Evaluation of the effects of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) in broiler diets

Abstract

SummaryCereal grains such as maize and wheat are used extensively in feed formulations for poultry as the primary source of carbohydrates. High cost of these grains in many developing countries necessitates the evaluation of other ingredients that are grown locally. Sweet potato is one such crop. The study was conducted as a proof of concept experiment to test the hypothesis that in the presence and absence of enzyme, sweet potato roots when included in diets of broiler chickens may affect the total metabolisable energy content of the diets which may exert certain influences on dry matter digestibility of these diets as well as impacting on production and certain gut parameters.A total of 120 chicks were raised on a commercial starter feed from day 0 to 19. On day 22, the birds were individually weighed and allocated to 96 single bird metabolism cages to conduct a 7-day classical apparent metabolisable energy (AME) assay. The test diets contained 0% and 25% sweet potato flour (SPF) with and without enzyme supplementation (Rovabio Excel AP T-flex) and replicated 24 times. AME of the control diet with and without enzyme was 14.05 and 13.91 MJ/kg whilst the AME of the SPF diets with and without enzymes were 13.45 and 13.43 MJ/kg respectively. AME of SPF was 12.08 MJ/kg. Birds fed the SPF had significantly reduced end weights (p = .002) and weight gains (p < .001) leading to significantly higher intake (p = .004) and FCRs (p < .001) in birds. These effects in growth parameters highlight the need to balance dietary protein and total amino acids when using SPF in broiler diets and may not be a negative effect of SPF per say as AME and dry matter digestibility of SPF diets were comparable to the control diet. The level of sucrase activity in the jejunum was significantly (p < .001) lower due to enzyme inclusion. Use of SPF in the current study did not negatively influence the activities of the brush border enzymes maltase and sucrase, gut morphology in the jejunum of broilers or the load of Enterobacteriaceae in the caecal of birds. This finding is promising in that the gut parameters associated with digestive capacity and gut health were not compromised with feeding of SPF to broilers. K E Y W O R D Sapparent metabolisable energy, digestive enzymes, dry matter digestibility, feed conversion ratio, gut microflora, gut morphology, intake | INTRODUCTIONEnergy represents more than 70% of the total input cost of producing live broilers, and therefore, it is paramount to assess the energy value of ingredients. The high cost of grains particularly in developing countries necessitates the evaluation of locally available alternative energy ingredients. Many of these alternative ingredients are of limited use as feed ingredients due to their dietary fibre content and other | e217anti-nutrient properties (Ravindran, 2012). For these ingredients to be considered for inclusion in poultry diets, a thorough understanding of their potential and limitations for use in poultry diets is warranted.Sweet potato can substitute cereal grain...

Effects of Different Papua New Guinea Sweetpotato Varieties on Performance and Level of Enteric Pathogens in Chickens

“…In the current study, the counts (log CFU/g) of total enterobacteria and E.coli from the ceca of birds fed with the different dietary treatments were not significantly influenced by the different SP varieties and enzyme supplementation. This observation is similar to our earlier experiment [19] using sweetpotato flour in which the counts of the total enterobacteria and E. coli were not influenced by the inclusion of sweetpotato flour or enzyme supplementation.…”

Effects of Major Families of Modulators on Performances and Gastrointestinal Microbiota of Poultry, Pigs and Ruminants: A Systematic Approach

“…Fibres are plant food components not transformed by digestion. The fibres tested on poultry induced variable modulations of body weight or feed intake without modulating the FCR [ 46 , 50 , 51 ], which was explained by the absence of modification of the structure of the villi of the small intestine [ 46 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. In some studies, the fibres were able to induce an increase in the abundance of lactic-acid-producing bacteria and a decrease in the abundance of zoonotic and/or pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli [ 30 , 46 , 52 ].…”

Evaluation of effects of the dry‐heat‐processed sweet potato waste as broiler feed

“…On the other hand, higher mortality was recorded for broilers when sweet potato meal inclusion levels were greater than 25% (Maphosa, Gunduza, Kusina, & Mutungamiri, ). Similarly, a recent study also reported that diets containing 250 g/kg sweet potato flour led to poor growth of broilers (Pandi, Glatz, Forder, Komolong, & Chousalkar, ). Therefore, processed sweet potato or its waste has potential for use in poultry feed, but their inclusion levels need to be considered.…”