Quality Animal Protein Research Articles

Initial ground experiments of silkworm cultures living on different feedstock for provision of high quality animal protein for human in space

Silkworm could be an alternative to provide edible animal protein in Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) for long-term manned space missions. Silkworms can consume non-edible plant residue and convert plant nutrients to high quality edible animal protein for astronauts. The preliminary investigation of silkworm culture was carried out in earth environment. The silkworms were fed with artificial silkworm diet and the leaves of stem lettuce ( Lactuca sativa L. var. angustana Irish) separately and the nutritional structure of silkworm was investigated and compared, The culture experiments showed that: (1) Stem lettuce leaves could be used as food of silkworm. The protein content of silkworm fed with lettuce leaves can reach 70% of dry mass. (2) The protein content of silkworm powder produced by the fifth instar silkworm larvae was 70%, which was similar to the protein content of silkworm pupae. The powder of the fifth instar silkworm larvae can be utilized by astronaut. (3) The biotransformation rate of silkworm larvae between the third instar and the fifth instar could reach above 70%. The biotransformation cycle of silkworm was determined as 24 days. (4) Using the stem lettuce leaves to raise silkworm, the coarse fiber content of silkworm excrements reached about 33%. The requirements of space silkworm culture equipment, feeding approaches and feeding conditions were also preliminarily designed and calculated. It is estimated that 2.2 m 3 of culture space could satisfy daily animal protein demand for seven astronauts.

Earthworms helping economy, improving ecology and protecting health

Earthworms can treat organic garbage, livestock manure and poultry droppings and turn them into premium organic fertilisers, because humus only exists in earthworm feces and castings, compared with other fertilisers. Earthworms can also supply quality animal protein as feed, and offer the best raw materials for the biochemical and pharmaceutical industries. Vermiculture should be put into a whole circular economy as a means of protecting environment, maintaining ecological balance, and fully utilising resources. However, it should be oriented to stabilise sludge and organic wastes at present time.

Responsible Aquaculture and Trophic Level Implications to Global Fish Supply

Hunger and malnutrition remain among the most devastating problems facing the world's poor and needy, and continue to dominate the health and well-being of the world's poorest nations. Moreover, there are growing doubts as to the long-term sustainability of many existing food production systems, including capture fisheries and aquaculture, to meet the future increasing global demands. Of the different agricultural food production systems, aquaculture (the farming of aquatic animals and plants) is widely viewed as an important weapon in the global fight against malnutrition and poverty, particularly within developing countries where over 93% of global production is currently produced, providing in most instances an affordable and a much needed source of high quality animal protein, lipids, and other essential nutrients. The current article compares for the first time the development and growth of the aquaculture sector and capture fisheries by analyzing production by mean trophic level. Whereas marine capture fisheries have been feeding the world on high trophic level carnivorous fish species since mankind has been fishing the oceans, aquaculture production within developing countries has focused, by and large, on the production of lower trophic level species. However, like capture fisheries, aquaculture focus within economically developed countries has been essentially on the culture of high value-, high trophic level-carnivorous species. The long term sustainability of these production systems is questionable unless the industry can reduce its dependence upon capture fisheries for sourcing raw materials for feed formulation and seed inputs. In line with above, the article calls for the urgent need for all countries to adopt and adhere to the principles and guidelines for responsible aquaculture of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.

The effect of weaner diet protein content and diet quality on the long-term performance of pigs to slaughter1

Short and long-term effects of manipulating dietary CP content and diet quality in weaner diets on health and performance of pigs were investigated in a 2 x 2 factorial combination of CP inclusion (high-CP, 230 g of CP/kg vs. low-CP, 170 g of CP/kg) and diet quality (high-quality, cooked cereals, and animal protein vs. low-quality, raw cereals, and plant protein). Diets were fed ad libitum for 14 d postweaning to pigs weaned at 29.4+/-3.1 d of age and 9.9+/-1.0 kg of BW. From d 14 to slaughter at 104+/-3 kg, all pigs were fed the same series of standard commercial diets. There were 15 replicates per treatment in the weaner phase (<30 kg) and 5 replicates per treatment in the grower-finisher phase (>30 kg). High-quality diets promoted gut health as indicated by improved fecal lactobacilli to coliform ratio (P=0.002) and decreased fecal enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli counts on d 11 postweaning (P=0.028), reducing the risk of postweaning diarrhea and improving pig health from weaning to the end of the weaner phase. Reducing CP content had no effect on gut health. High-CP (P=0.053) and high-quality (P=0.025) diets independently increased ADG during the first 14 d postweaning compared with low-CP and low-quality diets, respectively. There were no interactions between dietary CP content and quality on any of the response criteria investigated. Despite differences in the immediate postweaning period, there was no effect of manipulating diet quality or CP content for 2 wk postweaning on lifetime performance with pigs reaching slaughter weight in 128+/-7 d. These results indicate that high-quality diets may protect pig gut health during the immediate postweaning period. However, it may be possible to use less expensive, decreased quality weaner diets without any adverse effects on long-term performance when weaning older, heavier pigs and where health status, environmental control, and stock management are all maintained to a high standard.

Potential Value of Acridids as High Protein Supplement for Poultry Feed

It is well known that acridids are an attractive and important natural source of food for many kinds of vertebrate animals, including birds, lizards, snakes, amphibians, fish and other mammals. Despite that they drew very few research attentions as feed for domesticated animals, particularly poultry, swine and freshwater fish. In the present study energy estimation and proximate analysis were conducted for four acridid species in order to determine the nutritional quality of those species and their potential value as an alternative animal protein source. The experiment revealed acridids to have a higher amount of protein content in compared to the conventional soybean and fish meals. A high amount of caloric contents were also evident in the chosen acridids. The most important conclusion of this study was that the acridids can provide a reliable and sustainable source of high quality animal protein for domesticated animals.

Substitution of sugar cane bagasse in the chicken diet and immune response.

Total proteins and protein electrophoresis were made in the sera of broiler chicken (Arber Acres) to evaluate the effect of substitution of basal diet for 4 weeks by either 8% sugar cane bagasse +2% wheat germ or 16% sugar cane bagasse +4% wheat germ whether untreated or incubated with rumen liquor for 72 h and then sterilized with 2 Mrad gamma-irradiation (treated). Both levels of untreated sugar can bagasse (8 and 16%) showed significant decrease in gamma globulins but this decrease had no effect on broiler chicken (45 days) while there was significant increase in total proteins in treated sugar cane bagasse 8% with concomitant increase in alpha 2, beta 1, beta 2 and gamma globulins. These results denoted that addition of rumen liquor to 8% sugar cane bagasse diet have resulted in an improvement in the transportation of micro nutrients and immune response most probably due to its high content of microorganisms constituting high quality animal protein; also more vaccines were recommended in feeding of chicken with sugar cane bagasse for a longer period e.g. laying hens to overcome its suppressive effect on the gamma globulins.

Optimal Dietary Protein Concentration for Hybrid Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus × O. aureus Fed All‐Plant Diets

Abstract.There are several estimates of the optimal dietary crude protein concentration for juvenile tilapia fed high quality animal proteins or mixtures of animal and plant derived feedstuffs. In the present study, the optimal dietary crude protein concentration for hybrid tilapia Oreochromis niloticus × O. aureus reared in glass aquaria was determined using diets free of fish meal. Further, initial weight of fish was approximately 21 g, which is the beginning of the growout phase of many commercial operations. The diets contained primarily corn co‐products and soybean meal as the sources of amino acids, and were formulated to provide 24, 26, 28, 30, 32 or 34% crude protein. The diets were fed to quadruplicate groups of tilapia for 10 wk. Increasing concentrations of dietary crude protein resulted in proportional improvements in weight gain and feed efficiency up to 30% dietary crude protein. Fish fed 24% dietary crude protein exhibited significantly reduced weight gain compared to fish fed 28–34% dietary crude protein. Protein efficiency ratio (PER) of tilapia was unaffected by dietary crude protein concentration. However, fish fed 28% crude protein exhibited numerically higher PER (2.58) than fish fed other levels of crude protein. Muscle crude protein levels were lower in fish fed diets containing 24–28% crude protein than in fish fed 30% and higher concentrations. Quadratic regression analyses of weight gain and feed efficiency data indicated the optimal dietary crude protein concentration to be 29.65% and 28.33%, respectively, while broken line analyses indicated 27.5 and 27.3%, respectively. Based on weight gain, feed efficiency, PER, and proximate composition data, the authors recommend 28% dietary crude protein as the minimum for hybrid tilapia fed all‐plant diets and reared in tanks.

Food Safety: A Global Perspective

The health of the population of the U.S. is affected by many factors, not the least of which is its food supply. A major source of high quality animal protein comes from poultry, eggs, and meat. The major effect of personal habits and the environment, diet, tobacco, alcohol, are considered, along with the microbiological effect on foodborne illness and health. The inspection system for meat and poultry is reviewed, in light of the publication of significant revisions being instituted at this time. The role of research, regulatory reform, and political science is considered as supportive of food service and consumer education. Education of food service workers, institutional employees, and consumers is a responsibility that the land grant universities should take very seriously. Networking with associations like the National Restaurant Association and its regional affiliates will be invaluable in improving the health of the people of the U.S.

An Evaluation of the Nutritional Value of a Soy Protein Concentrate in Young Adult Men Using the Short-Term N-Balance Method

Eight healthy young men participated in a metabolic balance study designed to assess the protein quality of soy protein concentrate (STAPRO-3200). Subjects received varying intakes of the test protein [0.35, 0.45, 0.55 and 0.65 g protein (N 6.25) per kilogram body weight per day] during 10-day experimental periods. Each was preceded by a 1-day protein-free diet. A final diet period with a 0.65 g milk protein intake was included for comparative purposes. During this period and that with the 0.65 g test intake of soy concentrate the stable isotopes 70Zn and 53Fe were added to the diet for 2 days to obtain initial data on the absorption of zinc and iron when soy concentrate was the sole source of protein intake. Mean ( SEM) intake of soy concentrate determined to be sufficient for N balance (including allowance of 5 mg N/kg per day for integumental and miscellaneous losses) was 95 ( 7) mg N/kg per day. Absorption of the extrinsic doses of labeled iron and zinc did not differ between the soy protein- and milk-based diets. Comparison of these data was made with findings obtained previously with other protein sources evaluated in the same way. The conclusion is that the capacity of the soy concentration to support short-term nitrogen equilibrium in adult protein nutrition is the same as that for good quality animal protein sources. Thus, well-processed soy concentrates can make a nutritionally significant contribution to meeting adult human protein needs.

Protein Quality of Raw and Autoclaved Plant Protein Blends

The protein quality of both raw and autoclaved plant protein blends was evaluated in weanling male rats by determining the net protein ratio and the net protein utilization derived from liver nitrogen values. True digestibility of these blends was also determined in order to evaluate whether digestibility was the only factor that affected protein quality as revealed by the other parameters. Casein and lactalbumin were reference standards. Combinations of corn meal, whole wheat meal, ground polished rice, oats, white beans, and solvent-extracted meals of soybean, peanut and sesame were studied. All blends were autoclaved at 1.034 kg/cm2 (15 lb.) pressure for 20min. Improvements in protein quality were obtained when each of the blends was autoclaved, but some blends showed greater improvements than others. In most cases the heat treatment resulted in greater digestibility which was directly reflected in higher net protein ratio and net protein utilization values. However, the relatively high true digestibility value for one of the raw blends was reduced by autoclaving. In spite of this, both the net protein ratio and net protein utilization were improved significantly by autoclaving. Therefore, other factors besides digestibility had an effect on protein quality. Certain plant protein blends can be effective substitutes for good quality animal proteins if adequate heat treatment is used.

Development of all plant food mixture using crops indigenous to haiti: Amino acid composition and protein quality

Among many approaehes toward alleviation of the critical shortage of protein for human consumption, one obvious step is to insure maximally effective use of what protein is currently being produced. In most countries, where severe protein deficiency exists, economic conditions make it impossible to effect any sudden increase in consumption of high quality animal protein, regardless of the intensity of the educational effort. Particularly in Asia, efforts to increase consumption of animal protein are hampered further by widespread vegetarianism. On the other hand, wiser use of currently produced plant foods is both economically and culturally feasible among even the peasantry in most countries. By appropriate blending of cereals and legumes, the amino acid deficiencies of each can be counterbalanced so that the nutritive value of the mixture is higher than that of either of its components (4). A classical example is the rice-bean mixture in which relatively high levels of threonine and lysine in beans compensate in part for the threonine-lysine defieiency of the rice. In most countries, it has not been possible to arrive at a blend of indigenous plant foods having both high protein content and a protein quality equivalent to that of milk or eggs. As a rule, the plant blends are limited in quality by a relative deficiency in sulfur amino acids. The reasonable target of most indigenous plant food blends for the present, then, can only be improvement in protein nutrition over the present very low level. Optimum nutrition would appear to be only a reasonable hope for the future when solid improvement has been achieved

Effect of Various Dietary Principles on Lactation in Rats

It has been known for some time that milk production can be materially increased by dietary treatment. This increase was first accomplished by increasing the protein content of the diet, then later by using good quality animal proteins such as liver. The vitamins, especially the B complex, are of considerable importance as well.In the present study the growth of approximately 350 litters of suckling rats was used as a criterion of milk production. Only the growth period from the fourth to the seventeenth day of life was considered. The logarithmic functions of the daily weight of litters of 6 were plotted against time. The slopes of the resultant curves were compared, and expressed as lactation indices.The basal diet of the lactating rats consisted of casein, 15 parts; salt mixture, 5; agar agar, 2; starch, 76; lard, 14; wheat germ oil, 5 drops per day; cod liver oil, 6 drops per day; and irradiated yeast, 3 gm. per day. To this basal ration were added daily supplements of various fractions of liver or eg...