The power of grape extracts: antimicrobial and antioxidant properties to prevent the use of antibiotics in farmed animals

NeoGiANT is an innovative action coordinated by the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). NeoGiANT aims at developing a new set of products (animal feed, treatment products, sperm extenders) able to decrease the use of antibiotics on farmed animals and substitute synthetic preservatives. These new products, based on natural extracts, using an advanced isolation technique, will not only avoid the growth of microorganisms but also improve the health and welfare of the animals increasing profitability. The proposal is based on the use of biomass sources that can provide cost-effective, efficient and green solutions to obtain functional ingredients in sustainable circular economy production systems. The new products developed will be based on one extract of natural origin called e-Vitis (obtained from Vitis vinifera). e-Vitis is isolated using as raw material grape marc from the production of high quality white wines, that preserves, after the winemaking process, a significant load of bioactive compounds originally present in the grape. In order to obtain a multicomponent ready-to-use extract using green solvent extraction approaches NeoGiANT is going to apply an alternative methodology to conventional extraction, to disrupt the grape marc and extract the bioactive compounds. This innovative green technology is simple, the conditions required are mild (energy savings), and can be easily scaled-up. The advanced properties of the natural extract will provide antimicrobial and antioxidant protection to the animals improving their performance and serving as a prophylactic treatment. The target products to be developed will be designed to control a large number of infectious diseases of paramount importance in animal production, both in livestock and aquaculture. Moreover, the emergence of new antimicrobial resistances (AMR) will be reduced, and existing antimicrobial resistances will be better controlled.