Can Seaweed Be a Sustainable, One Health Resource in Livestock and Poultry Diets?

Abstract

Simple Summary As global food animal production continues to increase to meet the increasing demand of meat, milk, and eggs from an increasing population of people, it must become less reliant on land and freshwater use, improve nutrient utilization efficiency, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, disease pressures, elimination of antibiotic use for growth promotion, and oxidative stress in intensive livestock and poultry production systems have led to the need for identifying naturally produced anti-bacterial, anti-viral, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulating compounds that can be used as feed additives in animal feed. Seaweed is an abundant but underutilized natural resource that can be utilized more extensively in livestock and poultry diets to overcome many of these environmental sustainability and One Health challenges of food animal production. However, there are many seaweed production, bioprocessing, and industry challenges that need to be overcome, and its beneficial detoxifying capabilities in the marine environment result in the bioaccumulation of several detrimental toxic substances with food and feed safety concerns. As a result, this comprehensive review is intended to provide a synthesis of disparate threads of vast amounts of scientific information across multiple disciplines to improve our understanding and help us evaluate the sustainability and One Health tradeoffs of seaweed use in animal feeds.