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Background and challenges

Over the last few decades, the image of red meat has deteriorated through several crises and scientific evidence linking the conditions of production of these meats to negative impacts on human and animal health and the environment, corresponding to the three dimensions of the One Health concept. Epidemiological studies have linked red meat consumption to an increased risk of colorectal cancer, which is the third most common type of cancer and the fourth most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide. On the other hand, it is also well established that sensitivity to oxidative stress (in relation to husbandry practices, among other things) is strongly linked to the frequency of disease occurrence in ruminants. Finally, while livestock farming activities account for 14.5% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the ruminant livestock sector appears to be the largest contributor through enteric methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Moreover, these two forms of emissions represent a loss of dietary energy and nitrogen, respectively, which are not available for animal production.

Several partners in this project have already highlighted, in previous studies, the important role that plant extracts can play either on the environmental impact of ruminants (by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen emissions), or on the animal health of cattle (by improving the redox balance of the animals), or finally on human health (by limiting the processes of lipoperoxidation of meat and meat products, processes involved in the promotion of colorectal carcinogenesis). This set of results acquired over the last few years has led us to envisage an integrative approach bringing together all these partners in order to identify a combination of active plant ingredients that could act simultaneously on the 3 dimensions of the One Health approach.

Goals

The main results expected from this project are:

• to identify, through in silico and in vitro approaches, one or several combinations of phytoconstituents with antioxidant and environmental properties
• to test the potential effect of these combinations on the prevention of carcinogenesis in a rat model receiving meat from animals whose rations have been enriched with the selected phytoconstituents
• to identify the major compounds derived from these extracts after fermentation in an artificial rumen in order to enrich the scientific discussion on the mechanisms potentially involved in the observed effects
• to clarify consumer behaviour with regard to the process.

INRAE units involved

• Unité mixte de recherche sur les Herbivores
• Unité de Toxicologie Alimentaire
• Sécurité et qualité des produits d'origine végétale
• Economie Publique

Partners

• Phytosynthèse