Rojas, O. J. and H. H. Stein. 2013. Concentration of metabolizable energy and digestibility of amino acids in chicken meal, poultry by-product meal, Ultrapro, AV-E Digest, and conventional soybean meal fed to pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 91(Suppl. 2):26 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

Canola meal is the defatted meal that remains after oil has been extracted from the seeds of the rapeseed plant, Brassica napus.  Canola meal is high in crude protein and amino acids relative to most plant protein sources, and the amino acids in canola meal are well digested by pigs. However, it is also relatively high in fiber, which reduces energy digestibility and digestible energy concentration. New varieties of Brassica napus with a thinner seed coat have been hybridized, which contain less fiber and more protein than conventional rapeseed. The meal produced from these varieties is known as high protein canola meal. No data exist for the digestibility of energy in this source of high protein canola mealwhen fed to pigs. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of energy and the concentrations of digestible and metabolizable energy in two sources of high protein canola meal (CM-HP1 and CM-HP2) fed to growing pigs, and to compare these values with values for conventional canola meal (CM-CV) and soybean meal (SBM).

Protein sources of animal origin provide highly digestible protein in diets for weanling pigs. Chicken meal consists primarily of skin, flesh, and sometimes bones from processed birds. Poultry by-product meal contains offal from processed chickens, including  feet, necks, beaks, undeveloped eggs, and intestinal contents. AV-E digest consists of enzymatically hydrolyzed spent hens and extruded egg albumin, mixed with a soybean meal carrier. Ultrapro is produced from enzymatically hydrolyzed porcine intestines, which are used in the production of the drug heparin. There is a lack of data on the concentration of digestible and metabolizable energy in all of these ingredients, which limits their use in diets fed to weanling pigs.

An experiment was conducted to determine the concentrations of digestible and metabolizable energy in chicken meal, poultry by-product meal, Ultrapro, and AV-E digest, and to compare these values with soybean meal.

Distillers dried grains with solubles, or DDGS, is a co-product of the rapidly growing ethanol industry. DDGS has been increasingly used for swine diets because of its affordability and nutritive value. Corn DDGS is high in energy, amino acids, and digestible phosphorus.

In the last few years, more ethanol plants have started  to use centrifugation to extract oil from DDGS for use in the production of biodiesel. The resulting DDGS products contain less fat than conventional DDGS. Reduced-fat DDGS products would be expected to have decreased digestible (DE) and metabolizable (ME) energy concentrations compared with  conventional DDGS, but energy values for these products have not yet been reported.

An experiment was conducted to determine the concentrations of DE and ME in three sources of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) containing different fat concentrations. In addition, the effect of supplementing diets containing reduced-fat DDGS products with corn oil to increase DE and ME concentrations was determined.

Soybean meal is a high quality source of protein for swine diets. Due to the growth in global production of pigs and poultry, demand for soybeans is increasing rapidly, outpacing production. Therefore, other sources of plant protein are sometimes used in diets to supply indispensable AA to the animals.

The most abundant oilseeds produced in the world, aside from soybeans, are cottonseed, canola seed (rapeseed), and sunflower seed. These oilseeds may be fed as de-oiled meals, or the full fat seeds can be fed to increase the energy concentration of the diet.

There are no recent data on energy digestibility in canola, cotton, and sunflower products. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to measure the digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) in canola seeds (CS), canola meal (CM), cottonseed meal (CSM), sunflower seeds (SFS), sunflower meal (SFM), and dehulled sunflower meal (SFM-DH), and to compare these values to the DE and ME in soybean meal (SBM).

Soares, J. A., V. Singh, H. H. Stein, R. Srinavasan, and J. E. Pettigrew. 2011. Short Communication: Enhanced distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) has greater concentration of digestible and metabolizable energy than DDGS when fed to growing and finishing pigs. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 91:1-5. Link to full text (.pdf)

Cervantes-Pahm, S. K. and H. H. Stein. 2011. Metabolizable energy and digestibility of carbohydrates in cereal grains fed to growing pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 89(E-Suppl. 1):332-333 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

Baker, K. M., P. L. Utterback, C. M. Parsons, and H. H. Stein. 2011. Nutritional value of soybean meal produced from conventional, high-protein, or low-oligosaccharide varieties of soybeans and fed to broiler chicks. Poult. Sci. 90:390-395. Link to full text (.pdf)