Top 5 reasons why you should care about BRI turning 10

This year BioResource International – the ag biotech company that my Father and I spun out of NC State University – turns 10 years old. As we celebrate BRI’s 10th birthday, let me offer 5 reasons why you should care and why we are excited about the next 10 years…

1. More people eating chickens - As growing numbers of consumers in developing countries improve their diets and start to demand more protein sources and food variety, poultry is their first choice because of its wide availability and versatility. The reason behind this is low cost…chickens, as compared to beef and pork, are easier to grow and require less feed per kilogram of meat produced. Plus, most cultures don’t impose religious restrictions on poultry consumption. And as farmers produce more birds to feed the demand, they consolidate and integrate operations, which lead them to think about higher efficiency and lower costs.
2. More chickens eating feed – corn and soybean are the primary components of animal feed; as the demand for these crops outpaces the global supply, feed costs increase – especially for countries like India and China, where they have to import many of their feed sources. Therefore maximizing value becomes critical and one of the ways to maximize value is to use alternative protein sources. However, these protein sources usually don’t have as optimal a nutritional profile or cost structure compared to soybean meal, so protease enzymes like Versazyme can play a major role to increase their value. And as the pioneers in the use of proteases in animal feed, we at BRI are glad to see several multinational firms buying into this concept and joining the cause for protein optimization!
3. Concerns over food safety - Governments are getting more cautious on the use of antibiotics as animal growth promoters. For example, the FDA just released a draft guidance on the use of antimicrobials in food producing animals. Versazyme is a natural product that improves the inherent protein value of feed, and as such contains no chemicals, hormones or drugs. So you can add it to animal feed without worrying about possible negative impacts on the food chain.
4. Concerns about the environment – let’s face it, growing millions of chickens or pigs creates tons of waste each year. BRI’s Versazyme improves the digestibility of protein in the feed, resulting in less ammonia and nitrogen in the manure. Plus, Versazyme allows you to formulate lower protein diets, thereby reducing the amount of excess nutrients shed into the manure. We call it the “Big Green Chickens” principle.
5. Supporting real innovation – true, the feed additive market has been deluged in the past with companies that promise the world but deliver inconsistent results, and as a result, most producers are skeptical of enzymes. And while BRI was the first to introduce a protease feed additive, there will always be others out there that claim to have similar or better products than ours. All we ask is that you put our products to the test in your facilities and “let the chickens tell you what they think.” Put it this way, if we didn’t believe in our products and technology and neither did our customers, then we wouldn’t be here celebrating BRI’s 10th year of existence. But we can’t do it alone - Contact us to learn more about BRI and how we can work together!

From a pile of chicken poop to a pile of money…one scientist’s 30-year obsession with a fowl problem

Alexander Fleming did it with penicillin, the 3M guy did it with Post-It notes, and the widely used lubricant WD-40 is a product made by it. What is it? Turning an unexpected discovery or observation into something useful and/or profitable.

Picture this – 30 years ago, a scientist at North Carolina State University working on a poultry waste digester to convert chicken manure to methane gas for power generation noticed that shed feathers in the chicken “poop” disappeared in the process of digestion. He reasoned that there was some unique microbe that was able to digest the keratin protein in the feathers and use it to grow. After many years of painstaking work by his graduate students and technicians, he isolated a special strain of bacteria (Bacillus licheniformis) that produced a unique enzyme (keratinase) that was particularly effective at digesting chicken feathers. That scientist’s name? Prof. Jason Shih, Professor of Poultry Science at NC State University (now retired). And what became of the enzyme? Prof. Shih and his son, Dr. Giles Shih, co-founded a company, BioResource International, Inc. (BRI), 10 years ago to commercialize Prof. Shih’s patents. Today BRI is producing and supplying innovative enzyme products (Versazyme and Valkerase) to poultry producers all over the world.

For more details about Prof. Shih’s serendipitous discovery and how it launched a global biotechnology enterprise, please read about the “Accidental Enzyme” or visit www.briworldwide.com.

Welcome to BRI's New Web Page!

Welcome to BioResource International’s newly redesigned web page. We hope you like it and come visit often! We’ve added a number of interactive features...stay up to date with current happenings in the agricultural, biotechnology and feed industries through our blog and our Twitter feed (@bioresource).

Also, please be sure to visit our Solutions page to see the newly updated brochures for our two products, Versazyme and Valkerase, and don’t miss the link on the Profile page that describes the unique story behind BRI. We have also expanded the list of FAQ's and updated the list of helpful websites and links.

Contact us to start a dialogue about potential business or research relationships. We look forward to partnering with you on innovative solutions for your business or farm!