Studies on the Energy and Protein Values of Faba Beans for Poultry Rations

Abstract

Faba beans is at present not usually included in commercial poultry diets in Japan. This is partly due to a lack of information on its nutritive value and partly because it is not available in quantities which would make its commercial use attractive. The acreage of faba beans grown in Canada is increasing rapidly and it is likely that the near future faba beans will be available in commercially worthwhile quantities. Faba beans if used in poultry diet formulations would probably replace corn-soybean meal mixture of equivalent protein content.In the experiments described in this paper the metabolizable energy contents, protein digestibility and the value of including various levels of faba beans in rations for early chiok growth were determined for two varieties of faba beans samples.Experiment 1.The experiment was designed to determine the effects of different disintegrator screen sizes of 1mm and 3.5mm on the metabolizable energy value (ME) of faba beans.screen, mm Kcal/Kg dry matterHerry freya beans 1.0 2, 4943.5 2, 217Diana beans 1.0 2, 3413.5 2, 133The ME value of the faba beans increased significantly at the 1 percent level of probability as the particle size of the beans decreased. The difference in the ME value of two varieties of Faba Beans was significant at the 5 percent level of probability.Experiment 2.The digestibility coefficients of crude protein of Herry freya beans and Diana beans were, on the average, 87.3 and 87.9 percent respectively. The difference in crude protein coefficients of two varieties of faba beans was not significant. Effect of particle size on percent digestion was not significant.Experiment 3.The amino acid composition of the two varieties of beans studied match the requirements (NRC, 1971) of chicks closely except for the sulfur-containing amino acids and glycine. The content of critical amino acids of faba beans were compared with soybean meal. Methionine content was only 70 percent of that of the soybean meal.Experiment 4.One-day-old male White Leghorn chicks were housed in tier brooders and reared for one week on a chick mash of standard composition. They were then weighed individually and allocated to thirty groups of similar mean weight, each of 10 chicks. Three groups were fed on one of the ten experimental mash diets for further 3 weeks.The pancreas from each was immediately excised, dissected free from fat and other material and weighed wet. Faba beans was fed as the replacement for 25%, 12.5%, 6.25% and 3.125% of corn-soybean protein in the ration. The experiments also attempted to access the value of heat treatment and methionine supplementation in improving the nutritive value of faba beans.There was a indication of improved body weight gain with faba beans groups compared corn-soybean meal groups when methionine was supplemented. Heat treated beans as compared to raw faba beans in chick diets resulted in non-significant difference in weight gain, feed conversion and pancreas weight.Faba beans was used succesfully as a replacement for 25 percent of corn-soybean protein in the ration, which were supplemented with methionine.