Evaluating the inclusion of sustainable alternatives to conventional feeding strategies in poultry nutrition
Open Access
- Author:
- Erb, Logan
- Graduate Program:
- Animal Science
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- March 04, 2021
- Committee Members:
- John Boney, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Paul H Patterson, Committee Member
Kevin John Harvatine, Committee Member
Adele Marie Turzillo, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- mushroom
TMEn
digestibility
direct-fed microbial
Bacillus subtilis C-3102
Lactobacillus
poultry production
performance
processing - Abstract:
- The overall objective of this thesis was to examine the inclusion of sustainable alternatives in poultry diets. In order to accomplish this objective two experiments were designed to further elucidate the use of various alternatives. The first experiment examined the impact of varying inclusion rates of mushroom stump waste (MSW) in broiler rations on day 1-21 performance and amino acid digestibility. The second experiment evaluated the addition of the direct-fed microbial (DFM) Bacillus subtilis C-3102 to tom turkey diets and its effect on performance and carcass composition. Initially, an experiment was conducted involving MSW. Mushroom cultivation generates an unusable waste stream of mushroom stumps. In an effort to recycle these nutrients and incorporate mushroom waste into broiler rations a processed MSW product was created and utilized in this current study. The objectives of this study were to determine the nutrient profile of MSW (Experiment 1) and determine the optimal inclusion of MSW in broiler diets based on performance parameters (Experiment 2) and amino acid digestibility (Experiment 3). In Experiment 1, the nitrogen corrected true metabolizable energy (TMEn) of MSW (1,173 kcal/kg) and proximate analysis results were utilized to formulate two isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets containing 0 and 5% MSW. Four other treatments of varying MSW (1, 2, 3, and 4%) were then created via blending portions of the 0% and 5% MSW treatments together. In Experiment 2, the results from day 1-21 show that broilers provided 1% MSW improved live weight gain (LWG) per bird by 57.6 grams when compared to those consuming 5% MSW. Birds provided 0, 2, 3 or 4% MSW were intermediate for LWG per bird (P=0.024). Broilers provided 1% MSW improved average body weight (BW) when compared to broilers consuming 4% or 5% MSW. Birds fed 0, 2, or 3% MSW were intermediate for BW (P=0.026). Broilers provided 5% MSW increased feed conversion ratio (FCR) by 0.105 compared to birds consuming 1% MSW. Birds fed 0, 2, 3 or 4% MSW were intermediate for FCR (P=0.0002). MSW inclusion did not affect feed intake per bird or mortality (P>0.05). In Experiment 3, results from apparent ileal amino acid digestibility show that MSW inclusion reduced digestibility for 16 of 19 reported amino acids (P<0.05). Amino acid digestibility coefficients demonstrate that MSW inclusion did not affect any of the 19 amino acids analyzed (P>0.05). These data indicate that MSW inclusions up to 3% of the diet do not affect broiler performance or amino acid digestibility coefficients. Another experiment was conducted evaluating the efficacy of a direct-fed microbial (DFM) Bacillus subtilis C-3102 in turkey production. Due to antimicrobial use in food-producing animals becoming more scrutinized, DFM utilization is becoming more prevalent. Effects of various DFM on poultry performance have been studied; however, limited research has been conducted on the DFM Bacillus subtilis C-3102 in turkeys. Therefore, performance and processing responses of Bacillus subtilis C-3102 were investigated using 720 Nicholas Select tom turkeys. Control and DFM diets were formulated to be identical in nutrient composition and content aside from DFM inclusion. These diets were provided in a six-phase feeding program. Diets containing the DFM treatments were formulated to contain 500,000 cfu/g from d 1-35 (Stater 1 and Starer 2 phases) and 300,000 cfu/g of Bacillus subtilis C-3102 from d 36-133 (Grower 1, Grower 2, Finisher 1 and Finisher 2 phases). In total, each treatment was provided to 12 replicate pens of 30 turkeys. These pens were arranged in a randomized complete block design, with each block differing in pen location. Day 1-133 results indicate turkeys provided the DFM treatment exhibited a 0.08 improvement in FCR compared to birds provided the control treatment (P<0.0001). Turkey performance improved for the DFM treatment as Lactobacillus concentrations in fecal samples increased as well. This increase in Lactobacillus concentrations and subsequent improvement in performance occurred during the Finisher 1 and Finisher 2 phases, for birds provided the DFM treatment. Processing results from d 134 indicate turkeys provided the control treatment improved pectoralis minor and total breast yields (P=0.023 and P=0.011, respectively) compared to turkeys consuming the DFM treatment. Bacillus subtilis C-3102 inclusion reduced overall feed cost by $0.20 per bird. These data indicate that Bacillus subtilis C-3102 inclusions improved tom turkey performance and decreased feed costs.