Abstract
The goal of this research was to evaluate the nutritive value of full-fat de-hulled sunflower seeds (DHSS) in feeding broiler chickens. Three experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 determined the proximal analysis of DHSS, the essential amino acid content, and apparent metabolizable energy (AME). In experiment 2, two diets were formulated, namely a control and a diet containing 10% DHSS. Apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), and ether extract (EE) were calculated. In experiment 3, the performances of broilers fed the two diets were evaluated in terms of the relative weights of digestive system organs, breast meat colour, growth and feed consumption. Full-fat de-hulled sunflower seeds were characterized as having 507.9 g/kg EE, 282.1 g/kg CP, 21.02 MJ/kg AME and 9.3 g/16 g N arginine. Apparent ileal digestibility of DM in the 10% DHSS diet was 658.0 g/kg, similar to that of the control diet (643.0 g/kg). Partial substitution of DHSS for soybean meal (SBM) did not affect the relative weight of digestive system organs, except for the liver. The relative weights of the liver were 17.90 g/kg bodyweight in birds fed the DHSS diet and 16.37 g/kg bodyweight (P <0.05) in the control. The colour of the breast meat was 3.5% darker and 13.8% less yellow for DHSS birds compared with the control. Growth and feed consumption were unaffected by the dietary treatments. Therefore, 10% DHSS can partially replace SBM in broiler finisher diets.
Highlights
Rising prices for ingredients of conventional broiler diets made it necessary to search for alternatives that were nutritive and low in cost (Alagawany et al, 2015)
The seeds were sieved successively with 2, 3 and 5 mm2 screens and the residual hull was removed with a fan (PRO Klima, Speed 45, Croatia) to obtain the de-hulled sunflower seeds (DHSS), which was again ground with a hammer mill using a 5 mm2 screen (AZTECA, Mexico)
De-hulled full-fat sunflower seeds had a low content of crude fibre (CF) and high contents of crude protein (CP) and ether extract (EE) (Table 4)
Summary
Rising prices for ingredients of conventional broiler diets made it necessary to search for alternatives that were nutritive and low in cost (Alagawany et al, 2015). Oilseeds are generally high in their content of oil (energy) and protein (Tsuzuki et al, 2003). The use of oilseeds in broiler diets has increased. Sunflower seeds and meal are valuable sources of oil, protein and fibre for humans and animals (Morales-Rosales et al, 2006; Laudadio et al, 2014). There is little information about the use of DHSS in broiler finisher diets. Most of the literature refers to sunflower meal (SFM), which is produced when oil has been extracted from the seeds (Alagawany et al, 2015)
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