Influence of steam pelleting on the feeding value of Tower and Candle rapeseed products for broiler chickens

Male broiler chickens were offered diets containing up to 30% Tower rapeseed meal, with these diets being prepared in mash or steam pelleted (crumble) form. In 4 experiments, birds receiving a maize and soya bean meal control diet showed a significant improvement in weight gain when crumbles, rather than mash diets, were used. With isocaloric, isonitrogenous diets containing rapeseed meal, no such improvement in growth rate was observed. Steam pelleting exerted no consistent effect on feed conversion. There was no significant difference in the growth rate of birds receiving mash diets irrespective of composition, while for crumbled diets, birds consuming the maize and soya bean control diet were heavier than comparable rapeseed-fed birds, with this difference being significant in 2 experiments. By adding fat, necessary to maintain rapeseed diets isocaloric, after the pelleting process, it was shown that fat per se was not responsible for failure to elicit a growth response with pelleted rapeseed meal diets. The response to pelleting was similar with diets prepared in an experimental pelleting machine at the university or by a commercial feed mill. Reduction in amino acid availability, in particular of arginine, is tentatively discussed in relation to the non-improved growth rate observed with pelleted diets containing rapeseed meal. Improvement in growth rate with pelleted vs. mash diets containing whole, raw rapeseeds is interpreted as a response to the heat treatment involved with the pelleting process.     

棉籽粕和菜籽粕替代部分鱼粉对黄颡鱼肉质及肌肉发育相关基因表达的影响

文章旨在研究菜籽粕与棉籽粕复合替代饲料鱼粉对黄颡鱼(Pelteobagrus fulvidraco)肌肉品质及肌纤维发育相关基因表达的影响。实验设计了5组等氮等能的饲料,以含鱼粉25%的处理组为对照饲料(FM),以菜籽粕与棉籽粕3﹕2混合后分别替代其中的10%、20%、30%和40%鱼粉,设置了RM10、RM20、RM30和RM40四个试验组。使用初始体质量为(2.38±0.10) g的黄颡鱼幼鱼,分别用上述5种饲料饲喂10周。试验表明,与对照组相比,菜粕棉粕混合替代水平达到20%及以上时黄颡鱼肌肉中的粗蛋白与粗脂肪显著降低,而水分和灰分则无显著差异;肌肉中的羟脯氨酸含量呈现下降的趋势;肌纤维中直径≥50μm的纤维数量随着替代水平达到20%后不断减小,而≤20μm的纤维数量则呈现上升趋势;植物蛋白源的替代也会对黄颡鱼的肌肉质构产生一定的影响。此外,肌肉纤维发育相关基因myod、myog和mrf4的mRNA水平随着替代水平上升而逐渐升高,而myf5与mstn的基因表达在各组间无显著差异。TOR通路相关基因中的akt、tor和s6k1等基因随着替代水平升高而下降, 4e-bp1则随着替代水...     

Apparent protein digestibility and recovery of endogenous nitrogen at the terminal ileum of pigs fed diets containing various soyabean products, peas or rapeseed hulls

Effects of the use of three different soyabean products (soya concentrate and two different soyabean meals), peas or rapeseed hulls in the diet on the apparent ileal digestibility of CP (N × 6.25) and recovery of ileal endogenous nitrogen (N) in weanling pigs were investigated. Ileal endogenous N was measured using the ¹⁵N-isotope dilution method. Thirteen castrated male pigs (BW of 12–23 kg) were fed maize starch-based diets containing either soya concentrate (SC), purified rapeseed hulls (pRH) and SC (SRH diet), soyabean meal (SBM), a mixture of toasted and untoasted soyabean meal (mSBM) or peas. The apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of dry matter (DM) for the SC, SRH, SBM, mSBM and pea diets was 82.1, 74.3, 83.3, 80.0 and 74.9% (P < 0.05), respectively. The AID of CP for these diets was 82.4, 67.6, 81.6, 68.0 and 76.9% (P < 0.05), respectively. Similar differences in the AID for amino acids (AA) in the diets were found. The AID for CP and for the sum of AA in the pRH, as calculated by the difference between the SC and SRH diet, were 26 and 41%, respectively. For the SC, SRH, SBM, mSBM and pea diet, ileal recovery (g/kg of DM intake) for endogenous N were 2.79, 3.46, 2.73, 4.89 and 3.29 (P < 0.05), respectively, and for dietary N 1.16, 4.11, 1.64, 4.15 and 2.53 (P < 0.05), respectively. For the SC, SBM and mSBM diets, differences in AID of CP and AA were associated with differences in both the ileal recovery of endogenous N and the recovery of undigested dietary N. Differences in trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA) of the soya products were likely associated with these observations. It was also concluded that fibre (Neutral Detergent Fibre; NDF) in pea could be at least in part responsible for the relatively low AID of CP and AA and the high recovery of ileal endogenous N in the pea diet. The low AID of CP and AA of pRH was likely related to the association of protein to the fibre matrix in the fibre-rich rapeseed hulls.     

A review of processing of feed ingredients to enhance diet digestibility in finfish

Replacement of fish meal with plant proteins in aquaculture diets presents several problems. Firstly, aquaculture diets, particularly diets for carnivorous fish species, are nutrient dense and may contain up to 450 g crude protein (CP)/kg. Such diets preclude the use of ingredients with only moderate CP content, such as pulses including peas and faba beans or oilseed meals including canola/rapeseed meal and flax. Secondly, virtually all crops contain heat-labile and heat-stable secondary compounds including protease inhibitors, tannins, lectins, phytate, dietary fibre and starch. Removal of heat-labile secondary compounds may be accomplished by extrusion or other heat treatment. However, elimination of heat-stable secondary compounds, and increasing the nutrient concentration of diets, requires fractionation of crops. Fractionation technologies range from low technology processes such as dehulling to medium technologies such as air classification to sophisticated technologies such as aqueous and solvent protein purification. Studies on the nutritional value of processed plant proteins in various fish species have consistently shown improved digestibility and growth compared to feeding unprocessed ingredients. This review examines effects of processing technologies on nutritional properties of soybean meal, canola meal, peas, lupins and flax in aquaculture diets.     

Effect of different dietary energy and protein sources on antioxidant status,fresh yolk fatty acid profile and microstructure of salted yolks in laying ducks

The study investigated whether different dietary energy and protein sources affect laying performance, antioxidant status, fresh yolk fatty acid profile and quality of salted yolks in laying ducks. In all, 360 19-week-old Longyan ducks were randomly assigned to four diets in a factorial arrangement (2×2). The four diets consisted of two energy sources, corn (CO) or sorghum (SO) and two protein sources, soybean meal (SM) and rapeseed meal with corn distillers dried grains with solubles (RMD), and each treatment contained six replicates of 15 birds each. The experimental diets were isocaloric (metabolizable energy, 10.84 MJ/kg) and isonitrogenous (CP, 17%). The results showed that egg production, average egg weight, egg mass and feed conversion ratio were not affected by diets (P>0.05). Plasma contents of reduced glutathione (GSH), GSH/oxidized glutathione and total antioxidant capacity were lower (P<0.05) in ducks fed the RMD diets compared with those fed SM diets with a substantial increase (P=0.006) in plasma content of malondialdehyde (MDA). Egg yolks from ducks fed SO diets had higher proportions of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and lower saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids compared with CO diets (P<0.001). Similarly, ducks fed RMD diets had a higher content of PUFA and n-6/n-3 ratio in fresh yolks (P<0.001), and increased salted yolk MDA, carbonylated proteins content and incidence of hard salted yolks (P<0.05) compared with SM diets. Scanning electron microscopy showed that salted yolks contained rougher polyhedral granules and fewer fat droplets, and were surrounded with a layer of bunchy fibers in ducks fed SO+RMD than those fed CO+SM diet. In conclusion, the current study showed that feeding laying ducks with diets containing SO or RMD reduced antioxidant capacity and increased egg yolk concentrations of PUFA. It appeared that egg yolks from ducks fed these diets were more sensitive to lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation during salting, and reduced the quality of salted yolks.     

Apparent digestion coefficients for dry matter, protein and essential amino acids in terrestrial ingredients for Pacific shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei (Decapoda: Penaeidae)

Protein quality mainly depends on the essential amino acid (EAA) profile, but also on its bioavailability, because EAA digestibility is generally lower than the analyzed amounts. This information is needed in the aquaculture industry for aquafeed formulation. For this purpose, the apparent digestibility coefficients of dry matter, protein, and essential amino acids of eight feedstuffs of terrestrial origin were determined for the juvenile whiteleg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei (15-19 g), using 1% chromic oxide as an inert marker. A reference diet was formulated and produced in the laboratory. Eight experimental diets were prepared each with 30% of one of the experimental ingredients added to the reference diet: casein, porcine byproduct meal poultry byproduct meal, corn meal, wheat gluten meal, soybean paste, sorghum meal, and wheat meal. The experiment consisted of a single-factor, completely randomized design with three replicates per treatment. Samples of ingredients, diets and feces were analyzed for nitrogen and amino acids. For amino acid assay, we used reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography. To avoid partial loss of methionine and cystine, samples of ingredients, diets, and feces were oxidized with performic acid to methionine sulfone and cysteic acid prior to acid hydrolysis. The apparent dry matter and protein digestive utilization coefficients varied from 68% to 109% and from 70% to 103%, respectively. Apparent digestibility of protein for casein, soy paste, wheat meal and wheat gluten were very high (over 90%), corn gluten and poultry byproducts meal showed high protein digestibility (over 80%), but porcine byproducts meal and sorghum meal had low digestibility (76% and 70%, respectively). There was a reasonable, but not total, correspondence between apparent protein digestibility and average essential amino acid digestibility coefficients, except for arginine in corn gluten, phenylalanine and leucine in sorghum meal, phenylalanine in soy paste and lysine in wheat meal and poultry by-product meal. The most digestible feed ingredients for whiteleg shrimp were: wheat gluten, wheat meal and soy paste; poultry byproduct meal and corn gluten were less digestible and the lowest digestibility occurred in porcine byproduct meal and sorghum meal. Feedstuffs exhibited great variability in dry matter, protein and amino acid digestive utilization coefficients, which should be considered when formulating shrimp feeds.     

A nutritional evaluation of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum)

Experiments were conducted with rats, pigs, chickens and laying hens. Buckwheat had a high neutral detergent fibre content of 20%; digestible energy measured with pigs was 11.5 MJ/kg, and a mean metabolizable energy value of 11.0 MJ/kg with poultry. Growth studies with rats and chicks showed that buckwheat in mono-grain diets was superior to cereal grains. However, it was not possible to identify limiting amino acids in buckwheat, and supplementation with fat and protein sources did not promote the growth responses anticipated. Removal of the fibrous hulls from buckwheat by sifting did not increase growth rate, but food conversion was improved.Although chemical analysis indicated that amino acids were adequate to maintain egg production, this was not confirmed in laying trials even when additions of lysine and methionine were made to buckwheat. The most favourable response to buckwheat was achieved in pig-growth studies. Growth rate on an all-buckwheat diet was not different from that on an all-wheat (12% CP) diet but addition of lysine improved growth rate and feed conversion. Addition of 10% meat meal or sunflower meal to buckwheat gave similar growth and feed conversion to those of a commercial grower diet. Amino acid disappearance, measured at the terminal ileum of pigs prepared with re-entrant cannulas, gave values ranging from 90% for methionine to 65% for leucine, although there was substantial variation among pigs.It was apparent that buckwheat as the sole grain source was not suitable for the species examined. Differences in performance between individual animals may be attributed to their capacity to degrade the buckwheat fibre. This may in part explain the variation in the response of individuals to the experimental diets and therefore a tendency to mask responses to the various supplements. It can be concluded from this study that buckwheat as the sole source of energy is unsuitable for pigs and poultry even though in the diets of pigs it gave acceptable growth rate and feed conversion. Some pigs, however, did not take readily to this grain and often took several hours to consume their rations. Poor acceptability, perhaps due to the presence of a toxin or other chemical compounds, appears to be associated with this grain.     

Animal Welfare Issues in the Poultry Industry: Is There a Lesson to Be Learned?

Many of the conditions in which poultry live and the procedures to which they are subjected compromise their welfare. This article describes these welfare problems in the hope that they may serve as warnings to the rest of animal agriculture, which then might take steps to avoid the same pitfalls. The article discusses poultry welfare problems under the headings of battery cages for laying hens, forced molting, disposal of spent laying hens, fast growth problems in meat poultry, catching and transportation, food restriction of broiler breeders, hyperaggressiveness in broiler breeder males, elective surgeries, and water-bath stunning.     

Determination of Apparent Ileal Amino Acid Digestibility in Rapeseed Meal and Cake Processed at Different Temperatures Using the Direct and Difference Method with Growing Pigs

Studies were conducted with ten barrows, average initial body weight 34.5 ± 2.1kg, fitted with a T-cannula at the distal ileum, to study the accuracy of determination of the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) values of crude protein (CP) and amino acids (AA) in rapeseed meal and cake and the effects of processing, using the difference method. Five corn starch-based diets in the studies were formulated to contain 17.7% CP and based on soybean meal, prepress-extraction rapeseed meal, prepress-extraction rapeseed meal plus soybean meal, high-temperature press rapeseed cake plus soybean meal, or low-temperature press rapeseed cake plus soybean meal as the sole source of dietary protein. The design was an incomplete Latin Square involving two three-week periods and five-treatments. It was found that the AID values of CP and most AA determined with the difference or direct method were significantly lower in rapeseed meal or cakes than soybean meal. The AID values of CP and most AA in prepress-extraction rapeseed meal, high-temperature press or low-temperature cakes determined with the difference method were no difference from those in prepress-extraction rapeseed meal determined with the direct method. The AID values of CP and AA in rapeseed meal and cake determined with the difference method were accurate, when the contribution of CP and AA from rapeseed was more than 50%. The AID values of CP and AA (especially lysine) were lower in the high-temperature press rapeseed cake than in the low-temperature press cake or the prepress-extraction meal.     

Direct Bio-Utilization of Untreated Rapeseed Meal for Effective Iturin A Production by Bacillus subtilis in Submerged Fermentation

The feasibility of using untreated rapeseed meal as a nitrogen source for iturin A production by Bacillus subtilis 3–10 in submerged fermentation was first evaluated by comparison with two different commercial nitrogen sources of peptone and ammonium nitrate. A significant promoting effect of rapeseed meal on iturin A production was observed and the maximum iturin A concentration of 0.60 g/L was reached at 70 h, which was 20% and 8.0 fold higher than that produced from peptone and ammonium nitrate media, respectively. It was shown that rapeseed meal had a positive induction effect on protease secretion, contributing to the release of soluble protein from low water solubility solid rapeseed meal for an effective supply of available nitrogen during fermentation. Moreover, compared to raw rapeseed meal, the remaining residue following fermentation could be used as a more suitable supplementary protein source for animal feed because of the great decrease of major anti-nutritional components including sinapine, glucosinolate and its degradation products of isothiocyanate and oxazolidine thione. The results obtained from this study demonstrate the potential of direct utilization of low cost rapeseed meal as a nitrogen source for commercial production of iturin A and other secondary metabolites by Bacillus subtilis.     

Prevalence and key figures for the poultry red mite Dermanyssus gallinae infections in poultry farm systems

Recent surveys and sample collection have confirmed the endemicity of Dermanyssus gallinae in poultry farming worldwide. The reduction in number and efficacy of many acaricide products has accentuated the prevalence rates of this poultry ectoparasite observed more often in non intensive systems such as free-range, barns or backyards and more often in laying hens than in broiler birds. The lack of knowledge from producers and the utilisation of inadequate, ineffective or illegal chemicals in many countries have been responsible for the increase in infestation rates due to the spread of acaricide resistance. The costs for control methods and treatment are showing the tremendous economic impact of this ectoparasite on poultry meat and egg industries. This paper reviews the prevalence rates of this poultry pest in different countries and for different farming systems and the production parameters which could be linked to this pest proliferation.     

Review: Automated techniques for monitoring the behaviour and welfare of broilers and laying hens: towards the goal of precision livestock farming

There is increasing public concern about poultry welfare; the quality of animal welfare is closely related to the quality of livestock products and the health of consumers. Good animal welfare promotes the healthy growth of poultry, which can reduce the disease rate and improve the production quality and capacity. As behaviour responses are an important expression of welfare, the study of behaviour is a simple and non-invasive method to assess animal welfare. The use of modern technology offers the possibility to monitor the behaviour of broilers and laying hens in a continuous and automated way. This paper reviews the latest technologies used for monitoring the behaviour of broilers and laying hens under both experimental conditions and commercial applications and discusses the potential of developing a precision livestock farming (PLF) system. The techniques that are presented and discussed include sound analysis, which can be an online tool to automatically monitor poultry behaviour non-invasively at the group level; wireless, wearable sensors with radio-frequency identification devices, which can automatically identify individual chickens, track the location and movement of individuals in real time and quantify some behavioural traits accordingly and image processing technology, which can be considered a direct tool for measuring behaviours, especially activity behaviours and disease early warning. All of these technologies can monitor and analyse poultry behaviour, at the group level or individual level, on commercial farms. However, the popularity and adoption of these technologies has been hampered by the logistics of applying them to thousands and tens of thousands of birds on commercial farms. This review discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques in commercial applications and presents evidence that they provide potential tools to automatically monitor the behaviours of broilers and laying hens on commercial farms. However, there still has a long way to go to develop a PLF system to detect and predict abnormal situations.     

Interactions of flavin containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3) genotype and feeding of choline and rapeseed cake on the trimethylamine (TMA) content in egg yolks of laying hens

To evaluate the relationship between the FMO3 genotype and dietary trimethylamine (TMA) precursors on TMA-N content in eggs, laying hens were fed with choline (500 and 4000 mg/kg diet) and, in a later trial, with rapeseed cake (0, 100 and 300 g/kg diet). Hens were genotyped for non-synonymous A/T polymorphism at position nt1034 of the cDNA of the FMO3 gene, which is associated with elevated TMA-levels in egg yolks. Genotypes were equally distributed among the experimental diets. TMA was extracted from yolks and measured as TMA-N by a colorimetric method. As expected, hens of the TT-genotype had high amounts of TMA-N in egg yolks when fed either 4000 mg choline/kg diet or the rapeseed cake diet, while hens of the AA-genotype showed low levels of TMA-N. Heterozygous AT-hens had a slightly increased level of TMA-N when fed with 4000 mg choline/kg diet but not with the rapeseed cake feed. Rapeseed cake can be fed to AA and AT hens without leading to fishy tainted eggs.     

家禽卵泡闭锁机制的研究进展

家禽卵泡闭锁是一种受多种机制共同调控卵泡退化的过程,与家禽的繁殖性能密切相关。近年来,随着分子技术的快速发展,针对家禽卵泡细胞的凋亡和自噬引起卵泡闭锁的研究取得巨大进展。综述了家禽卵泡内细胞凋亡与自噬对家禽卵泡闭锁调控机制,讨论了卵泡细胞凋亡与自噬引起卵泡闭锁的意义及存在的问题。通过对家禽卵泡闭锁机制的研究,以期为家禽产蛋性能的充分利用和挖掘提供理论依据。     

Comparative life cycle assessment of rapeseed oil and palm oil

Background, aim and scope  

The environmental effect of globalisation has been debated intensively in the last decades. Only few well-documented analyses of global versus local product alternatives exist, whilst recommendations on buying local are vast. At the same time, the European Environmental Agency’s Third Assessment concludes that the resource use within the EU is stabilising at the expense of increased resource use for import of products to the EU. Taking its point of departure in vegetable oils, this article compares rapeseed oil and palm oil as a local and a global alternative for meeting the increasing demand for these products in the EU. By using detailed life cycle assessment (LCA), this study compares the environmental impacts and identifies alternative ways of producing rapeseed oil and palm oil to the EU market in order to reduce environmental impacts.     

House fly larvae meal grown on municipal organic waste as a source of protein in poultry diets

House fly larvae (Musca domestica L.) grown in the residues of municipal organic waste were evaluated as a protein concentrate in practical diets for poultry. Seventy-two broiler-type chicks were alloted within 12 groups. Quadruplicate groups each received the following dietary treatments: a control diet containing soya bean meal alone, or two diets in which either 12% of the supplementary protein was provided by fly larvae meal or 9% by fish meal. The chicks were fed during the first four weeks of life with isocaloric and isoproteic diets and the results showed no significant differences in body weight gain (P > 0.05) or food conversion efficiency (P > 0.05), the larvae meal diet being intermediate to the other two.     

团头鲂幼鱼对不同浓度胆碱的利用率及7种常见饲料原料中胆碱生物学效价的评定

研究常见饲料原料中胆碱的生物学效价,为渔用配合饲料配制提供基础数据。试验选取团头鲂平均体重（3.50.1）g 990尾,以酪蛋白、明胶等原料配制4个氯化胆碱添加水平（0、1030、1230、1430 mg/kg）的纯合饲料,并在1030 mg/kg的基础上分别添加7种常见饲料原料（鱼粉、豆粕、菜粕、棉粕、次粉、麸皮、米糠）,使得各组配合饲料中胆碱含量为1230 mg/kg,共11组,每组3重复,饲养8周。根据肝脏胆碱沉积量和试验鱼胆碱摄食量,评定团头鲂幼鱼对不同浓度的胆碱利用率和这7种原料中胆碱的生物学效价。结果表明:在4个纯和饲料中,肝脏胆碱沉积量和增重率随着饲料胆碱水平从0到1230 mg/kg饲料的增加而显著上升（P0.05）,并在饲料胆碱水平从1230到1430 mg/kg饲料的增加而差异不显著（P0.05）;在同一胆碱水平（1230 mg/kg）的条件下,原料组的增长率均高于对照组;团头鲂幼鱼对鱼粉、豆粕、菜粕、棉粕、次粉、麸皮和米糠的胆碱生物学效价分别为87.42%、112.54%、76.84%、98.00%、95.91%、43.88%、91.5%。分析可知,团头鲂生产饲料中尚需要额外添加氯化胆碱方能满足其对胆碱的需要,实际添加量与饲料所使用的原料有关。       

饲料中发酵芝麻粕替代菜粕对草鱼生长性能、肠道形态和微生物及小肽转运相关基因表达的影响

实验以初重(99.98±0.69) g的草鱼(Ctenopharyngodon idellus)为研究对象, 研究饲料中发酵芝麻粕替代菜粕蛋白对草鱼生长性能、肠道形态和微生物以及小肽转运相关基因表达的影响。添加0、5%、10%和15%发酵芝麻粕分别替代菜粕蛋白0、11.8%、23.5%和35.1%, 配制4组等氮等脂的饲料, 分别为对照组、实验1组、实验2组和实验3组。实验在室内循环水养殖系统中进行, 每组3个重复, 每一重复饲喂20尾鱼, 每天饱食投喂2次, 实验共持续45d。结果发现: 各处理组间草鱼增重率、特定生长率和蛋白质效率均无显著差异, 实验1组和2组略高于对照组(P>0.05); 组间饵料系数也无显著差异, 实验1组和2组略低于对照组(P>0.05)。实验组草鱼肠绒毛高度均显著高于对照组(P<0.05), 而实验组隐窝深度小于对照组 (P>0.05), 绒毛高度与隐窝深度的比值(V/C)在实验组也显著高于对照组(P<0.05)。随着发酵芝麻粕替代比例的增加, 乳酸杆菌(Lactobacillus)和芽孢杆菌(Bacillus)占比显著上升(P<0.05), 而大肠杆菌(Escherichia coli)和气单胞菌(Aeromonas)占比显著下降。小肽转运相关基因方面, 尾型同源盒基因2 (CDX2)、特异性蛋白1 (Sp1)和小肽转运蛋白1 (PepT1)基因mRNA相对表达量均随着发酵芝麻粕替代比例的增加呈现先显著上调后下调的趋势, 且均在实验1组时达到最大值(P<0.05)。综合考量鱼体生长性能、肠道黏膜形态、菌群及小肽转运相关基因表达方面, 草鱼饲料中发酵芝麻粕蛋白适宜替代菜粕蛋白的比例为11.8%—23.5%。     

Amino Acid Profile of Escaped Feed Protein After Rumen Incubation and Their Intestinal Digestibility

The crude protein content and amino acid profile of seven feedstuffs (linseed meal, maize gluten meal, rapeseed meal, rapeseed meal protected, soybean meal, fullfat soybean extruded and sunflower meal) were determined before and after ruminal incubation for 16h in three bulls with large rumen cannulas. The intestinal disappearance of amino acids was measured using mobile bag technique. Ruminal incubation affected amino acid profile of all experimental feedstuffs. Crude protein degradation varied from 29.3% for maize gluten meal to 86.4% for rapeseed meal. A tendency towards increased disappearance was observed for glutamic acid, histidine, lysine and proline and decreased disappearance for branched-chain amino acids. The intestinal crude protein digestibility was higher than >80%, except rapeseed meal (66.4%) and sunflower meal (77.8%). The least digestible individual amino acids were methionine and isoleucine in rapeseed meal, histidine and methionine in rapeseed meal protected and arginine in sunflower meal. In general, the lowest amino acid digestibilities were found in feedstuffs with the highest fibre content. The feedstuffs show that they have different potential for supplying of limiting amino acids. Of particular value are the feedstuffs with low crude protein degradability in the rumen and high intestinal digestibility of amino acids.     

Attributional versus consequential life cycle assessment and feed optimization: alternative protein sources in pig diets

Purpose

Feed production is responsible for the majority of the environmental impact of livestock production, especially for monogastric animals, such as pigs. Some feeding strategies demonstrated that replacing one ingredient with a high impact, e.g. soybean meal (SBM), with an alternative protein source, e.g. locally produced peas or rapeseed meal, has potential to reduce the environmental impact. These studies, however, used an attributional life cycle assessment (ALCA), which solely addresses the direct environmental impact of a product. A replacement of SBM with alternative protein sources, however, can also have indirect environmental consequences, which might change environmental benefits of using alternative protein sources. This study aims to explore differences in results when performing an ALCA and a CLCA to reduce the environmental impact of pig production. We illustrated this for two case studies: replacing SBM with rapeseed meal (RSM), and replacing SBM with waste-fed larvae meal in diets of finishing-pigs.

Methods

We used an ALCA and CLCA to assess global warming potential (GWP), energy use (EU) and land use (LU) of replacing SBM with RSM and waste-fed larvae meal, for finishing-pigs. The functional unit was 1 kg of body weight gain.

Results and discussion

Based on an ALCA, replacing SBM with RSM showed that GWP (3%) and EU (1%) were not changed, but LU was decreased (14%). ALCA results for replacing SBM with waste-fed larvae meal showed that EU did not change (1%), but GWP (10%) and LU (56%) were decreased. Based on a CLCA, replacing SBM with RSM showed an increased GWP (15%), EU (12%) and LU (10%). Replacing SBM with waste-fed larvae meal showed an increased GWP (60%) and EU (89%), but LU (70%) was decreased. Furthermore, the results of the sensitivity analysis showed that assumptions required to perform a CLCA, such as definition of the marginal product, have a large impact on final results but did not affect the final conclusions.

Conclusions

The CLCA results seem to contradict the ALCA results. CLCA results for both case studies showed that using co-products and waste-fed larvae meal currently not reduces the net environmental impact of pork production. This would have been overlooked when results were only based on ALCA. To gain insight into the environmental impact of feed, animal nutritionists can use an ALCA. If policy makers or the feed industry, however, want to assess the net environmental impact of a potential feeding strategy, it is recommended to perform a CLCA. Feed and food markets are, however, highly dynamic. Pig feed optimization is based on least cost optimization and a wide range of ingredients are available; diet compositions can, therefore, change easily, resulting in different environmental impacts. Ideally, therefore, a CLCA should include a sensitivity analysis (e.g. different feed prices or different marginal products) to provide a range of possible outcomes to make the results more robust.