Seaweed Quality: Q+A with Dr Breanna Roque

FutureFeed’s Research Manager - Animal Science, Dr Breanna Roque, is excited to share her observations about the quality of Asparagopsis being produced by FutureFeed licensees. Thanks to their R&D efforts, the seaweed quality has improved over time, she says. This provides for high levels of methane reduction using less – and cleaner – seaweed, as well as contributing to feed efficiency benefits for cattle.

CSIRO established FutureFeed to commercialise the use of Asparagopsis as a livestock feed ingredient that could reduce methane emissions by 80% or more. FutureFeed currently licenses nine Asparagopsis production companies around the world. These licensees have worked tirelessly to develop cultivation and processing techniques to optimise seaweed quality.

Meanwhile, FutureFeed has continued to prove the safety and efficacy of this livestock feed ingredient in both red meat and dairy systems.

What has been the most exciting aspect of your recent research?

Dr Roque: One of the most exciting things really relates to the evolution of Asparagopsis cultivation technology, with optimisation of controlled production systems.  Wild harvested seaweeds are inherently inconsistent in quality and subsequently unlicensed wild Asparagopsis can be quite variable. Mineral and bioactive content of the final product may vary widely depending on sea water and growing conditions. It is really great to see the FutureFeed licensees controlling Asparagopsis production and developing optimised products. For example, compared with some poor quality wild Asparagopsis, we are seeing cultivated and processed products with much lower iodine content (up to 100 times lower).

Now that they’ve cracked open the cultivation of Asparagopsis and can better control the algae growth characteristics, the benefits of feeding Asparagopsis to animals, such as methane reduction and benefit to feed efficiencies, is improving over time. So it has been really exciting to see the seaweed production industry, as well as reducing methane emissions from red meat and dairy production, go hand in hand.

Can you explain the role of the FutureFeed science team?

Dr Roque: The science in this area has actually been going on for around a decade, but in 2020 FutureFeed was established to bring this innovation to the livestock feed market. For that to happen, there needs to be progressive and intensive science-based investigation to support new developments and prove safety and efficacy. Our trials support global regulatory approvals, and they also provide us with knowledge about the safest, most effective ways to incorporate the ingredient into an animal’s diet.

So, what we do here at FutureFeed within the research team is to really push Asparagopsis products from a research setting into a commercial world. We ensure results are repeatable, and that what we see in a lab, or in a controlled farm, can be practical and scaled up to work on larger commercial production farms.

Where is the science up to in that regard?

Dr Roque: We have been able to successfully do this at a large scale. One of our recent studies involved 300 animals and we were able to verify high levels of methane reduction as well as improvements in animal productivity. By that I mean we were able to quantify weight gain to feed efficiency improvements. We had observed in many earlier studies that cattle fed Asparagopsis tended to either put on more weight than the control group of cattle, or eat less and still gain the same amount of weight. However the earlier studies were not sufficiently “powered”, meaning there were not enough animals to confirm it, to determine feed efficiency improvements. The production of methane in the rumen can utilise energy that could partially be going to benefit the animal, so when methane is dramatically reduced (by 50% to 80%) that energy may be redirected into other processes more beneficial for the animal such as weight gain.

Watch this space for the update on the actual feed conversion efficiency benefits when the study is peer reviewed and published in coming months. 

Dr Breanna Roque has degrees in both Animal Science and Agricultural Business as well as Master of Science and PhD degrees in Animal Biology. She is the lead author on several Asparagopsis studies. Her research has focused on the use of alternative feeds for ruminant livestock and their effects on greenhouse gas contributions, nutrient utilisation, immune function and the rumen microbiome. She was recently named as a finalist in the category of Emerging Sustainability Leader by Women’s Agenda.