmental pollutants, since they do not stop killing once they have knocked out the chosen victim. The poisons get into the food chain, and end up endangering many other species, including man.

In its supplement entitled “HELP WANTED: An Activist’s Guide to A Better Earth,” OMNI Magazine (September 1989) reported that pesticides wreak havoc on the environment, contami8nating groundwater and soil and maiming wildlife. Pesticides also leave a toxic residue on much of the food we eat.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 66 pesticides sprayed on food crops contain cancer-causing agents. And the National Academy of Sciences reported that only 10 percent of the 35,000 pesticides introduced since 1945 have been tested. 

Fruits and vegetables, however, aren’t the only foods exposed to potentially dangerous chemicals. Pesticides can be found in meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, coffee and grains.

One earth minerals that is worth considering as a safe alternative to toxic chemical pesticides is diatomaceous earth (DE). This multi purpose product, refined from a nnaturally occurring cellular dust, is virtually harmless to warm-blooded life, yet kills almost all insects, whether in the home of in the fields (Sison 1969, 1990).

DE is derived from the silica shell remains of unicellular or colonial algae of the class Bacillariophyceae, better known as diatoms. Diatoms living in ocean and fresh water carry on photosynthesis, which means that oxygen is a by-product of their life processes.

There are so many diatoms presently living in the ocean that it is estimated that 75 percent of trhe oxygen we breathe is replenished by them. Their unique qualities give them a great number of applications.

Insects that come in contact with DE are lacerated by its microscopic particles and lose their body fluid (dehydration) which will cause their deaths.

This is a physical control to which insects have a difficulty building up a resistance. 

A residue-free grain protectant, DE can effectively eradicate exposed insects like rice weevils, granary weevils, Angoumois grain moths, red flour beetles, and tribolium in empty grain bins, boxcars, ships and silos.

It can also protect feed grains, seeds, stored grains, wheat, barley, buckwheat, corn, oats, rice, rye, flax, soybean, and sorghum (milo).

The “wonder powder” is intended for application with hand or power duster, or other suitable means, to hiding and running areas and places insects are found. To apply DE into cracks and crevices, use Bulbous duster or other suitable equipment.

Other important uses of DE include: dewormer for livestock and poultry; moisture absorbent for feed ingredients and compound feeds; free-flowing agent; and carrier for premixes and additives. Aside from being cost-effective like natural zeolites, DE is always available.

CONCLUSION

With the economic crisis hitting us left and right, being faced with, among other things rights, being faced with, among other things, problems like shortage of vital feed ingredients, feed supplements and foreign exchange, it is imperative for those involved in livestock, poultry and aquaculture production to consider those two non-metallic minerals – natural zeolites and diatomaceous earth – as alternative feed additives to enhance feed efficiency, detoxify feed ingredients from metabolites and other harmful exogenous poisons, promote flowability, and to eliminate all forms of odor and water pollution.

Above all, these two viable alternatives promote sustainable development in animal nutrition and health.