Animal Nutrition & Health

Purity Matters: Safeguarding Animal Productivity

Quality feed ingredients are critical for proper nutrition. Vitamins are essential to animal health and growth and the quality of those vitamins is important. The necessity of 25-OH D3 (Hy-D®, a vitamin D3 metabolite) has been well established as an ingredient for optimal health, growth and performance of poultry. Since vitamins and vitamin derivatives are required to formulate balanced animal diets, it is necessary to feed a quality product for the animals’ optimal development. Sourcing pure, quality ingredients is the first step to ensuring proper nutrition.

The importance of purity in feed ingredients

It is important to source quality ingredients for animal feed. Pure ingredients mean one less worry a nutritionist will have when formulating animal diets. Safe, pure, reliable sources are key to creating ideal diets and safeguarding animal health and productivity. When evaluating a feed ingredient for quality and purity standards some of the components to assess are:

  • Traceability
  • Safety
  • Reliability
  • Product characteristics

This assessment includes, quality analysis reports; product stability in straights, premixes and final feed; available testing capabilities; comprehensive manufacturing practices; ingredient composition analysis; quality starting materials; and ensuring continuous improvement standards for products and processes are in place.

When it comes to the vitamin D metabolite, 25-OH D3 (Hy-D®) all of these quality and purity characteristics are vitally important. Hy-D® is the storage form of vitamin D3 and is utilized in many biological systems of the animal including the immune system, muscle cells, and skeletal system to name a few. Knowing this feed ingredient has a direct impact on these key systems means it is imperative the ingredient is safe and pure. If a product as impactful as this metabolite was impure it can raise concerns for animal safety. The impact of formulating diets with one or more ingredients containing impurities can negatively affect animal growth, health, development or all of the above.

Quality Analysis

Quality analysis reports are one way to establish quality of any feed ingredient. These reports often include ingredient composition, physical appearance, density tests, flowability, solubility, dustiness, particle size distribution, uniformity, material coating, segregation, and long-term product quality in storage. Identifying these product characteristics can help determine a feed ingredients quality and purity. But it is just one element.

Stability & Traceability

Another element to consider when determining product purity is to assess traceability of a product. To produce pure final feed ingredients, the starting materials and manufacturing processes are critical to arrive at a pure final feed product. Knowing what starting material is used and where the materials are sourced from is important. A general understanding of the manufacturing processes and critical checks in a system is vital as well. If the starting materials are less than desirable or contain impurities themselves, the final product will also likely contain impurities.

Stability is another indicator of product purity. Stability as a straight feed ingredient, in a variety of premixes, and in completed feeds conditioned in various processing times and temperatures should be evaluated to fully understand product stability. This assessment can indicate how pure a product is and the quality of the manufacturing processes that were used.

Hy-D® is a pure, safe and reliable source of 25-OH D3. With 25+ years of manufacturing experience in poultry, Hy-D® is an ideal feed ingredient for animal production. Due to the product’s proven efficacy and safety as well as its traceability, product quality standards, and manufacturing processes, it continues to be a trusted source of 25-OH D3. The combined purity and quality standards of Hy-D® lead to a pure product form of 25-OH D3 essential for animal growth, health and development.

Published on

21 April 2025

Tags

  • Poultry

Related Articles

  • 25-OH D3 Effect on Muscle Development in Broilers

    25-OH D3 Effect on Muscle Development in Broilers

    20 May 2024

    Vitamin D is best known for its role in calcium and phosphorus metabolism in relation to skeletal development, maintenance, and production parameters such as eggshell quality. There are two other critical roles vitamin D plays in the body, more specifically the role the metabolites play. The kidney is not the only place vitamin D metabolism occurs. Metabolism of 25-OH D3 to 1,25diOHD3 occurs in many tissues involved in paracrine and autocrine function such as skin, cells of the immune system, parathyroid gland, intestinal epithelium, and muscle cells. This discovery led to more research exploring the unrealized benefits of dietary 25-OH D3.

  • Understanding How Vitamin D Can Support the Health and Well-Being of Animals

    Understanding How Vitamin D Can Support the Health and Well-Being of Animals

    18 Dec 2023

    Adequate levels of vitamin D are critical to support animal and human health. Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that plays an important role in the physiological regulation of Ca/P and bone growth, and there’s increasing recognition for its importance in immunity. Currently, serum 25-OH D3 is the most widely accepted biomarker to measure levels of vitamin D in humans and animals due to its high blood concentration and long half-life. While vitamin D3 (present in some animal-based ingredients) and vitamin D2 (present in some plants) can be dietary sources to supplement the variable synthesis of vitamin D3 from sunlight and UVB exposure to skin, 25-OH D3 (Hy-D®) is a highly researched and commonly used dietary source to ensure optimum levels of vitamin D in food animals.

  • The 5 P’s of Good Manufacturing Practices

    The 5 P’s of Good Manufacturing Practices

    21 Nov 2022

    At DSM, Good Manufacturing Practices, or GMPs, are the cornerstone of producing safe, high-quality products. Our GMP’s are comprised of processes, procedures and practices that ensure products are manufactured consistently and controlled according to set quality standards. A well-established GMP program can help cut down on losses and waste while also protecting both DSM and consumers from the occurrence of a feed safety incident. Read this article to learn more about DSM’s GMP program.

Share

You are being redirected.

We detected that you are visitng this page from United States. Therefore we are redirecting you to the localized version.