Application of low-gossypol cottonseed meal in laying hens’ diet

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the application of dietary low-gossypol cottonseed meal (LCSM) in layers' diets. A total of 432 40-weekold Hy-line W36 laying hens were allocated to one of the six dietary treatments with 6 replicates of 12 birds each. The control group was fed a corn-soybean meal basal diet, and the 4 experimental diets consisted of a basal diet with 50, 98.3, 144.2, or 189 g/kg LCSM, respectively (correspondingly 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% dietary protein provided by soybean meal were replaced by LCSM). The sixth group was fed a basal diet supplemented with free gossypol (FG group). The feeding trial lasted for 12 weeks. The results showed that no significant difference was observed on egg production or feed conversion ratio (FCR, feed/egg, g/g) among all groups, but feed intake and egg weight were significantly decreased in the 189 g/kg LCSM group in weeks 46 to 51 (P < 0.05). A significant decrease was not observed in shell strength, shell thickness, and yolk color in all periods, but Haugh unit, albumen height, and egg white protein content were reduced in 189 g/kg LCSM group in weeks 46 to 51 (P < 0.05). No significant differences were found between the control and FG group. There was no obvious difference on plasma levels of total protein, blood urea nitrogen, uric acid, and activities of albumen, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and the histopathology of liver, kidney, and oviduct in all groups. In conclusion, decreasing feed intake, egg weight, and egg quality were observed in the 189 g/kg LCSM group. However, the adverse effect was not relevant to the presence of FG in LCSM. Dietary LCSM supplementation of 98.3 g/kg was recommended with optimum FCR and without adverse effect on egg production, quality, and health of layers.

Effect of dietary protein sources on production performance, egg quality, and plasma parameters of laying hens

“…However, at CP contents similar to those of SBM, LCSM, and DRM may be beneficial for egg performance. Our current study was consistent with previous study, which suggested that the EW was decreased when layers were fed 189.0 g/kg LCSM with 28.11 mg/kg FG under the same Dig AA profiles [2]. One reason for the egg mass reduction was likely due to the difference in the content of SID Arg, phenylalanine (Phe), histidine (His), and leucine (Leu) between certain diets (i.e., LCSM 100 , DRM 100 , and LCSM 50 -DRM 50 ) and the SBM group (Table 3).…”

“…To decrease dependence on SBM, it is essential to explore potential SBM alternatives. Cottonseed meal (CSM) and rapeseed meal (RSM) have long been considered attractive alternative protein sources for poultry diets [1,2], but anti-nutritional factors (i.e., free gossypol [FG] and glucosinolate) and the relatively low digestibility of their essential amino acids (AAs) limit their utilization [1,3]. The concentration of nutrients and anti-nutritional factors in CSM and RSM depend on the type of meal, method of oil extraction, ratio of kernel to husk, lint, and seed coat [4,5].…”

“…Moreover, de-gossypolization highly decreases FG levels [2]. Compared to traditional CSM, low-gossypol cottonseed meal (LCSM) contains higher levels of crude protein (CP) (43.5% and 51.1%), metabolizable energy (ME) (8.49 MJ/kg and 9.04 MJ/lg), Lys (1.97% and 2.26%), Thr (1.25% and 1.60%), Met (0.58% and 0.86%), Cys (0.68% and 1.04%), and Arg (4.65% and 6.08%) [8].…”

Effects of fermented cottonseed meal on growth performance, serum biochemical parameters, immune functions, antioxidative abilities, and cecal microflora in broilers

“…But the negative effect of FG is related to additional level. He et al (2015) reported that 75% SBM could be replaced by low-gossypol CSM (21.76 mg/kg) without affecting the poultry growth performance. Other report also demonstrated that compared with the control group (0% CSM), 6% CSM (74.4 mg/kg FG) had no negative effects on ADFI and laying rate from 40 to 49 weeks in laying hens (Yuan et al, 2014).…”

“…So it is interesting to note that though FG level in FCSM-2 diets was lower than CSM diets, it had negative effect on growth performance. The reasons may be associated with the other anti-nutritional factors such as malvalic and sterculic acid (He et al, 2015), which may contribute to performance depression. Besides, it has been proved that lysine and arginine had antagonism effect.…”