Mardi Develops Five New Technologies In Agriculture

MELAKA (Malaysia), April 24 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) has succeeded in developing five new technologies to help improve the safety and production of animal feed. Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Chua Tee Yong said among the new technologies were detection kits for salmonella bacteria and tetracycline in meat, milk and eggs. "These kits can detect bacteria in 30 minutes compared to the traditional methods which take three to four days," he told reporters after opening the Fifth International Conference on Animal Nutrition here Tuesday. Also present was Mardi director-general Dr Abd Shukor Abd Rahman. A total of 170 participants, including from Australia, Thailand, Iran and China, took part in the three-day conference beginning Tuesday, which aims to promote new technologies in food productions. Chua said Mardi was also successful in developing an enzyme called "PKzyme" that could improve the digestion of palm kernel cake in livestock's diet. Another achievement was the "siloseal" technology which enable farmers to produce one to 10 tonnes of silage as a ruminant feed for livestock, he said. -- BERNAMA