The company is the first to pioneer the commercial use of valeric acid in animal nutrition, following successful trials of Gastrivix™ Avi. Like butyric acid, valeric acid is naturally created by the gut microbiota of broilers, although in too small quantities for optimal gut health during production cycles. Perstorp has used complex organic chemistry to create esters of valeric acid, which were tested over many years in a multitude of combinations with butyric acid esters to develop the right synergy, and the best match with nature.

Gastrivix™ Avi has been created to meet the bird’s biological needs, support gut integrity and promote reliable growth and performance. Perstorp believes that the solution will solve multiple challenges for the industry, by reducing feed volumes for the broiler’s lifecycle, providing consistent growth results, and boosting ROI.

Dr. Antonia Tacconi, Global Product Manager of Gut Health at Perstorp commented: "We can now prove that the synergy of these two esterified acids works better than one. After multiple trials, we have seen a reliable and consistent improvement on FCR for broilers thanks to the effects of butyric and valeric acid. With valeric acid, we have essentially found the missing ingredient."

Gastrivix™ Avi is a dry product that is easy to handle, palatable, has no dangerous goods restrictions and has no odor issues . Perstorp believes Gastrivix™ Avi represents an new important step in supporting and improving animal performance. The product will be the first new product to be produced on the brand new state of the art production line for powder products at Perstorp’s Waspik plant in the Netherlands.