Due to the irregular use of antibiotics, antibiotics have been used excessively, which has caused drug resistance and drug residues, making feed and livestock products a social issue for food safety. The step of banning immunization is approaching. At present, antibiotic substitutes are also diverse, including beneficial elements, probiotics, oligosaccharides, organic trace elements, etc. Among them, potassium diformate is more widely used. What are the main ingredients and effects of feed additive potassium diformate?

The main components of feed additive potassium diformate:

Potassium diformate is a mixture of formic acid and potassium formate. The main component of formic acid itself is a small molecule organic carboxylic acid, and it is also an acidifier in feed additives. It is formed by forming hydrogen bonds with the carboxyl group of potassium formate.

The efficacy of potassium diformate:

1.Lower gastrointestinal pH

After entering the gastrointestinal tract, potassium diformate is broken down into formic acid, formate and potassium.

Studies have shown that 85% potassium diformate is present in the stomach of pigs and enters the duodenum. The recovery of formate in the duodenum was 83%, the anterior jejunum was 38%, the middle jejunum was 17%, and the posterior jejunum was 19%. Mroz (2000) and other studies found that when pig diets were supplemented with 0.9% and 1.8% potassium diformate, the average pH of stomach and duodenal chyme was reduced by 0.4 within 3 to 65 minutes.

2. Bacteriostatic and bactericidal effects, regulating intestinal flora structure

Formic acid has a strong antimicrobial effect. Non-dissociated formic acid can pass through the bacterial cell wall and lower the pH in the cell. The pH of the cell is close to 7. Once the organic acid enters the cell, it can reduce or inhibit the activity of the enzymes in the cell, destroy the nutrient transport system, prevent the microorganisms from reproducing, and cause death. The formate anion breaks down bacterial cell wall proteins outside the cell wall and exerts bactericidal and bacteriostatic effects.

The antibacterial effect of potassium diformate reduces the number of microorganisms, especially the number of pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli, reduces the production of microbial metabolites, and thus reduces the damage to the intestinal tract.

3.Improve nutrient digestibility

The reduction of gastric pH stimulates the secretion of pepsinogen and pepsin, increases the activity of pepsin, thereby promoting the absorption of nutrients in the diet and reducing the excretion of nitrogen and phosphorus. In addition, the released potassium ions can also improve the utilization of lysine. Roth et al. (1998) added 1.8% potassium diformate to diets that stimulated pepsinogen and pepsin reduction in piglets' daily gastric pH. Nitrogen excretion in feces and urine decreased by 10%, and nitrogen retention increased by 7%. The results of Mroz et al. (2002) showed that adding 1% potassium diformate to the diet of growing and finishing pigs reduced the amount of excretion of feces and urine by 6.79%, increased the utilization of crude protein by 4.34%, and increased the utilization of lysine by 2.8%. Utilization increased by 1.75%.

Potassium diformate feed additive is an organic acid growth promoter with antibacterial infection and improved feed conversion rate. It is also approved as a non-antibiotic growth promoter for pigs in China. Gut health is also to avoid excess energy caused by intestinal burden, but also to make a variety of nutrients a perfect balance to play the icing on the cake.