Abstract
Simple SummaryThe poultry industry faces challenges such as a shortage of protein feed and increased feed cost. Compared to soybean meal, rapeseed meal (RSM) is a cheaper protein source that can be used in poultry diets. China is both the largest RSM and geese producer in the world. Therefore, the active use of RSM for geese diets can contribute to the development of poultry production. We found that geese had a good adaptation to the diet containing 16% dietary RSM through the investigation.The use of inexpensive nonconventional feed materials, such as rapeseed meal (RSM), could help alleviate the shortage of feed materials in the poultry industry. This study was to investigate the effects of dietary double-low RSM on growth performance, carcass traits, serum parameters, and intestinal development of geese. A total of 270 healthy 35-day-old male Jiangnan White geese were randomly divided into five treatments, with six replicate pens of nine geese each. The geese were fed five isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets containing 0%, 4%, 8%, 12%, and 16% RSM replacing dietary soybean meal for 35 days. At 35, 49, and 70 d, the BW and feed intake were recorded. All Samples were collected at 70 d of age. The results showed that dietary RSM up to 16% did not affect the BW, ADFI, ADG, and feed/gain ratio (F/G) during 35 to 49 d, 49 to 70 d, and 35 to 70 d periods (p > 0.05). At 70 d, no difference was observed in carcass yield or serum biochemical parameters among groups (p > 0.05). Dietary 12% and 16% RSM significantly increased the concentration of serum GH compared with 0%, 4%, 8% groups (p < 0.01), but serum TSH, T3 and T4 were unaffected (p > 0.05). The relative weights of heart, liver, spleen, proventriculus, gizzard, and small intestine were similar among groups (p > 0.05). However, the geese fed dietary 16% RSM had greater bursa of Fabricius than geese in the 8% group (p < 0.05). Intestinal morphology was unaffected by treatments (p > 0.05). According to the findings, dietary RSM up to 16% can be used in geese diets without impact on production performance.
Highlights
With the acceleration of the intensive geese breeding process in China, the geese industry directly competes with humans for major feed ingredients
Before diet formulation, all energy sources and protein-containing ingredients were analyzed in duplicate for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude fat (EE), crude fiber (CF), calcium (Ca), total phosphorus (TP), and ash according to the classical procedures set forth by the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC, 2006) [19]
Diets containing 4%, 8%, 12%, and 16% rapeseed meal (RSM) did not affect the body weight (BW) (40 d and 70 d of age) of geese compared with the control group (p > 0.05)
Summary
With the acceleration of the intensive geese breeding process in China, the geese industry directly competes with humans for major feed ingredients. The shortage of protein source feeds (e.g., soybean meal, SBM) required to formulate balanced geese ration increased annually, together with unit cost. The discovery and utilization of more cost-effective alternatives that maintain normal growth performance and are preferably not used in human nutrition would promote geese production. Rapeseed meal (RSM), an oil-byproduct of high yield, is a cheaper alternative source of plant protein (crude protein, 35–42%) for poultry diets compared with SBM [3]. It is rich in vitamins (e.g., thiamine, choline, and folic acid), minerals (e.g., calcium, selenium, zinc, and iron), and avian limiting amino acid (e.g., methionine and lysine) [4,5]. Anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) of RSM—including phytate, sinapine, condensed tannin (CT), and non-starch polysaccharides (NSP)—would decrease feed palatability, metabolism of feed nutrients [10], and growth performance [11]
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