Effect of feather meal on barrow performance1

Abstract

One hundred ninety-six crossbred barrows of high lean gain potential (21.2 kg BW) were used in an experiment to determine the effect of dietary feather meal (FM) on barrow performance, specifically, the effects of the ingredient on ADG and carcass leanness. Additionally, 28 gilts (26.8 kg BW) were used to compare gender differences on the corn-soybean meal control diets. Treatments were control barrows and control gilts fed corn-soybean meal diets, and barrows fed according to a 2 x 3 factorial arrangement of FM levels (10 or 20%, as-fed basis) and starting weights on the diets (36, 60, or 86 kg BW). All barrow diets were formulated to contain the same apparent digestible lysine and ME. Control barrows ate more feed (2.61 vs. 2.39 kg/d; as-fed), grew faster (0.911 vs. 0.827 kg/d), had greater backfat depth at slaughter (15.6 vs. 11.6 mm), and had lower carcass lean content (P < 0.001), with no difference in daily lean gain (P = 0.848) compared with gilts. There was a linear (P = 0.010) decrease in ADG for barrows fed increasing amounts of FM from 36 kg BW to slaughter, with no effect of FM additions on ADG when initiated at 60 or 86 kg BW. There was a quadratic reduction (P = 0.008) in ADFI and estimated digestible lysine intake with increasing FM for the 36 to 60 kg BW period for barrows fed FM starting at 36 kg BW. There was a linear (P = 0.006) decrease in ADFI for the 60 to 86 kg BW period with increasing FM for barrows started on FM at 60 kg BW. There was no effect of experimental diets or starting weight on barrow 10th-rib backfat depth at slaughter. These results suggest that diets containing 10 and 20% FM were effective in decreasing overall ADG and ADFI by barrows when feeding of FM was initiated at 36 kg BW; however, backfat at slaughter was still greater than for control gilts.

Assessment of energy content of low-solubles corn distillers dried grains and effects on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and pork fat quality in growing-finishing pigs1

“…Dressing percent is often reduced Weimer et al, 2008;Xu et al, 2010a), but is sometimes unaffected (Fu et al, 2004;Widmer et al, 2008) by adding 20% DDGS in finishing pig diets. Diets with greater CP (Chen et al, 1999;Ssu et al, 2004) and fiber (Pond et al, 1988) content may increase weight of visceral organs (especially stomach, liver, and intestines) and weight of digesta, which might explain this decrease in dressing percent for pigs fed the LS-DDC or DDCS diets. Pigs fed LS-DDC had similar lOth-rib loin depth compared with pigs fed the control and DDGS diets.…”

Inclusion of exogenous enzymes to feathers during processing on the digestible energy content of feather meal for adult dogs

“…However, hydrolyzed feather meal (HFM) may be a low-cost source of protein to be included in diets for poultry, pigs, dogs, and cats. Although the biological value of feather meal is lower for non-ruminants, it provides indispensable amino acids to the diet (Yin et al, 1993;Ssu et al, 2004).…”

Amino acid supplementation of hydrolyzed feather meal diets for finisher pigs1,2

“…The FM is an attractive source of AA for pig diets, but the data in the literature are quite limited (Chiba, 2001). Although there were some published reports in the late 1950s (Hall, 1957;Combs et al, 1958), there have been only a few reports (Chiba et al, 1995(Chiba et al, , 1996 on the use of FM in pig diets until recently (Southern et al, 2000;van Heugten and van Kempen, 2002;Apple et al, 2003;Ssu et al, 2004). The low Lys content of FM may account for a lack of research because the adequacy of Lys is the primary concern for most pig diets.…”