Mitigating the Environmental Impacts from Pig and Broiler Chicken Productions: Case Study on a Citrus Extract Feed Additive

Simple Summary Mitigating environmental footprint is one of the most important pillars for building sustainable livestock production. Evidently, using natural feed additives exploited from agro-food byproducts to optimize feed efficiency and animal performance can bring multiple advantages to the environment. Our study using a life-cycle assessment of a commercial citrus extract feed additive showed that the impacts generated by this additive manufacturing are minor, in comparation to the reduction in environmental issues from pig and broiler chicken productions, thanks to the additive's effects on improving animal growth performances. More precisely, the manufacturing and distribution of a 25 kg bag of citrus extract feed additive potentially emits 13.1 kg of CO2 equivalent; uses 5.3 m2 of land year round; and consumes 66 L of water. Meanwhile, using one bag of 25 kg citrus extract feed additive in feed at a low inclusion rate (250 g per ton of completed feed) can reduce CO2 equivalent emission by 5 and 6 tons and water consumption by 82 m3 and 201 m3 in swine and broiler productions, respectively. In parallel, land surface used is saved by 7000 m2 year round in both mentioned livestock systems. Such results demonstrate the great interest in using citrus extract feed additive as an additional tool for mitigating environmental impacts from livestock farming activities.Abstract The rapid expansion of the livestock production sector to meet the world population's demand is posing a big challenge to environmental sustainability. Plant-based feed additives extracted from agro-food byproducts could potentially result in multiple outcomes: reducing food-processing wastes and improving animal growth performances, hence mitigating environmental impacts of meat production chains. This presented study was carried out to assess the environmental impacts of the use of a commercial citrus extract feed additive (CEFA) in swine and broiler chicken farming. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) was applied to assess the impact of manufacturing and distributing one 25 kg bag of CEFA and its use in feed in broiler chicken and swine productions. With regards to CEFA manufacturing and distribution, results showed that most of the impact came from the production of CEFA ingredients, accounting for 70% of the impact generated. The remaining 30% effect was divided between transportation to the customer (25%), CEFA packaging (3%), and CEFA manufacturing and production loss (2%). When enlarging the scope, the use of the CEFA in pigs and broilers' diets was shown to improve the measured environmental indicators, compared to such standard systems. Indeed, CEFA-added feeds have demonstrated enhanced growth performances, hence reducing the required amount of consumed feed to achieve the same level of growth. Consequently, this helped reduce environmental issues from animal feed ingredients' agriculture. To be more specific, the use of one 25 kg bag of CEFA in feed at 250 g per ton of feed led to a reduction of 6 tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2 eq) emitted along the life cycle of poultry production and 5 tons in the case of fattening pigs. The inclusion of this CEFA in the diet also led to a reduction in the land use footprint by 0.7 hectares and reductions in water consumption by 201 m3 and 82 m3 for broiler chicken and swine production, respectively. The environmental performance assessment thus showed the interest in using this CEFA in swine and broiler chicken diets to mitigate the environmental impacts.

Automated summary

Mitigating environmental impacts in livestock production is essential for sustainable agriculture. This study demonstrates that using a citrus extract feed additive can effectively reduce environmental issues in pig and broiler chicken productions, such as CO2 emissions and water consumption, while improving animal growth performances. This research highlights the importance of utilizing natural feed additives to minimize the environmental footprint of livestock farming activities.