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Special Concerns for Feeding Poultry

When you feed poultry, other environmental concerns have also be taken into consideration. For example, phosphorus, nitrogen, limited land. We need to minimize phosphorus excretion. We need to minimize nitrogen.

We need to make sure that diet is balanced in amino acids. Amino acid profile relative to the immediate needs of the bird. Use of synthetic amino acids is widely used in poultry. Most of the cereal grains, as well as, soybeans are deficient in certain essential amino acids like lysine and methionine. Synthetic lysine and synthetic methionine are usually included into poultry diets.

Presence of phytate. Phytate phosphorus in grains, phosphorus in plant source, limited bioavailability from plant based nutrients. Usually, there is over supplementation. Enzymes are included like phytase enzymes to minimize this.

Often over supplementation is the major problem.

Grains also contribute to some of the potential problems. Non starch polysaccharides or NSPs. Non-starch polysaccharides include beta-glucan from barley, aribinoxylase in wheat. These non-starch polysaccharides do not contribute much to the energy, rather they soak and absorb water or absorb moisture in the GI tract and they reduce feed consumption. When a reduction in feed consumption occurs, we find reduction in production or reduction in growth. Also, costs us. High moisture in the digestive tract also leads to sticky feces, as well as dirty eggs. Processing requirements such as grinding, roasting, also minimize some of the potential problems in cereal grains.

Fats and oils. Potential problems include color, cost. Certain oils, when we are competing with human feed or human food, could be costly. Certain oils can also contribute to a yellowish tint to the skin or to the eggs. High corn or high corn oil sometimes produces a yellowish skin which is favored in certain regions, but not in certain other regions. Off taste and off flavor. Addition of certain polyunsaturated oils like flax oil or fish oil can lead to off taste or off flavor. Fishy flavor in eggs, meat, such products, may also have limited storage stability. Animal tallow is cheap. At the same time, animal fat coming from the rendering industry of a very high saturated fat, difficult for young animals to digest. At the same time, some of these unsaturated fats are gaining a lot of interest. Unsaturated fatty acids, such as omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are gaining a lot of interest due to their health effects. Addition of highly unsaturated fatty acids also increases rancidity leading to reduced product quality due to lipid oxidation or fat oxidation. Antioxidants are needed to stabilize such highly unsaturated fats when included in poultry diets. Addition of antioxidants again add to the cost. Type of antioxidants added poultry diets is also getting a lot of interest. Natural antioxidants versus synthetic antioxidants. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), ethoxyquin, vitamin E, these are some of the common antioxidants that is used in poultry diets.

That comes to the end of the section on nutrients. Now, to summarize. Feeding poultry depends on the goal of production, our objectives, objectives of raising a meat type bird or an egg type bird. Poultry require higher quality diets than other livestock.

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