Nutritive Value of Rapeseed Meal as a Feedstuff for Poultry

Abstract

A series of feeding experiments was conducted to know the nutritive value of rapeseed meal, which had not been used as feedstuff of Poultry in Japan.Two sources of rapeseed were used. One was domestic (B. napus) and the other imported from Canada (B. campestris) which were pre-treated at 105°C for 45 minutes. before solvent extraction.The experiment reported herein was designed to determine whether rapeseed meal mixed in grower and layer test diets at level of 0, 4, 8 and 12% of white Leghorn chicken affected growth, feed intake, feed convertion, weight of thyroid gland at 16 weeks of age, day of first egg and weight of first egg during the growing period (8-20 weeks), egg production, feed intake, feed convertion, egg weight, weight of thyroid gland at 64 weeks of age, hatchability and body weight at 44 weeks and 64 weeks of age during the laying period.The results were as follow.1) When the test diets containing 8% or higher domestic rapeseed meal and 12% level of Canada repeseed meal was fed for the growing period, the feed intake clearly decreased compared with the control lot, but no difference was found in body weight at 20 weeks of age, day of first egg and weight of first egg.2) When the test diets containing 8% or higher level of domestic rapeseed meal was fed to the chicks for the growing period, the thyroidal gland at 16 weeks of age was enlarged compared with the control lot, but no difference was found in Canada rapeseed meel lot. When domestic and Canada rapeseed meal was fed, the thyroidal gland at 64 weeks of age was enlarged, while no such phenomenon was seen in the control lot. But it was noted that the enlargement was more remarkable when on domestic rapeseed meal than on Canada meal.3) When the domestic rapeseed meal was mixed at 12% level in layer test diets, the egg productin decrease, but no difference was found in Canada rapeseed meal lot. When neighter domestic or Canada rapeseed meal was mixed at 12% level in the layer test diets, egg weight and hatchability clearly decreased.4) When the eggs produced by the layer fed the layer diet containing domestic rapeseed meal at 12% level was fed to the chicks as a protein source at 17% level on air dry matter basis in grower diet, no thyroidal gland enlargement was observed at 4 weeks of age.