When soybeans are crushed, the oil may be solvent extracted and the resulting defatted soybeans are known as soybean meal (SBM). However, the oil may also be mechanically expelled from the beans and the defatted soybeans resulting from this procedure is an ingredient known as soybean expellers. The expelling procedure is less efficient in removing oil from the beans and soybean expellers, therefore, contain more residual oil than SBM. Soybean expellers can be produced using different technologies, and a new procedure involving a patented high shear dry extrusion procedure was recently developed (Insta-Pro International, Des Moines, IA). There are however, no data for the digestibility of amino acids (AA) in the soybean expellers that are produced from this procedure. Therefore, the objective of this research was to test the hypothesis that the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of crude protein (CP) and AAis greater in soybean expellers than in SBM when fed to growing pigs.

Stein H. H. 2019. Interaction between feed formulation and feed technology in diets fed to pigs. Book of Abstracts. In: 1^st International Feed Technology Congress, Cologne, Germany. p. 21. (Abstr.). Link to Abstract.

Lagos, L. V., D. A. Lopez, and H. H. Stein. 2019. Nutrient composition and energy concentration in soybean meal from 5 different countries fed to pigs. In: 6th EAAP International Symposium on Energy and Protein Metabolism and Nutrition, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Sep. 9-12, 2019. Pages 159-160. (Abstr.). Link to full text

Supplementing Cu to diets fed to pigs at 100 to 250 mg/kg may reduce post-weaning scouring and also improve ADG and ADFI. Addition of Cu at 250 mg/kg in diets for pigs containing 5% animal fat improved growth performance, and it was speculated that this is due to the ability of Cu to improve animal fat utilization and enzymatic activity. Inclusion of 45 mg/kg of dietary Cu in diets for rabbits improved body mass gain by upregulating mRNA transcription of fatty acid transport protein, fatty acid binding protein, and carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1, indicating that dietary Cu may influence post-absorptive metabolism of lipids. However, the effect of supplementing dietary Cu on post-absorptive lipid metabolism in pigs remains inconclusive. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that addition of 150 mg/kg Cu from Cu hydroxychloride (IntelliBond C^II; Micronutrients USA LLC; Indianapolis, IN) to a diet based on corn, soybean meal (SBM), and distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) improves growth performance of pigs, and that dietary Cu influences mRNA abundance of genes involved in post-absorptive metabolism of lipids in pigs.

Abelilla Jerubella J., Hans H. Stein. 2019. Fate of pentoses in the small intestine and hindgut of growing pigs. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 97, Issue Supplement_2, July 2019, Page 95. (Abstr.). Link to abstract.

Digestibility experiments have been conducted to determine the nutritional value of an enhanced torula yeast derived from forestry by-products. Results of these experiments indicated that enhanced torula yeast has a greater digestibility of amino acids and P than fish meal, and a concentration of metabolizable energy that is not different from that in fish meal. Therefore, it is believed that the enhanced torula yeast can be included in diets for weanling pigs at the expense of fish meal and other animal protein sources. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to determine the effects on growth performance, fecal score, and blood characteristics of including the enhanced torula yeast at the expense of fish meal and plasma protein in diets fed to weanling pigs.

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.

Curry Shelby M., Laia Blavi, Julian Wiseman, and Hans H. Stein. 2019. Effects of distillers dried grains with solubles on amino acid digestibility, growth performance, and carcass characteristics of growing pigs. Transl. Anim. Sci. 2019.3:641–653. Link to full text

Soybean meal (SBM) is one of the most important protein sources in swine diets. However, SBM has high concentrations of non-digestible oligosaccharides, mainly stachyose, raffinose, and verbascose, which may increase diarrhea incidence and reduce nursery growth performance. 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 Fermex 200 on growth performance and amino acid (AA) digestibility when fed to weanling pigs.

Therefore, 2 experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of AA in Fermex 200 are greater than in conventional SBM. The second hypothesis was that Fermex 200 supports growth of weanling pigs as well as other protein sources.