Research started to improve poultry health, egg yolk pigmentation

NutraMaize, an agriculture company whose nutritionally enhanced orange corn is currently marketed through a line of premium milled products under the brand Professor Torbert’s Orange Corn, recently received a two-year $650,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to demonstrate the health and pigmentation benefits of feeding orange corn to poultry on a commercial scale.

NutraMaize CEO Evan Rocheford said a previous Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the USDA funded proof-of-concept studies that showed NutraMaize Orange Corn improves outcomes in poultry health and egg yolk pigmentation. The results were published in the May 2021 issue and July 2021 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Poultry Science.

“Our previous research shows that when used in poultry feed, NutraMaize Orange Corn has the potential to improve animal welfare, consumer well-being and producer profitability,” Rocheford said. “We’ve shown that it can reduce the incidence and severity of footpad dermatitis, a common health problem for poultry, and significantly enhance the depth of color and health-benefiting antioxidant carotenoid content in egg yolks.”

The goal of the Phase II project, titled “Nutritionally Enhanced Orange Corn: A Natural Domestic Source of Antioxidant Carotenoids for Improved Poultry and Consumer Well-Being,” is to demonstrate that the corn can deliver the health benefits of carotenoids to poultry and consumers on a commercial scale. Carotenoids are natural antioxidant pigments that give many fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, their orange color and health-benefiting reputations.

“In addition to improving poultry health, the carotenoids found in NutraMaize Orange Corn have a number of well-documented health benefits for humans, such as significantly reducing the risk of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss among older Americans,” Rocheford said. “This means that orange corn has the potential to improve animal welfare and reduce disease-related losses for producers while simultaneously improving consumer well-being by enhancing the nutritional quality of one of America’s most important protein sources – eggs.”