Slide 1 Hi, my name is Caroline Gonzalez, and today I'm going to talk about digestibility of amino acids in canola-, cotton- and sunflower-products fed to finishing pigs. This study was conducted in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Slide 2 For the presentation of this study, I will start with the introduction, talking about some plant protein sources. Then, I will mention the objective of this study. After that, I will mention the materials and methods that we used for this experiment. And then the results and the discussion, and finally the conclusions. Slide 3 Soybeans, cottonseeds, canola seeds, and sunflower seeds are the major oilseeds produced in the world. The oilseed products are used as important plant protein sources that contribute to supply the demand of protein sources. Soybean meal is the plant protein source most widely used in swine and poultry diets because its amino acid composition and digestibility, paired with cereal grains, meet the nutritional requirements of this species. Slide 4 However, there are other plant protein sources that are less expensive than soybean meal, and these plant protein sources contribute to supply the increasing demand of protein sources in the world. Those plant protein sources are canola seeds, canola meal, cottonseed meal, sunflower seeds, sunflower meal, and sunflower meal dehulled. Among sunflower products, the sunflower seeds are the full fat seeds. When the oil is extracted, we obtain the sunflower meal that is high in crude protein and low in oil content. When the hulls are removed from the sunflower seeds and the oil is extracted, we obtain the sunflower meal dehulled that is high in crude protein, low in fiber content, and low in oil content. The full fat seeds are valuable ingredients in swine diets because they are high in energy content, and also they are easy to handle in feed mills. For the inclusion of these ingredients in swine diets, it is necessary to know the concentration and digestibility of amino acids, and we want to calculate the standardized ileal digestibility of amino acids in these ingredients because those values are helpful for formulating mixed diets, because those values are additive. Slide 5 Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the standardized ileal digestibility of amino acids in canola-, cotton-, and sunflower-products and to compare these values to the SID of amino acids in soybean meal when fed to finishing pigs. Slide 6 For this experiment, we used eight finishing pigs. Those pigs were cannulated in the distal ileum, and the initial body weight of those pigs were 106.6 +- 5.5 kg. The pigs were arranged in a Latin square 8x8, with eight diets including the nitrogen-free diet, and eight periods. Each period consisted of six days, and the first four days were the adapation period of the diets, and the sample ileals were collected in the day 5 and day 6. The pigs were fed once daily (three times maintenance energy requirement) and they had free access to water during the experiment. Slide 7 The plant protein sources that we used for this experiment: for sunflower products, we used sunflower seeds, sunflower meal, and sunflower meal dehulled. For cottonseed products, we used cottonseed meal. And for canola products, we used canola seeds and canola meal. These plant protein sources were compared with soybean meal. Slide 8 For this experiment, we used eight diets. One was a nitrogen-free diet to estimate amino acid basal endogenous losses. The other seven diets included each protein source. Each plant protein source was included as a sole source of amino acids, and those diets were formulated to meet the crude protein requirements of the pigs. Therefore, the inclusion of canola seeds was 50%, canola meal 45%, cottonseed meal 42%, sunflower seeds 50%, sunflower meal 50%, sunflower meal dehulled 45%, and soybean meal 34%. We included other ingredients to meet the energy and vitamin and mineral requirements. We also included chromic oxide as an indigestible marker at 0.4%. Also, we included soybean oil at 3% except for canola seeds and sunflower seed diets. Slide 9 Now, let's move to the results and the discussion of this experiment. Slide 10 First, I'm going to talk about the ingredient composition and then I will show you the values of the digestibility in these ingredients. But first, let's take a moment to set up these slides. In the X-axis, we have the seven plant protein sources. These are the canola seeds, canola meal, cottonseed meal, sunflower seeds, sunflower meal, sunflower meal dehulled, and soybean meal. In the Y-axis, we have the values for gross energy in kcal/kg. And in this study, we observed that sunflower seeds had the greatest values with 7196 kcal/kg, followed by canola seeds with 6415 kcal/kg. The least values were observed in sunflower meal, sunflower meal dehulled, and soybean meal. Slide 11 The reason for the high energy concentration in sunflower seeds and canola seeds was because they are high in acid hydrolyzed ether extract. Sunflower seeds had 54.5% of acid hydrolyzed ether extract, and canola seeds had 41.2%. Slide 12 In terms of fiber, the sunflower meal, sunflower meal dehulled, and canola meal had the greatest values, and the least values were observed in sunflower seeds and soybean meal. Slide 13 In terms of crude protein, soybean meal had the greatest values with 49.8%, and sunflower seeds had the least values with 22.1%. Slide 14 For lysine concentration, also soybean meal had the greatest values with 2.97%, and sunflower seeds had the least values with 0.79%. Slide 15 We calcuated the lysine:crude protein ratio, and we observed that canola seeds had 5.7, canola meal 4.8, cottonseed meal 4, sunflower seeds 3.6, sunflower meal 3.4, sunflower meal dehulled 3.3, and soybean meal 6. We compared these values with the literature values, and we observed that canola meal had a big difference compared with the literature values. And we believe that this is because the lysine concentration was affected by the Maillard reaction due to the heat damage during its processing. Slide 16 For methionine concentration, we observed that sunflower meal had the greatest value with 0.76%, and the least values were observed in canola seeds and sunflower seeds. Slide 17 For the tryptophan concentration, we observed that soybean meal had the greatest values with 0.65%, and sunflower seeds had the least values with 0.25%. Slide 18 Also, in threonine concentration, soybean meal had the greatest concentration with 1.77%, and sunflower seeds had the least values with 0.74%. Slide 19 In general, for the total indispensable amino acids in these ingredients, we observed that soybean meal had the greatest value with 21.62%, and the least values were observed for canola seeds and sunflower seeds. Slide 20 Now, let's move to the standardized ileal digestibility. I will mention the four limiting amino acids -- lysine, methionine, tryptophan, and threonine -- and then I will show you the mean of all indispensable amino acids. Slide 21 For the SID of lysine, we observed that soybean meal had the greatest values with 88.6%, and the least values were observed in canola seeds and cottonseed meal. Slide 22 We calculated digestible lysine g/kg and we observed that soybean meal had the greatest values with 26.3 g/kg. And this slide shows pretty clearly why soybean meal is the plant protein source most used in swine and poultry diets, because this soybean meal contains two to four times more digestible lysine than the other plant protein sources. Slide 23 For the SID of methionine, we observed that sunflower seeds, sunflower meal, and soybean meal had the greatest values, and cottonseed meal had the least values with 66.3%. Slide 24 We also calculated digestible methionine g/kg, and we observed that canola meal, sunflower meal dehulled and soybean meal had more digestible methionine than canola seeds, cottonseed meal, sunflower seeds, and sunflower meal. And although canola meal and sunflower meal dehulled had less digestibility in methionine than soybean meal, the high concentration of methionine in these two ingredients contributed to increase the digestible methionine g/kg. Slide 25 For the SID of tryptophan, we didn't observe any difference among the ingredients. Slide 26 And for the SID of threonine, we observed that sunflower seeds and soybean meal had the greatest values, and canola seeds had the least values with 59.2%. Slide 27 For the mean of the SID of indispensable amino acids, we observed that sunflower seeds and sunflower meal and soybean meal had the greatest values, and the least values were observed in canola seeds and cottonseed meal. Between sunflower seeds and soybean meal, we didn't observe any difference in the digestibility of amino acids except for lysine. And we believe that the high digestibility of sunflower seeds was due to the low fiber content and also for the high oil content, because some studies have shown that the oil content has a positive effect in the digestibility of amino acids. Slide 28 In conclusion, soybean meal had a greater SID of amino acids than canola-, cotton-, and sunflower-products, except for sunflower seeds. And this study shows very clearly why soybean meal is the plant protein source most widely used in swine and poultry diets. Also, we conclude that the SID of most amino acids in canola seeds were the least. And also, we conclude that among sunflower-products, the SID of most amino acids were greater in sunflower seeds than sunflower meal and sunflower meal dehulled. And also, the SID of most amino acids were greater in sunflower meal than sunflower meal dehulled. Slide 29 And with this, I want to thank you for your attention. And also, I invite you to visit other presentations in the Hans Stein Monogastric Nutrition Group in this website. Thank you again.