Biotechnology Startup Makes First Shipment of Unique Poultry Feed
Supplement
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Much has been
written and said about birds of a feather, but soon those plump, juicy
holiday birds could be exactly that -- birds partially fattened on
feathers.
An emerging agricultural biotechnology company, assisted at its
inception by loans from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, has
developed an environmentally friendly, nutritional use for the feathers
that otherwise might be wasted or relegated to other duty, such as
insulating fireside comforters and pillows.
BioResource International Inc. (BRI), a closely held technology spinout
of North Carolina State University, celebrated a commercial milestone last
week with a shipment to Thailand of a 5.5-ton container of Valkerase(TM),
its patented powdered enzyme that helps turn feathers into a digestible and
nutritious poultry feed additive.
Giles Shih, Ph.D., president of the five-employee, 7-year-old company,
said it was the first order in what's expected to total more than 50 tons a
year to one of the largest poultry producers in Thailand.
The Biotechnology Center helped get the company started with successive
loans in 2000 and 2001 -- a $10,000 loan from its Business Development
Awards program, followed by a $30,000 Collaborative Funding Assistance
loan.
BRI has also been helped by federal small business loans and has raised
more than $2.7 million in venture capital and private equity financing. BRI
originated in the Technology Incubator on the North Carolina State
University Centennial Campus, where it remained until this summer, when it
moved into new office and laboratory space here.
While the market for Valkerase(TM) is primarily overseas, BRI's
flagship product, Versazyme(TM), is a natural enzyme poultry feed additive
that has interested U.S. producers. Shih said it is in commercial trials
with several large U.S. poultry producers and will be officially launched
next spring.
"Our focus is on harnessing the natural power of enzymes to address
unique agricultural and industrial concerns," explained Shih, who
co-founded BRI with his father, Dr. Jason Shih, a professor of
biotechnology and poultry science at NCSU and the inventor of BRI's enzyme
products.
Valkerase(TM) is added to cooked poultry feathers to help break down
the otherwise waste protein material into a digestible feather meal that in
turn can be used as a safe, nutritional animal feed ingredient, said Shih.
Recycling the poultry feathers into feed via the enzyme is especially
attractive to Asian poultry producers, he said, because basic feed grains
are relatively more expensive there than in the United States -- though the
imbalance is dwindling.
"Not so long ago corn was $2 a bushel in the U.S.," he said. "Now, as
more of it gets diverted for bioethanol production, it's as high as $4 a
bushel. Prices for other feed crops such as soybeans have also risen.
Because poultry diets in the U.S. consist mainly of corn and soybeans, our
enzyme products are becoming more attractive to U.S. poultry producers as
they look for ways to grow bigger birds with less feed."
Today's broiler chickens are bred to grow very efficiently, he said.
They usually require about two pounds of feed for each pound of growth. It
takes about six weeks to grow a typical bird to market size. North Carolina
is among the nation's top five broiler producers, he noted, and America's
second-largest turkey producer.
"This milestone for BRI is exactly the kind of outcome we've been
nurturing in creative young North Carolina biotechnology companies for
nearly a quarter-century," said Ken Tindall, the Biotechnology Center's
senior vice president, science & business development. "This kind of
success is incredibly difficult to come by, and we're delighted to have
been able to have a hand in it."
"We're trying to meet specific needs in a fast-growing niche of the
agriculture industry," said Shih, "using enzymes to add value to products.
It's been called 'green chemistry,' because we're using natural products in
industrial processes to improve efficiency and reduce pollution."
Current sales are "just chicken feed," he joked. But this product alone
is helping to redefine the concept of leftovers. And like many young
biotechnology companies across North Carolina, BRI is finally able to start
cashing in after years of patient struggle.
The Biotechnology Center is a private, non-profit corporation supported
by the N.C. General Assembly. Its mission is to provide long-term economic
and societal benefits to North Carolina by supporting biotechnology
research, business and education statewide.
SOURCE North Carolina Biotechnology Center
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Related links:
http://www.ncbiotech.org
http://www.briworldwide.com
CONTACT:
Jim Shamp, news & publications editor, North
Carolina Biotechnology Center, +1-919-541-9366,
jim_shamp@ncbiotech.org; or Giles Shih, Ph.D., MBA, president,
BioResource International Inc., +1-919-993-3389
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