Cvictus and the University of Alberta are excited to announce that work has begun on scale-up and animal feed trials for our non photosynthetic single cell protein. This work has gained the attention of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and has received a $1.7 M USD grant as they see the potential a low-cost, low-carbon protein source can play in the goals to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, while decentralizing animal feed production. Our SCP is being developed as an alternative protein feed to replace soybean meal and fish meal to mitigate the huge environmental impact of these incumbent protein sources’ lifecycles.
The innovative research, powered in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is being conducted by David Bressler and Ruurd Zijlstra in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences. Cvictus will work with the Agri-Food Discovery Place (AFDP) to develop a continuous fermentation process around their existing 1,400 L fermentation vessel. Once commissioned, this process will be able to produce hundreds of kilograms of SCP for use in nutrient digestibility and growth performance trials with both young pigs and young broiler chickens. These monogastric species are important human food protein sources to support food security. The intent of these experiments is to generate both safety and efficacy data to achieve regulatory approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and USA to scale up feeding of this specific SCP to farm animals.
Using SCP as source of dietary protein and essential amino acids can reduce the huge environmental footprint of animal feed production, help save the Amazon rainforest being cleared for soybean production and pasture, reverse deforestation as low-value fields return to forest, replenish oceans decimated by the reduction fishery, reduce atmospheric CO2 levels through lower CO2 emissions and reforestation, and nourish a growing world population that lacks adequate high quality protein. For novel feedstuffs including SCP, proving that it is safe for introduction into the human food chain and effectively supports animal growth while maintaining a low cost is essential. This project and commercialization of our SCP will provide huge environmental and economic benefits to Canada’s agricultural sector. A low carbon non-photosynthetic feed produced in Alberta would directly reduce the carbon intensity of feeding livestock and the cost and CO2 from importing feed.
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