The effects of poultry meal and fishmeal on growth performance The effects of poultry meal and fishmeal on growth performance of weanling pigs of weanling pigs

A total of 210 weanling pigs (initially 16.4 lb and 21 ± 2 d of age, PIC) was used to evaluate the effects of select menhaden fish-meal and stabilized poultry meal on growth performance of nursery pigs. Five dietary treatments were fed from d 0 to 28 after weaning. Diets included a control with no specialty protein products and diets with 2.5% and 5.0% fishmeal and poultry meal replacing the lysine provide by fishmeal at 2.9% and 5.9%. All the diets were formulated on an equal lysine basis. Overall (d 0 to 28), pigs fed diets containing fishmeal had greater (P < 0.05) ADG compared to pigs fed the control diet and pigs fed diets containing poultry meal. Also, increasing fishmeal tended (quadratic, P<0.07) to improve ADG, with the greatest increase observed in pigs fed 2.5% fishmeal. Feed intake was not affected by any dietary treatment. Pigs fed diets containing select menhaden fishmeal had improved (P<0.05) feed efficiency compared to pigs fed diets containing stabilized poultry meal. In conclusion, the addition of fishmeal to the diet improved the growth performance of weanling pigs, while stabilized poultry protein meal did not affect growth performance.


Summary
A total of 210 weanling pigs (initially 16.4 lb and 21 ± 2 d of age, PIC) was used to evaluate the effects of select menhaden fishmeal and stabilized poultry meal on growth performance of nursery pigs.Five dietary treatments were fed from d 0 to 28 after weaning.Diets included a control with no specialty protein products and diets with 2.5% and 5.0% fishmeal and poultry meal replacing the lysine provide by fishmeal at 2.9% and 5.9%.All the diets were formulated on an equal lysine basis.Overall (d 0 to 28), pigs fed diets containing fishmeal had greater (P < 0.05) ADG compared to pigs fed the control diet and pigs fed diets containing poultry meal.Also, increasing fishmeal tended (quadratic, P<0.07) to improve ADG, with the greatest increase observed in pigs fed 2.5% fishmeal.Feed intake was not affected by any dietary treatment.

Introduction
The use of complex nursery diets with highly digestible ingredients has increased the need for specialty protein products, such as select menhaden fishmeal.However, specialty protein sources such as fishmeal are relatively expensive.Therefore, other specialty protein sources that have the potential to reduce diet cost without decreasing performance must be explored.Poultry meal is a byproduct from poultry harvesting facilities that has a similar crude protein and amino acid profile to that of select menhaden fishmeal.Recent advancements in processing and quality control of the stabilized poultry meal have improved the consistency and palatability of the final product.Poultry meal is readily available and is currently used in the pet food and poultry industries.
A previous trial conducted at Kansas State University showed no response in growth performance for pigs fed fishmeal or poultry meal compared to pigs fed diets without any specialty protein products.This suggested that the use of whey was adequate for maximum growth of pigs in this particular environment.Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to compare the effects of select menhaden fishmeal and stabilized poultry meal on the growth performance of nursery pigs in a con-trolled research setting without the use of animal plasma, blood products, or high levels of dried whey.

Procedures
A total of 210 pigs (initially 16.4 lb and 21 ± 2 d of age, PIC) was used in a 28-d growth assay.Pigs were blocked by weight and allotted to one of five dietary treatments at weaning.There were eight replicates (two replicates with six pigs per pen and six replicates with five pigs per pen) per treatment.Pigs were housed in an environmentally controlled nursery at the KSU Swine Teaching and Research farm.All pens (4 x 5 ft) contained one self-feeder and one nipple waterer to provide ad libitum access to feed and water.
The select menhaden fishmeal, stabilized poultry meal, and soybean meal were analyzed for amino acids, Ca, and P before being used in diet formulation (Table 1).Pigs were fed one of five dietary treatments, which included a control diet with no specialty protein products, and diets containing 2.5% or 5% fishmeal, and stabilized poultry meal replacing the lysine provided by fishmeal at the inclusion rates of 2.9% or 5.9%.All diets were cornsoybean meal based and included 10% edible grade spray-dried whey and were formulated to contain 1.45% total lysine, 0.90% Ca, and 0.75% P (Table 2).Average daily gain, ADFI, and feed efficiency (F/G) were determined by weighing pigs and measuring feed disappearance on d 7, 14, 21, and 28 post weaning.
Data were analyzed as a randomized complete block design using the mixed procedure of SAS with pen as the experimental unit.Single degree of freedom contrasts were used to compare performance of pigs fed the control diet to those fed the diets containing fishmeal or diets containing the different quality poultry meal.An additional contrast was used to compare pigs fed the fishmeal diets to those fed poultry meal.Linear and quadratic comparisons were used to determine the effects of feeding increasing levels of fishmeal or poultry meal.

Results and Discussion
From d 0 to 14, pigs fed fishmeal tended (P<0.10) to have greater ADG than pig fed stabilized poultry meal.Also, increasing fishmeal tended (P<0.10) to increase ADG with the greatest improvement observed in pigs fed 2.5% fishmeal.Pigs fed diets containing fishmeal had improved (P<0.05) feed efficiency compared to pigs fed diets containing stabilized poultry meal.Increasing poultry meal tended to result in poorer efficiency (linear, P<0.08).
From d 14 to 28, pigs fed diets containing fishmeal had greater (P<0.05)ADG compared to pigs fed the control diet or diets containing poultry meal.Also, increasing fishmeal increased (linear, P<0.05) ADG.Pigs fed diets containing fishmeal had improved (P<0.05) feed efficiency compared to pigs fed diets containing stabilized poultry meal.
For the overall treatment period (d 0 to 28), pigs fed diets containing fishmeal had greater (P<0.05)ADG than the pigs fed the control diet without any specialty protein products or diets containing poultry meal.Increasing fishmeal tended to result in improved (quadratic, P<0.07) ADG, with the greatest improvement observed in pigs fed the diet containing 2.5% fishmeal.Pigs fed diets containing fishmeal had improved (P<0.01) feed efficiency compared to pigs fed diets containing stabilized poultry meal.Increasing the stabilized poultry meal in the diet tended to result in poorer feed efficiency (linear, P<0.09).
Consistent with many previous trials, these results indicate that the addition of select menhaden fishmeal to diets improved the growth performance of weanling pigs.However, the use of stabilized poultry protein meal did not improve pig performance compared to those fed the control diet without specialty proteins.Because adding stabilized poultry meal to the diet had a negative affect on feed efficiency without impacting feed intake, it appears that the amino acid availability of the poultry product may be lower than that of fishmeal or soybean meal.

Table 1 . Chemical Analysis (As-fed Basis) a
aValues represent the analysis of one sample of each ingredient.

Table 2 . Diet Composition (As-Fed Basis) a
a Pigs fed diets from d 0 to 28 after weaning.s Stabilized poultry meal inclusion rates were based off the lysine provided by fishmeal.c Provided 50g/ton carbadox.

Table 3 . Effects of Stabilized Poultry Meal on Growth Performance of Weanling Pigs a
of 210 pigs initially 16.4 lb and 18 ± 3 d of age (two replications with six pigs per pen and six replications with five pigs per pen).
a A total b Control diet contained no fishmeal or poultry meal.c Stabilized poultry meal inclusion rates were based off the lysine provided by fishmeal.d P-value represents overall treatment effects.