Formulation Of Balanced Diets Research Articles

In situ and in vitro methods used to evaluate food and diets of ruminants

In ruminant production systems, feeding can account for 60 to 70% of the costs of the activity, thus, the nutritional assessment of food and the formulation of balanced diets that meet the requirements of animals represent an important challenge in livestock production. Several methods have been used to evaluate the modulation of rumen fermentation and to estimate the degradation characteristics of food and diets intended for feeding ruminants. These methods involve measuring the disappearance of the substrate during incubation in the rumen (in situ), in the buffered rumen liquid (in vitro) and are mainly endpoint measurements. In addition, it is possible to evaluate the degradation kinetics by measuring the differences in residues at different incubation times. The assessment of the nutritional value of foods and diets is also possible through the use of techniques that measure gas production. These techniques measure the appearance of rumen fermentation products, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) gases, short-chain fatty acids, ammonia and microbial biomass. The aim of this review was to describe the main in situ and in vitro methods used to evaluate food for ruminants.

Aplicação do conceito de proteína ideal na nutrição de aves e suínos – uma breve revisão

Nutrition is responsible for most of the production costs and the formulation of balanced diets is of paramount importance to provide better productive performance and greater economic efficiency. Thus, the emergence of industrial amino acids allowed the elaboration of diets based on the ideal protein, providing an amino acid profile closer to the animals' needs, improving the use of nutrients and decreasing the excretion of dietary nitrogen in the environment. In view of the benefits presented using the ideal protein concept in the formulation of diets, this review aimed to show its application in poultry and swine nutrition

Dietary protein quality and proper protein to energy ratios: a bioeconomic approach in aquaculture feeding practices

Supplementing high levels of dietary crude protein in the absence of amino acid balance and enough energy in fish diets may results in reduced growth, improper feed intake and poor protein utilization efficiency coupled with unviable feed costs and adverse environmental effects due to high nitrogen excretion. It is necessary to improve the dietary protein quality to avoid unnecessary nitrogen excretion, and the use of protein as an energy source by fish, quality and determine proper dietary protein to energy (DP:DE) ratios in order to maximize protein utilization efficiency. It will help the aquaculture sector to obtain better growth response at a low-cost and without any adverse environmental effects. In the present article, we have deliberated in detail the previous and ongoing researches about protein research in fish nutrition. Besides, we have made a comparison between two so far commonly used methods in protein research, i.e ., the graded supplementation and diet-dilution technique. According to the data presented here, is focusing on the formulation of balanced diets, the diet-dilution technique seems to be more accurate than the graded supplementation method. Thus, future studies should be focused on the use of diet-dilution technique along with proper dietary protein to energy ratios in order to formulate well-balanced diets. These attempts will significantly improve the protein and energy research in aquaculture nutrition. Moreover, feed industries will become able to formulate biologically balanced and environment-friendly diets at a low cost.

Use of glycerine in poultry diets

Continuous advances in the poultry industry have stimulated the use of alternative feeds in poultry diets, and in particular glycerine, given its availability via the increase in world production of biodiesel. Glycerol is the principal component of glycerine, and can be used as an energy source to replace e.g. corn. However, other residual compounds, such as methanol and high levels of sodium, limit its use in animal feeds in large quantities. Several studies have found that the nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolisable energy of glycerine (AMEn) varies significantly between broilers, laying hens and quail, due to different processing/extraction methods (via biodiesel production). However, an energetic availability of at least 85% has been verified. Knowledge of the main metabolic pathways of glycerol and other components of glycerine is important for future studies on this feed material and to determine its main limitations. Understanding the relationship between the quality of the glycerine and its role as a source of dietary energy will allow more precise inclusion of glycerine in the formulation of balanced diets, without negatively affecting the performance of poultry.

Inclusion of High Methionine Corn in Pullet Diets

ABSTRACT Synthetic methionine (SM) is routinely added to conventional pullet diets to allow for the formulation of balanced diets. Synthetic methionine, however, is not allowed in organic poultry diets. When SM is not used, diets must be formulated to higher CP levels to achieve the required level of methionine. This study compared inclusion of a commonly used organic corn in pullet starter, grower, and developer diets with a new non-genetically modified high methionine (HM) corn. There were no significant differences in BW gain. The average BW for the pullets on the control and HM corn diets was 1,349 and 1,386 g, respectively. Feed was controlled for most of the study; there were no significant differences in feed consumption or feed efficiency. The results of this study, therefore, indicate that this new HM corn variety is a suitable substitute for organically grown conventional corn varieties in organic pullet diets. The inclusion of HM corn eliminates the need for SM in pullet starter, grower, and developer diets fed to floor-reared Bovan Brown pullets.