Yucca Extract for Deodorization

Yucca extract is a new type of feed additive that plays an important role in promoting livestock and poultry health, increasing productivity, improving digestive tract conditions, enhancing meat quality, promoting nutrient absorption, and increasing feed efficiency. In particular, yucca extract has a unique nitrogen-binding ability, making it highly effective in reducing harmful substances such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and skatole in livestock manure, thus significantly improving the living environment of animals.

Reducing Ammonia Emissions

In the odor gases produced by animal waste at farms, ammonia makes up a large proportion. Along with the highly toxic hydrogen sulfide, it is a major indicator of bad odors in farming operations. Ammonia in manure is mainly produced by undigested nutrients, especially sulfur-containing amino acids, which are fermented by microorganisms to produce large amounts of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. Ammonia in urine is produced by the action of urease, which breaks down urea and releases ammonia. Urea from protein and amino acid metabolism in the intestines also produces ammonia through urease activity. This intestinal ammonia can damage mucosal epithelial tissue, affect mucosal cell metabolism, disrupt the balance of gut flora, and lower the activity of digestive enzymes, ultimately impairing the digestion and absorption of feed.

Currently, numerous studies report that the active components in yucca extract can reduce the production of ammonia in manure and the intestines while improving nitrogen utilization in feed. Although the exact mechanism is not yet confirmed, several potential mechanisms have been proposed: yucca extract may reduce ammonia production by inhibiting urease activity. Many studies have reported that yucca extract is a urease inhibitor. Tang Yanjun and others conducted two in vitro simulation tests, which demonstrated that yucca extract significantly inhibits urease activity.

Yucca extract also has the ability to directly bind ammonia. Buggle and others reported that large and sequential molecules in yucca extract have an adsorption capacity for ammonia. The polyphenols in the extract also have a strong binding ability with ammonia molecules, reducing ammonia emissions. Yucca extract can promote the utilization of intestinal ammonia by microorganisms to form microbial proteins. Nitrogen compounds formed by the combination of polysaccharides and ammonia can also be effectively utilized by intestinal microbes, further reducing ammonia concentration and improving nitrogen utilization in feed. Additionally, yucca extract can prevent the nitrification of nitrogen in manure and urine, allowing nitrogen to exist in an inorganic form, which reduces the amount of ammonia released into the atmosphere.