Now animal feeding adopts intensive cultivation in an industrialized way，which greatly increase productivity. The characteristics are “high input, high yield and high profit”. But it has some negative effects for sustainable agriculture development. For example, thousands of animals live in a very small space and are isolated from nature, which decreases their resistance to diseases; if a plague occurs, great damage will be caused. So people begin to use vastly antibiotics or other druggery, which can be remained inside animal’s body, and these antibiotics will indirectly damage human health after eating these animal products. Small breeding space and lack of freely exercise lead to decrease of animals’ immunity and increase of antibiotics consumption and production cost. Economic benefit of animal feed is closely bound up with animal health. Feeding diseases, irritability and deficiency disease caused by intensive breeding are serious, so antibiotics and feed additives have to be applied in feeds; the food security and animal health bring a difficult issue to people.

Food security, especially the safety of animal products, is the most important factor people concern. Feed is closely bound up with the security of animal production and human food. The nutritionists supply animal producers with safe feeds and advocate green production to meet human’s need.

Seaweed is a new feed resource with a great potentiality. The kind of seaweed used for feed is a large size economic brown seaweed, including Ascophyllum nodosum, Alaria, Fucus evansecens, Laminaria and Sargassum etc.. Seaweed is rich in full range amino acids for animals, trace elements, vitamins, natural bioactive hormone, growth promoter (UGF) and fucoidan, etc.. According to research, adding suitable seaweed to animal feeds can promote the growth of animals, improve the quality of animal products and enhance animals’ health.

Seaweed can be used directly to feed animals or mixed into feedstuff as nutritional feed additive. In the world, people have started the research work since 1950’s and China has also completed the research on alga feed function in 1980’s. Currently compound feed with seaweed is in huge quantity. It’s reported that many manufacturers in Europe and America add seaweed meal to animal fodder. Many meadows in New Zealand and the U.S.A lack minerals, so the supplement of seaweed plays an important role in improving the growth and breeding capacity of poultry and livestock. Chinese in coastline area has also used fresh seaweed to feed animals. Indian use fresh Sargassum to replace 15-25% of cereal feedstuff to feed dairy cattle and beef cattle. Seaweed feed manufacture is still a new industry comparing with the improvement of agriculture industry and feeding technique. It’s predicted by scientists that seaweed will become the most cost-saving and most valuable feed resource.

Seaweed feeding contains about 60 minerals, more than 12 vitamins, 20 amino acids, unsaturated fatty acids and non-nitrogenous organism such as alginic acid, mannitol, fucoidan and laminarin. Vegetal protein is about 4.1%~16.4%, minerals 20%~45% and crude fibre 1.6%~13%.

Virtues of Seaweed Feed Additives
1. Improve amino acids biologic activity in diet;
2. Strengthen animal’s propagation capacity, promote delivery, increase conception and birth rate; Seaweed feed contains organic selenium, iodine, carotene and tocopherols, they all strengthen animal’s propagation capability.
3. Improve immunity and strengthen the resistance to irritability; Seaweed feeding contains active substances of antibacterial and antivirus. It can restrain penicillium, staphylococcus aureus, hay bacillus, coliform bacteria etc.; Seaweed feed contains carotene, tocopherols and unsaturated fatty acids, which can strengthen the resistance to irritability.
4. Help get more favorable taste and increase feed intake; Seaweed contains multifold free amino acids including L-alanine, methionine, histidine, glycin, arginine, ornithine, glutamic acid etc., so they are effective phagostimulant for animals
5. Effectively promote the quality of animals’ products; Increasing iodin content of animal product and provide people with high level iodin food;
6. Balance the feed nutrition, promote metabolizing and absorption of nutrition
7. Improve animal growth and decrease feeding cost.