The broiler microbiome service Galleon, developed by Cargill, has won a gold award in this year’s Edison Awards, an international scheme to recognise innovative products, named after the American inventor Thomas Alva Edison.
Galleon is designed to help improve poultry production by providing more in-depth and precise details on the flock’s specific gut microbiome. The non-invasive procedure involves taking cloacal swabs from a few birds on the broiler unit for analysis. Results are then compared with Cargill’s poultry microbiome database of more than 36,000 samples to make recommendations on steps to improve performance.
The analysis combine statistics with artificial intelligence to extract information about the gut of the bird. These are interpreted by Cargill specialists. The information, which is specific to each flock, can be used to assess the microbiome health status, resilience to disease, livability, and overall performance. The data can also be used help understand the effect on the microbiome of changes in diet or management.
“Gut microbiome is an important driver in determining the health and performance of the host; in this case the broiler, and it plays a crucial role in determining the birds’ performance,” said Cargill’s UK commercial poultry manager David McBride.
“The more detail we know about a flock’s gut microbiome, the better we can manage the birds, and the more precisely we can formulate diets to support improved performance or help overcome a limitation. Galleon is ground-breaking technology that enables us to do this better. It is already bringing practical and tangible benefits to UK flocks.”
