Effects of increasing levels of pea hulls in the diet on productive performance, development of the gastrointestinal tract, and nutrient retention of broilers from one to eighteeen days of age

The effects of inclusion of pea hulls (PH) in the diet on growth performance, development of the gastrointestinal tract and nutrient retention were studied in broilers from 1 to 18d of age. There were a control diet based on low fibre ingredients (69.3 total dietary fibre (16.1g crude fibre/kg)) and three additional diets that resulted from the dilution of the basal diet with 25, 50 and 75g PH/kg (81.2, 93.2, and 105.1g total dietary fibre/kg diet, respectively). Each treatment was replicated six times and the experimental unit was a cage with 12 chicks. Growth performance, development of the gastrointestinal tract and the coefficients of total tract apparent retention (CTTAR) of nutrients were recorded at 6, 12 and 18d of age. In addition, jejunal morphology was measured at 12 and 18d and the coefficients of apparent ileal digestibility (CAID) of nutrients at 18d of age. Pea hulls inclusion affected all the parameters studied. The inclusion of 25 and 50g PH/kg diet improved growth performance as compared to the control diet. The relative weight (g/kg body weight) of proventriculus (P≤0.01), gizzard (P≤0.001) and ceca (P≤0.05) increased linearly as the level of PH in the diet increased. The inclusion of PH affected quadratically (P≤0.01) villus height:crypt depth ratio with the highest value shown at 25g PH/kg. In general, the CTTAR and CAID of nutrients increased linearly and quadratically (P≤0.05) with increasing levels of PH, showing maximum values with PH level between 25 and 50g/kg diet. We conclude that the size of the digestive organs increases with increasing levels of PH in the diet. In general, the best performance and nutrient digestibility values were observed with levels of PH within the range of 25 and 50g/kg. Therefore, young broilers have a requirement for a minimum amount of dietary fibre. When pea hulls are used as a source of fibre, the level of total dietary fibre required for optimal performance is within the range of 81.2–93.2g/kg diet (25.6–35.0g crude fibre/kg diet). An excess of total dietary fibre (above 93.2g/kg diet) might reduce nutrient digestibility and growth performance to values similar to those observed with the control diet.

Effects of the inclusion of oat hulls or sugar beet pulp in the diet on gizzard characteristics, apparent ileal digestibility of nutrients, and microbial count in the ceca in 36 day old broilers reared on floor

The effects of the inclusion of oat hulls (OH) and sugar beet pulp (SBP) in the diet on gizzard characteristics, apparent ileal nutrient digestibility (AID), and Clostridium perfringens, Enterobacteriaceae, and Lactobacillus proliferation in the ceca were studied in 36 d?old broilers. There were a control diet with a low CF content (1.61%) and 2 additional diets that resulted from the dilution of this feed with 5% of either OH or SBP.

Growth response of broilers to lysine levels and hydrolyzed porcine digestive mucosa (Palbio) inclusion in diet from 1 to 21 d of age

Palbio (PAL, Palbio 50 RD, Bioibérica, Spain) is a protein concentrate based on hydrolyzed porcine digestive mucosa dried under a fluid bed system over a soybean carrier, currently used in piglet feeds. The digestibility of PAL is very high and the product may be an excellent source of protein for young chicks. An experiment was conducted with 1,280 straight-run one-d-old Ross 308 chicks to evaluate the growth response of broilers to dietary inclusion of PAL.

Efecto de la inclusión de un hidrolizado de mucosa digestiva porcina (palbio 50 rd®) en piensos de broilers con niveles diferentes de lisina

La alimentación del pollo broiler durante la primera semana de vida es de creciente importancia debido a que la edad de sacrificio ha disminuido de forma constante en los últimos años. Además, consumos elevados durante la primera semana de vida mejoran el desarrollo del aparato digestivo de las aves, favoreciendo el crecimiento de las vellosidades intestinales y la eficiencia alimenticia (Lilburn, 1998, Noy et al., 2005). En los últimos años, el mercado dispone de nuevos productos de origen animal obtenidos durante el proceso de obtención de la heparina para uso farmacéutico. Uno de estos productos comerciales (Palbio 50 RD, Bioibérica S.A., Palafolls, Barcelona) está formado por la proteína hidrolizada de la mucosa digestiva de porcino limpia de contenidos intestinales, secada mediante un procedimiento especial que incluye la utilización de harina de soja como excipiente. Recientes estudios han demostrado de forma fehaciente el interés de utilizar este ingrediente en piensos de lechones de primera edad (Lindeman, et al., 2000; Corassa et al., 2007) pero los datos existentes en aves son más limitados. El objetivo de esta investigación fue evaluar los efectos de niveles crecientes de este hidrolizado proteico (PAL) sobre la productividad de pollos que recibían piensos con dos niveles diferentes de lisina total (Lys)

Correlation between ileal digestibility of amino acids and chemical composition of soybean meals in broilers at 21 days of age

The correlations between chemical composition and coefficient of standardized ileal digestibility (CSID) of crude protein (CP) and amino acids (AA) were determined in 22 soybean meal (SBM) samples originated from USA (n = 8), Brazil (BRA; n = 7) and Argentina (ARG; n = 7) in 21-day old broilers. Birds were fed a commercial maize-SBM diet from 1 to 17 days of age followed by the experimental diets in which the SBM tested was the only source of protein (205 g CP/kg) for three days. Also, in vitro nitrogen (N) digestion study was conducted with these samples using the two-step enzymatic method. The coefficient of apparent ileal digestibility (CAID) of the SBM, independent of the origin, varied from 0.820 to 0.880 for CP, 0.850 to 0.905 for lysine (Lys), 0.859 to 0.907 for methionine (Met) and 0.664 to 0.750 for cysteine (Cys). The corresponding CSID values varied from 0.850 to 0.966 for CP, 0.891 to 0.940 for Lys, 0.931 to 0.970 for Met and 0.786 to 0.855 for Cys. The CSID of CP and Lys of the SBM were positively correlated with CP (r = 0.514; P menor que 0.05 and r = 0.370; P = 0.09, respectively), KOH solubility (KOH sol.) (r = 0.696; P menor que 0.001 and r = 0.619; P menor que 0.01, respectively), trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA) (r = 0.541; P menor que 0.01 and r = 0.416; P = 0.05, respectively) and reactive Lys (r = 0.563; P menor que 0.01 and r = 0.486; P menor que 0.05) values, but no relation was observed with neutral detergent fiber and oligosaccharide content. No relation between the CSID of CP determined in vivo and N digestibility determined in vitro was found. The CSID of most key AA were higher for the USA and the BRA meals than for the ARG meals. For Lys, the CSID was 0.921, 0.919 and 0.908 (P menor que 0.05) and for Cys 0.828, 0.833 and 0.800 (P menor que 0.01) for USA, BRA and ARG meals, respectively. It is concluded that under the conditions of this experiment, the CSID of CP and Lys increased with CP content, KOH sol., TIA and reactive Lys values of the SBM. The CSID of most limiting AA, including Lys and Cys, were higher for USA and BRA meals than for ARG meals.

Inluence of source and level of glycerin in the diet on growth performance, liver characteristics, and nturient digestibility in broilers from hatching to 21 days of age

The influence of source and level of inclusion of raw glycerin (GLYC) in the diet on growth performance, digestive traits, total tract apparent retention (TTAR), and apparent ileal digestibility of nutrients was studied in broilers from 1 to 21 d of age. There was a control diet based on corn and soybean meal and 8 additional diets that formed a 2 × 4 factorial with 2 sources of GLYC and 4 levels of inclusion (2.5, 5.0, 7.5, and 10%). The GLYC used were obtained from the same original batch of soy oil that was dried under different processing conditions and contained 87.5 or 81.6% glycerol, respectively. Type of processing of the GLYC did not affect any of the variables studied except DM and organic matter retention (P < 0.05) that was higher for the 87.5% glycerol diet. From d 1 to 21, feed conversion ratio (FCR) improved linearly (L, P ≤ 0.01) as the GLYC content of the diet increased, but ADG was not affected. On d 21, the relative weight (% BW) of the liver and the digestive tract increased (L, P < 0.01) as the level of GLYC in the diet increased, but lipid concentration in the liver was not affected. The TTAR of DM and organic matter increased quadratically (Q, P < 0.05) and the AMEn content of the diet increased linearly (L, P < 0.01) with increases in dietary GLYC. Also, the apparent ileal digestibility of DM (L, P < 0.05; Q, P = 0.07) and gross energy (L, P < 0.01) increased as the GLYC content of the diet increased. It is concluded that raw GLYC from the biodiesel industry can be used efficiently, up to 10% of the diet, as a source of energy for broilers from 1 to 21 d of age and that the energy content of well-processed raw GLYC depends primarily on its glycerol content.

Apparent digestibility and metabolizable energy content of lipid sources in poultry

A trial was conducted to determine the apparent digestibility (ATTD) and AME content of different lipid sources in 21d-old broilers. There were a control diet based on corn and soybean meal without any supplemental fat and 6 additional diets forming a 3x2 factorial with 3 sources of fat (soy oil, SBO; reconstituted monoglyceride oil, RMG; and reconstituted triglyceride oil, RTG) included in the diet (3 or 6%) at expenses (wt:wt) of the basal diet.

Indicators of sustainability of agriculture and livestock in Spain - Indicadores de sostenibilidad de la agricultura y ganadería española

Sustainability is an adjective used to characterize agriculture according to the degree of fulfillment of goals. Those goals are related to agro-ecological, environmental and socio-economic dimensions. Sustainability is a dynamic and temporal character. In absolute terms there is not an ending value because it changes as its dimensions make it. Spain is one of the main agricultural countries of the European Union both in terms of crop land and value of productions. The object of this study is to present a methodology of sustainability account to be incorporated into national statistical and to assess their performance in the course of the years. For that reason the data sources used have been the statistics of the Department of Agriculture and from others database. We presented a set of indicators of sustainability and its evaluation in a time series of at least 30 years. The trend analysis offers the evolution of the numerical values of the indicators in terms of efficiency, physical units used for a unit of product or its value in euros. The analyzed crops have been: wheat, barley, maize, sunflower, sugar beet, wine grape, olive oil, citrus, melon and tomato. Physical indicators were: land, water, energy, erosion, soil organic matter, and carbon balance; socio-economic indicators were: agricultural final production, prices, income, employment and use of fertilizers. In general, all crops increased their productive efficiency, higher in irrigated than on dry land. Spanish agricultural carbon sequestration capacity has multiplied by five in the last seventy years, as a result of the increase in the productivity of crops, in terms of total biomass and the modification of the soil management techniques. Livestock sector presents data of pork, broilers and laying hen. Those showed an improvement in efficiency and economic indicators. Overall we can say that Spanish agriculture and livestock subsector have a tendency towards sustainability, being its main threats extreme meteorological factors and the instability of todays markets.

The effect of a mono component protease and different AMEn levels in broiler diets on growth performance from 1 to 18 days of age.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of a mono component serine protease (RONOZYME ProAct, DSM Nutritional Products) in diets with two different AMEn contents on apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of amino acids (AA) and growth performance in broilers from 1 to 18 days of age.

Influencia de la fuente y el nivel de glicerina cruda en el pienso sobre los paráemtros productivos en pollos de 1 a 21 días de edad.

Las cantidades de grasas y aceites destinadas a la producción de biodiesel han aumentado en los últimos años a nivel mundial (National Biodiesel Board, 2012). La glicerina cruda (Gly) es un subproducto de la industria del biodiesel que contiene cantidades variables de humedad, cenizas y glicerol. La Gly es una fuente atractiva de energía que se utiliza actualmente como sustituto parcial del grano de cereal en dietas para avicultura y otras especies domésticas (Swiatkiewicz y Koreleski, 2009). Se estima que el nivel máximo de Gly a utilizar en piensos para broilers varía entre 5 y 10% (Cerrate et al., 2006). A estos niveles de inclusión, la Gly no presenta efecto negativo alguno sobre la salud o los parámetros productivos de las aves. Sin embargo, la calidad de las Gly comerciales varía en función de su origen, composición y proceso de obtención. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar el efecto de la fuente y el nivel de glicerina cruda en el pienso sobre el rendimiento productivo en pollos de engorde de 1 a 21 días de edad.

Influencia de la presentación y del nivel de energía del pienso sobre los rendimientos productivos en pollitas de 1 a 35 días de edad.

Numerosos estudios (Brickett et al., 2007; Serrano et al., 2012) han demostrado que la granulación del pienso mejora el consumo, los IC y el PV en broilers. La granulación podría aumentar la digestibilidad de algunos de los componentes de la dieta (Abdollahi et al., 2011) y reducir las pérdidas de alimento en animales no rumiantes (Serrano et al., 2012; Berrocoso et al., 2013). Sin embargo, la información disponible sobre el efecto de la presentación del pienso sobre la productividad en pollitas es escasa. Debido a su menor consumo y menor velocidad de crecimiento, es de esperar que los beneficios de la granulación sean inferiores, en valores absolutos, en pollitas que en broilers. La densidad energética del pienso afecta al crecimiento y al IC en avicultura. Las aves comen para satisfacer sus necesidades energéticas (Nahashon et al, 2006) y por tanto, aumentan la ingesta voluntaria de pienso al disminuir el contenido de energía del mismo (Veldkamp et al, 2005). Sin embargo, las pollitas podrían no ser capaces de mantener constante la ingesta de energía con dietas muy diluidas (Pérez-Bonilla et al., 2012). Por otra parte, piensos muy energéticos son más palatables y tienden a aumentar el consumo voluntario, lo que podría resultar en mejoras de las GMD y de los IC (Frikha et al., 2009a; Perez-Bonilla et al., 2012). El objetivo del presente estudio fue comparar los efectos de la presentación del pienso y la concentración energética del mismo sobre los rendimientos productivos en pollitas de 1 a 35 d de edad.

Influencia del cereal y el nivel de inclusión de fibra en el pienso sobre la productividad en pollitas de 0 a 17 semanas de edad.

La fibra ha sido considerada como un diluyente del pienso en monogástricos con efectos negativos sobre consumo y la digestibilidad de los nutrientes (Jansen and Carré, 1985). Sin embargo, estudios recientes (Mateos et al., 2012) han mostrado que la inclusión de cantidades moderadas de fibra en el pienso podría mejorar tanto la digestibilidad de los nutrientes como el crecimiento de las aves. La inclusión de fibra en piensos para broilers podría incrementar el tiempo de retención de la digesta en la parte superior del tracto digestivo, estimulando el funcionamiento de la molleja (Hetland et al. 2005) y la producción de HCl en el proventrículo (Duke, 1986). Un descenso del pH de la molleja favorece la producción de pepsina e incrementa la solubilidad de las sales minerales (Jiménez-Moreno et al. 2009). Por lo tanto, la inclusión de cantidades adecuadas de fibra podría beneficiar el desarrollo del tracto gastrointestinal (Mateos et al., 2012). Sin embargo, la información disponible sobre los efectos beneficiosos de la fibra dietética en pollitas es escasa (Frikha et al., 2009). De hecho, los autores no han encontrado ningún estudio publicado sobre los efectos de la inclusión de fibra sobre el crecimiento de pollitas de 0 a 17 sem de edad. La influencia de fuentes de fibra tales como la cascarilla de avena, pulpa de remolacha (PRE) o cascarilla de soja sobre el desarrollo del tracto gastrointestinal ha sido bien estudiada en broilers (González-Alvarado el al., 2010). Sin embargo, la información disponible sobre el uso de paja de cereales (PCE) en dietas para avicultura es muy limitada; aun siendo una fuente de fibra abundante. La hipótesis del presente ensayo fue que la inclusión de cantidades moderadas de fibra en piensos de pollitas podría mejorar el rendimiento productivo con una mejora de la utilización de los nutrientes. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue estudiar el efecto de la inclusión de diversas fuentes de fibra a diferentes niveles en el pienso de pollitas sobre los rendimientos productivos de 0 a 17 sem de edad.

Influencia e la inclusión de fibra en el pienso sobre los rendimientos produtivos de pollitas rubias de 1 a 35 días de edad.

La fibra dietética representa la fracción indigestible de los ingredientes del pienso por lo que diluye el contenido en nutrientes del mismo (Rougière y Carré, 2010). Además, un aumento en el nivel de fibra del pienso puede reducir el consumo voluntario (Sklan et al., 2003), alterar el perfil de la flora gastrointestinal y aumentar la incidencia de procesos entéricos (Janssen and Carré, 1985). Sin embargo, estudios recientes muestran que la inclusión de ciertas fuentes de fibras a niveles adecuados podrían mejorar los rendimientos productivos y reducir la incidencia de problemas digestivos en aves (Mateos, 2012). En broilers, la inclusión de fibra adicional en el pienso mejoró la fisiología digestiva, aumentando el tamaño de la molleja, reduciendo el pH de la digesta de este órgano (Sacranie et al., 2012) y mejorando de los rendimientos productivos (González-Alvarado et al., 2010). Fuentes de fibra insoluble tales como la cascarilla de avena (CAV), la cascarilla de girasol (CGI) y la paja de cereales (PCE) podrían mejorar la fisiología del tracto gastrointestinal (TGI) y la digestibilidad de ciertos nutrientes cuando se incluyen en el pienso en cantidades moderadas (Hetland et al., 2003). Por otro lado, fuentes de fibra soluble, tal como la pulpa de remolacha (PRE), incrementan la viscosidad intestinal, lo que podría reducir el consumo de pienso (Jiménez-Moreno et al., 2010). Los autores no han encontrado estudio alguno sobre los efectos de la inclusión de fibra adicional en el pienso sobre los rendimientos productivos de pollitas comerciales. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue estudiar el efecto de incluir diversas fuentes de fibra a diferentes niveles en el pienso sobre los rendimientos productivos de pollitas de 1 a 35 d de edad.

Dietary xylanase increases hepatic vitamin E concentration of chickens fed wheat based diet

The study examined the effect of xylanase supplementation on apparent metabolizable energy (AME) and hepatic vitamin E and carotenoids in broiler chickens fed wheat based diets. A total of one hundred forty four male Ross 308 chickens were used in this study. Birds were randomly assigned to 3 dietary treatments (8 cages per treatment of 6 male broilers each) for 14 days from 7 to 21 day old. The control treatment was based on wheat-soyabean meal and was either unsupplemented or supplemented with either 1000 or 2000 xylanase units per kg diet. Orthogonal polynomial contrasts were used to test linear response to dietary xylanase activity. There was a positive linear relationship (P < 0.05) between dietary AME and doses of supplementary xylanase. A linear relationship (P < 0.05) was also observed between dosage of xylanase supplementation and hepatic vitamin E concentration and retention. In conclusion, xylanase supplementation improved dietary AME and increased hepatic vitamin E concentration which may have positive effects on the antioxidative status of the birds.