Canola meal is derived from the crushing of canola seed for oil extraction. Although it has been used in swine diets for a long time, its inclusion levels have been limited due to concerns regarding its nutritive value primarily arising from results of early studies showing negative effects of dietary canola meal inclusion in swine diets. Such effects were attributable to the presence of anti-nutritional factors (ANF; notably glucosinolates) in canola meal. However, due to advances in genetic improvements of canola that have led to production of cultivars with significantly lower ANF content and improved processing procedures, canola meal with a superior nutritive value for non-ruminant animals is now available. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to review the recent studies in the use of canola meal as feedstuff for swine, the factors influencing its use and the strategies to overcome them. First a historical overview of the development of canola is provided.

Nutrient digestibility and the effect of high dietary inclusion of canola meals from Brassica napus black (BNB) and Brassica juncea yellow (BJY) on growing and weaned pigs performance were determined. In Exp.1, 6 ileal cannulated barrows (initial BW = 20.7 ± 1.5 kg) were used to determine the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of AA in BNB and BJY. Pigs were allotted to diets containing either BNB or BJY as the sole source of protein in a crossover design to give 6 replicates per diet. The SID of all AA in BNB and BJY were similar. In Exp. 2, 168 weaned pigs (initial BW = 7.61 ± 0.76 kg) were assigned in a randomized complete block design to 7 diets (n = 24) consisting of a wheat-soybean meal-based control diet and 6 diets containing 5, 10 or 15% of canola meal derived from either BNB or BJY to determine the effect of different dietary inclusion on growth performance over a 28-d period postweaning. Diets were formulated to contain similar NE and SID of Lys. There were no differences in growth performance among treatments. In Exp. 3, 162 weaned pigs (initial BW = 7.26 ± 0.70 kg) were used to determine the effect of high BNB and BJY inclusion level without or with multicarbohydrase supplementation on growth performance and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of CP, DM, and GE. A wheat-soybean meal-based control diet and 8 diets containing 20 and 25% of either BNB or BJY without or with added multi-carbohydrase were formulated (n = 18) to contain comparable NE and similar SID of Lys contents. Feeding the diets containing 25% of BNB or BJY supported similar growth performance as those containing 20%. The multi-carbohydrase had no effect on growth performance but improved (P < 0.05) the ATTD of DM, CP, and GE compared with those fed nonsupplemented diets irrespective of canola meal type. Diets containing 25% canola meal had lower (P < 0.05) ATTD of DM, CP, and GE regardless of canola meal type compared with the 20% canola meal diets. There was an interaction (P < 0.05) between canola meal type and inclusion level on ATTD of DM in which ATTD of DM decreased with increasing inclusion of both canola meal types. Results of the current study indicate that both BNB and BJY can be included up to 25% in weaned pig diets without compromising performance as long as the diets are formulated on an NE and SID of Lys basis. Also, enzyme addition improved the ATTD of CP, DM, and GE in weaned pigs in both BNB and BJY diets.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of replacing soybean meal (SBM) with a high-protein sunflower meal (HiSFM) without or with multi-enzyme mixtures on growth performance, nutrient utilization, jejunal digesta viscosity, and excreta moisture in broiler chickens. In experiment 1, 400 chicks were divided into 40 replicates of 10 birds and fed for 35 d a corn-soybean meal (CSBM) control diet or CSBM with 25 (HiSFM25), 50 (HiSFM50), 75 (HiSFM75), or 100% (HiSFM100) of total SBM replaced by HiSFM. During d 0 to 35, increasing HiSFM content in diets linearly reduced (P < 0.0001) BW, FI, and BW gain (BWG). Feeding HiSFM25 or HiSFM50 resulted in similar growth performance as CSBM (P > 0.05). In experiment 2, 120 chicks were divided into 24 replicates of 5 birds and fed CSBM or HiSFM75 diet without or with enzyme A (supplying 4,000, 500, and 8,000 U/kg of xylanase, alpha-amylase, and protease, respectively) or enzyme B (supplying 1,700, 1,100, 240, 30, 1,200, 360, 1,500, and 120 U/kg of cellulase, pectinase, mannanase, galactanase, xylanase, glucanase, amylase, and protease, respectively) for 21 days. Excreta moisture content was determined weekly, and birds were euthanized on d 22 to collect jejunal and ileal digesta for viscosity and apparent ileal digestibility (AID) measurements, respectively. Compared with CSBM, feeding HiSFM75 reduced (P < 0.05) BWG and G: F, enzymes A and D alleviated BWG and G: F reduction (P < 0.05), and enzyme A reduced (P = 0.037) the excreta moisture content, whereas the treatments did not influence AID or jejunal digesta viscosity measurements. In conclusion, experiment 1 results show that HiSFM can replace up to 50% of SBM without depressing growth performance in either the starter or finisher phase, whereas experiment 2 shows that enzymes A and B supplementation can alleviate the growth depression associated with feeding HiSFM75. These results suggest that enzyme supplementation can enhance HiSFM inclusion in broiler diets without affecting productivity or barn hygiene management.

This study was conducted to determine the standardized ileal digestible amino acid (AA) and nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy (AMEn) contents of a high-protein sunflower meal (HiSFM) fed to broiler chicks. A total of 144 broiler chicks were randomly allotted to one of three dietary treatments with eight replicate cages of six birds. Birds were fed the experimental diets from day 14 to day 21 of age. The results showed that gross energy, crude protein, nonphytate phosphorus, lysine (Lys), methionine (Met), threonine (Thr), and total nonstarch polysaccharide contents of HiSFM were 4178 kcal kg−1, 48.7%, 0.86%, 1.59%, 0.75%, 1.45%, and 14.6%, as-fed basis, respectively. The standardized ileal digestible Lys, Met, and Thr of HiSFM were 12.6, 6.8, and 11.6 g kg−1 (dry matter basis), respectively. In addition, the AMEn content of HiSFM fed to broiler chicks was 1785 kcal kg−1. In conclusion, compared with literature values for sunflower meal, HiSFM had lower standardized ileal digestibility of indispensable AA and higher AMEn content. The standardized ileal digestible AA and AMEn values of HiSFM obtained from the current study could be used when formulating poultry diets and to obtain predictable bird performance.

An experiment was conducted to determine the relative bioavailability (RBV) of P in high-protein sunflower meal (HP-SFM) fed to broiler chickens based on bone traits and to determine the effects of dietary phytase supplementation and increasing levels of HP-SFM as a P source on bone traits, growth performance, and apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of DM and nutrients. In total, 240 broiler chicks were randomly allotted to 1 of 10 experimental diets with 6 replicate cages of 4 birds each and fed experimental diets from day 14 to 21 of age. Diets included a corn-soybean meal-based basal diet (0.35% total P; P-deficient diet), or the basal diet supplemented with 0.05, 0.10, or 0.15% P from either monosodium phosphate (MSP) or HP-SFM. Another 3 diets were formulated by supplementing the HP-SFM-containing diets with 500 phytase unit/kg of phytase. The bone mineral content (BMC), bone area (BA), and bone mineral density (BMD) of femur and tibia and tibia ash content increased (linear, P < 0.01) with increasing dietary P content from MSP. A linear increase in femur and tibia BMC, femur BA, and tibia BMD was also observed (P < 0.01) with increasing level of dietary P from HP-SFM. The RBV of P in HP-SFM based on femur and tibia BMC were 41 and 44%, respectively. Dietary phytase supplementation increased (P < 0.01) most of bone traits of the birds except for femur BMD. In addition, birds fed the diets supplemented with dietary phytase had greater (P < 0.05) BW gain, feed efficiency, and AID of P than those fed the diets without dietary phytase. In conclusion, the estimated RBV of P in HP-SFM to P in MSP were 41 and 44% based on femur and tibia BMC, respectively. Also, dietary phytase supplementation increased AID of P, growth performance, and bone traits of the birds fed P-deficient diets containing increasing inclusion level of HP-SFM as a P source.