Stein, H. H., G. A. Casas, J. J. Abelilla, Y. Liu, and R. C. Sulabo. 2015. Nutritional value of high fiber co-products from the copra, palm kernel, and rice industries in diets fed to pigs. J. Anim. Sci. Biotechnol. 6:56. Link to full text (.pdf)

Rojas, O. J. and H. H. Stein. 2015. Use of feed technology to improve the nutritional value of feed ingredients. Page 23 in Advances in Animal Nutrition in Australia, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia, October 26-28, 2015. (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

Most swine diets must be supplemented with calcium because most plant ingredients commonly used in diets for pigs contain relatively little calcium. One way to add calcium is to include inorganic sources such as dicalcium phosphate or calcium carbonate; however, animal ingredients such as meat byproduct meals can also be used. These ingredients, often used as a protein source, are also a good source of calcium. To our knowledge, values for apparent (ATTD) and standardized (STTD) total tract digestibility of calcium in animal sources have not been reported. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the ATTD and STTD of calcium in four calcium sources of animal origin.

The secondary objective of the study was to test the hypothesis that the addition of microbial phytase to diets containing calcium sources of animal origin would increase the digestibility of calcium. Although animal sources do not contain phytate, swine diets are composed primarily of plant ingredients, and the phytate in those ingredients might form complexes with the calcium in the animal sources.

Li, Z., X. Wang, P. Guo, L. Liu, X. Piao, H. H. Stein, D. Li, and C. Lai. 2015. Prediction of digestible and metabolisable energy in soybean meals produced from soybeans of different origins fed to growing pigs. Arch. Anim. Nutr. 69:473-486. Link to full text (.pdf)

Soybean meal is the main protein source used in diets for pigs in the United States, as well as most countries of the world, due to the high quality of the protein it provides. However, soybean meal also contains antinutritional factors that limit its use in weanling pig diets. Pigs do not secrete the enzyme needed for the hydrolysis of raffinose and stachyose, α-galactosidase, in the small intestine. Therefore, these oligosaccharides are not enzymatically digested, but are instead fermented in the small and large intestines. This results in decreased growth performance and increased incidence of diarrhea when fed to weanling pigs.

Oligosaccharides can be removed from soybean meal using an alcohol extraction process, creating soy protein concentrate. Soy protein concentrate has greater digestibility of most amino acids and greater concentrations of digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) than soybean meal. A new source of soy protein concentrate called Nutrivance (Midwest Ag Enterprises Inc., Marshall, MN) has recently been introduced, which is produced using a process combining non-alcohol extraction and enzymatic treatment of soybean meal. The nutritional value of soy protein concentrate produced using this method has not been determined. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the concentrations of DE and ME in soy protein concentrate and to compare these values to DE and ME in soybean meal.

González-Vega, J. C., C. L. Walk, and H. H. Stein. 2015. Effect of phytate, microbial phytase, fiber, and soybean oil on calculated values for apparent and standardized total tract digestibility of calcium and apparent total tract digestibility of phosphorus in fish meal fed to growing pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 93:4808-4818. Link to full text (.pdf)

Jaworski, N. W. and H. H. Stein. 2015. Nonstarch polysaccharide composition influences the energy value of grains and co-products. Page 262 in Proceedings of the 66^th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), Warsaw, Poland, August 31-September 4, 2015. Link to abstract (.pdf)

Soybean meal is a high quality source of protein in diets fed to pigs. However, soybean meal contains anti-nutritional factors such as trypsin inhibitors and oligosaccharides, which decrease nutrient availability and limit the amount of soybean meal that can be fed in weanling pig diets.

Soy protein concentrate is produced by processing soybean meal to remove some nonprotein components, including the soluble carbohydrates. This leaves soy protein concentrate with a greater concentration of crude protein and amino acids than soybean meal. The presence of oligosaccharides in soybean meal has been shown to reduce the tolerance of young pigs to conventional soybean meal, and therefore, animal proteins rather than soybean meal is often used in diets for young pigs. However, if the oligosaccharides and other antinutritional factors can be removed from soybean meal, it is possible to use soybean meal in diets for young pigs instead of animal proteins.

Typically, an alcohol extraction process has been used to remove soluble carbohydrates from soybean meal to create soy protein concentrate. However, a new source of soy protein concentrate called Nutrivance (Midwest Ag Enterprises Inc., Marshall, MN) has recently been introduced. Nutrivance is produced using a process combining non-alcohol extraction and enzymatic treatment of soybean meal. The nutritional value of soy protein concentrate produced using this method has not been determined. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the digestibility of amino acids in this new source of soy protein concentrate.

Guo, P. P., P. L. Li, Z. C. Li, H. H. Stein, L. Liu, T. Xia, Y. Y. Yang, and Y. X. Ma. 2015. Effects of post-harvest storage duration and variety on nutrient digestibility and energy content wheat in finishing pigs. Asian-Austr. J. Anim. Sci. 28:1488-1495. Link to full text (.pdf)