Soybean meal (SBM) is one of the most important protein sources in swine diets. However, most P in SBM is bound to phytate, which increases inclusion of inorganic P in diets for pigs. Use of microbial phytase may hydrolyze phytate and subsequently improve P absorption. Fermex 200 (Purina Animal Nutrition, Shoreview, MN, USA) is a new source of fermented SBM that may serve as an alternative to other protein sources in diets fed to pigs. However, there are at this point no data for effects of adding phytase to diets containing Fermex 200 and no data for digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) concentrations of Fermex 200.

Therefore, 2 experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that inclusion of 1,000 phytase units (FTU)/kg of microbial phytase improves the standardized total tract digestibility (STTD) of P in conventional SBM and Fermex 200. The second hypothesis was that the STTD of P, as well as concentrations of DE and ME in Fermex 200 are greater than in conventional SBM.

C. Pedersen, C, J. S. Almeida, and H. H. Stein. 2016. Analysis of published data for standardized ileal digestibility of protein and amino acids in soy proteins fed to pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 94(Suppl. 3):340-343. Link to full text (.pdf)

Sotak, K. M. and H. H. Stein. 2014. Nutritional value of soybean products. Pages 19-25 in Proc. Midwest Swine Nutr. Conf. Indianapolis, IN, Sep. 4, 2014. Link to full text (.pdf)

Rojas, O. J. and H. H. Stein. 2013. Concentration of digestible, metabolizable, and net energy and digestibility of energy and nutrients in fermented soybean meal, conventional soybean meal, and fish meal fed to weanling pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 91:4397-4405. Link to full text (.pdf)

Rojas Martinez, O. J. and H. H. Stein. 2013. Inclusion of fermented soybean meal, chicken meal, or poultry by-product meal in phase 1, phase 2, and phase 3 diets fed to weanling pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 91(Suppl. 2):115 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

Animal proteins such as milk products, blood products, fish meal, chicken meal (CM), and poultry by-product meal (PBM) are usually used as amino acid sources in diets for weanling pigs because the nutrients in these ingredients are highly digestible and because they do not contain the anti-nutritional factors that are present in conventional soybean meal. Due to the cost of animal protein sources, other alternatives have been investigated. One alternative is soybean meal which has been fermented to destroy antinutritional factors and increase protein digestibility. Fermented soybean meal (FSBM) has been shown to be able to replace milk, blood proteins, and fish meal in diets fed to weanling pigs. However, there are no data on whether or not fermented soybean meal can replace chicken meal and poultry by-product meal. An experiment was, therefore, performed to test the hypothesis that fermented soybean meal can replace chicken meal and poultry by-product meal in diets fed to weanling pigs without negatively affecting growth performance.

Soybean meal is a rich source of digestible amino acids for pigs. However, soybeans contain antinutritional factors such as antigenic proteins, oligosaccharides, lectins, and trypsin inhibitors that make soybeans and conventional soybean meal unsuitable for feeding to weanling pigs in great quantities. Therefore, animal protein is usually included in starter diets for pigs. Because soy protein is less expensive than the animal protein, strategies to reduce the antinutritional factors in soy products have been explored. Fermentation of soybean meal with bacteria such as Aspergillus oryzae and Lactobacillus subtilis eliminates many antinutritional factors, and studies have shown that fermented soybean meal is well-tolerated by weanling pigs. However, there is a lack of data on the digestibility of energy and amino acids in fermented soybean meal. Two experiments were, therefore, conducted to measure the concentration of DE and ME and the digestibility of amino acids in fermented soybean meal and to compare these values to values obtained in conventional soybean meal and fish meal.

Rojas, O. J. and H. H. Stein. 2011. Phosphorus and amino acid digestibility in fermented and conventional soybean meal fed to weanling pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 89(E-Suppl. 2):99 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

Stein, H. H. 2011. Materias primas alternativas en nutrición porcina: 3. Nuevos derivados de la soja. Pages 36-45 in Suis, January/February 2011. Link to full text (.pdf)