Animal feeds including actives and methods of preparing same

Abstract

Improved extrusion-processed daily ration animal feeds are provided which include minor amounts of actives to ensure that an animal consuming the feed receives quantities of the actives sufficient to establish and maintain substantially constant concentrations of the actives in the animal's bloodstream. The feeds may be produced by extrusion with addition of minor quantities of one or more actives so as to uniformly distribute the actives throughout the extruded product.

1 . In a method of producing an extruded daily ration feed product for animals including the steps of providing a mixture of ingredients including respective quantities of protein, fat and starch, passing said mixture into and through an elongated extruder barrel having an elongated, axially rotatable, helically flighted screw within the barrel and an endmost extrusion die in order to subject the mixture to elevated temperature, pressure and shear and thereby cook the mixture, the improvement which comprises the step of adding a quantity of at least one active to said mixture prior to passage thereof through said die, said active present at a level effective for continuously maintaining in the bloodstream of the animal consuming the feed on a daily basis a therapeutic amount of the active.  
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , including the step of initially passing said mixture through a preconditioner prior to passage thereof into and through said extruder, and, during said passage through the preconditioner, adding moisture to the mixture and elevating the temperature thereof to at least partially precook the mixture.  
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 2 , including the step of adding said active into said preconditioner.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 3 , including the step of providing said active in the form of a liquid, and injecting said liquid into said preconditioner adjacent the outlet thereof.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , including the step of injecting said active into the barrel of said extruder during passage of the material into and through the barrel.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 1 , including the step of adding sufficient active to the mixture so that the extruded feed has from 2-1500 μg active/kg of feed.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1 , said active selected from the group consisting of antibiotics, steroids, anti-inflammatory agents, endoctocides, ectoparasiticides and mixtures thereof.  
   
   
       8 . In a method of producing an extruded feed product for animals including the steps of providing a mixture of ingredients including respective quantities of protein, fat and starch, passing said mixture into and through an elongated extruder barrel having an elongated, axially rotatable, helically flighted screw within the barrel and an endmost extrusion die in order to subject the mixture to elevated temperature, pressure and shear and thereby cook the mixture, the improvement which comprises the step of adding a quantity of at least one active to said mixture prior to passage thereof through said die, said active present at a level of up to about 0.75% by weight, based upon the total weight of the feed taken as 100% by weight.