Whey, which is a co-product from dairy processing plants that extract fat and protein from milk to make cheese has been used in diets fed to weanling pigs as a source of lactose. Whey powder does not contain much protein because the majority of the milk protein ends up in the cheese during processing. However, cheese co-products, which contain 40 to 50% crude protein may be used in the feeding of pigs but there is limited information about the nutritional value of cheese co-products fed to pigs. Therefore, it was the objective of this experiment to measure the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of amino acids (AA) by weanling pigs in a cheese co-product and compare values to those obtained in fish meal and in a source of enzyme treated soybean meal (HP 300).

An enhanced torula yeast was recently developed as a natural alternative protein source to fish meal and other animal proteins. This ingredient has a lower carbon footprint than other available yeast proteins because it is derived from forestry by-products. The enhanced torula yeast has an improved amino acid (AA) profile, a greater digestibility of AA than fish meal, and an energy value that is not different from that in fish meal. However, there are no data available about the digestibility values of P in this new ingredient. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the values for apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) and standardized total tract digestibility (STTD) of P in enhanced torula yeast are not different from those in fish meal.

Rojas, O. J. and H. H. Stein. 2015. Effects of replacing fish, chicken, or poultry by-product meal with fermented soybean meal in diets fed to weanling pigs. Rev. Colomb. Cienc. Pecu. 28:22-41. Link to full text (.pdf)

Mathai, J. K. and H. H. Stein. 2014. Amino acid digestibility in field peas, fish meal, corn, soybean meal, and soybean hulls. J. Anim. Sci 92(E-Suppl. 2):648 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

Lemna Protein Concentrate (LPC) is derived from the leaves of duckweed, one of several rapidly-growing aquatic plants of the genus Lemna. LPC is produced by de-oiling and de-hydrating leaves and stems of the duckweed plant. Duckweed has a number of advantages as a protein source. It is relatively inexpensive to produce and requires less growing area and fewer inputs than other plant protein sources such as soybean products. In addition, LPC has a favorable amino acid profile for use in swine diets. No published data exist on the nutritional value of LPC as fed to pigs. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to determine the concentration of digestible and metabolizable energy and the digestibility of phosphorus in Lemna Protein Concentrate.

Rojas, O. J. and H. H. Stein. 2012. Nutritional value of animal proteins fed to pigs. Pages 9-24 in Proc. Midwest Swine Nutr. Conf. Indianapolis, IN, Sep. 13, 2012. Link to full text (.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.

Kim, B. G. and H. H. Stein. 2010. Energy concentration and phosphorus digestibility in yeast products, fish meal, and soybean meal fed to growing pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 88(E-Suppl. 3):86 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)