Nutritional Potentials of Atypical Feed Ingredients for Broiler Chickens and Pigs

Abstract

Diets play an important part in monogastric nutrition. This is because diets are comprised of various feed ingredients that supply energy and nutrients required by broiler chickens or pigs for normal growth and development. The main feed ingredients used for formulating diets for pigs and chickens are comprised of cereals and oilseed meals. Corn and soybean meal (SBM) are mostly used in North America for animal feeds. However, due to geographical locations, availability, and cost, ingredients such as wheat, barley, and canola meal are often used for feeding pigs and chickens. Overdependence on common ingredients such as corn and SBM for decades has resulted in rising costs of animal production. Therefore, the need has risen to examine the potentials of alternative feed ingredients capable of supplying the required energy and nutrients for monogastric animals. Research has been carried out to identify and evaluate several uncommon feed ingredients and their utilization by broiler chickens and pigs. Thus, this review enumerates the nutritional potentials of feed ingredients in 4 main nutritional classes using information from articles in peer-reviewed journals. Feeding practices, advantages, and limitations of using certain uncommon feed ingredients are discussed. In addition, species-specific factors in terms of practical applications are explored.

Keywords: broiler chickens; diets; nutritional potentials; pigs; uncommon feed ingredients.

Figure 1

Growth performance of animals fed diets containing faba beans: (a) average daily gain (g/d) of growing pigs at 30 to 60 kg body weight [32]; (b) feed efficiency (g/g) of broiler chickens from 0 to 21 d post hatching [33].

Figure 2

Average daily gain (g/d) of weanling pigs fed diets containing increasing concentration of spray-dried plasma protein (SDPP) or poultry meal (PM) [111]. The average daily gain of pigs fed SDPP (red circle and dashed line) was greater (p < 0.05) than those fed PM (blue triangle and dashed line) on 0 to 7 d; there was no difference in the average daily gain between pigs fed SDPP (red circle and solid line) and pigs fed PM (blue triangle and solid line) on 0 to 21 d.

Figure 3

Body weight gain (kg) and feed efficiency (kg/kg) of broiler chickens fed diets containing increasing concentration of triticale from 1 to 42 d post hatching [57].

Figure 4

Feed efficiency (g/g) of broiler chickens fed diets containing sugar beet pulp or oat hulls from 1 to 42 d post hatching [62]. Means within the period without a common letter differ (p < 0.05).