NutraMaize lands USDA grant for heat stress study
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A Purdue University-affiliated agriculture startup has received a three year federal grant of more than $460,000 to study an approach to reducing heat stress in egg-laying hens.
NutraMaize, co-founded by Purdue agronomy professor Torbert Rocheford and his son, Evan, will use the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s grant to examine how a class of antioxidants affect hens experiencing heat stress, according to a Purdue University news release.
Severe heat events are becoming more common and lead to physiological changes in hens, which reduces how many eggs they lay. The impact equates to millions of dollars of lost revenue for egg producers each year.
The study will examine whether feeding the hens a type of corn developed by NutraMaize will help. The corn is rich in a type of antioxidants called xanthophyll carotenoids.
“One of the major consequences [of severe heat] is oxidative stress, which is caused by the production of excess free radicals, or unstable atoms that damage cells,” said Evan Rocheford, CEO of NutraMaize, in the news release. “Antioxidants neutralize free radicals and prevent damage. Therefore, increasing the antioxidant intake of birds has been proposed as a mitigation strategy for heat stress.”
NutraMaize will collaborate with researchers at Purdue’s College of Agriculture and with Egg Innovations, an egg producer based in Warsaw.
The USDA earlier had awarded a $650,000 grant to NutraMaize. Announced by Purdue in March, the grant funded research into how NutraMaize Orange Corn can reduce foot pad dermatitis in broiler chickens and enhance yolk pigmentation in laying hens.
The nutritionally enhanced orange corn is available through a line of milled products such as corn flour, cornmeal and corn grits under the brand Professor Torbert’s Orange Corn. NutraMaize licenses its orange corn through the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization.