Evaluation of the environmental implications of the incorporation of feed-use amino acids in the manufacturing of pig and broiler feeds using Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

The incorporation of feed-use (FU) amino acids (AAs) in diets results in a reduced use of protein-rich ingredients such as soybean meal, recognized to have elevated contributions to environmental impacts. This study investigated whether the incorporation of L-lysine.HCl, L-threonine and FU-methionine reduces the environmental impacts of pig and broiler feeds using Life Cycle Assessment. The following impact categories were considered: climate change, eutrophication, acidification, terrestrial ecotoxicity, cumulative energy demand and land occupation. Several feeds were formulated either to minimize the cost of the formulation (with or without AA utilization), to maximize AA incorporation (i.e. the cost of AA was considered to be similar to that of soybean meal), or to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. For both pig and broiler feeds, calculations were made first using only cereals and soybean meal as main ingredients and then using cereals and several protein-rich ingredients (soybean meal, rapeseed meal and peas). In addition, these calculations were performed using two types of soybean meal (from Brazil, associated with recent deforestation or not). For broiler feeds, two types of maize (from France, irrigated, with mineral fertilization v. not irrigated, with animal manure fertilization) were also tested. Regarding the feeds formulated to minimize cost, incorporation of AA decreased the values for eutrophication, terrestrial ecotoxicity and cumulative energy demand of both pig and broiler feeds, regardless of the base ingredients. Reduction in climate change and acidification due to the incorporation of AA depended on the nature of the feed ingredients, with the effect of AA incorporation being greater when combined with ingredients with high impacts such as soybean meal associated with deforestation. Feeds formulated to maximize AA incorporation generally had a similar composition to those formulated to minimize cost, suggesting that the costs of AA were not the limiting factor in their incorporation. Feeds formulated to minimize greenhouse gas emissions had the lowest values for climate change and cumulative energy demand, but not for other impacts. Further research is needed to elucidate whether the incorporation of additional AA (tryptophan and valine) along with L-lysine, L-threonine and FU-methionine could decrease on the environmental impacts of pig and broiler feeds further.

Technical options for the mitigation of direct methane and nitrous oxide emissions from livestock: a review

“…However, feed intake depression with protein-and amino acid-deficient diets has been demonstrated with pigs and poultry (Henry, 1985;Picard et al, 1993) and must be avoided to maintain production efficiency. Amino acid supplements can be combined with dietary protein reductions to maintain feed conversion efficiency and prevent production losses (Ball and Mohn, 2003;Mosnier et al, 2011;Osada et al, 2011). For example, Cromwell and Coffey (1993) reported a 17% to 23% decrease in N excretion when dietary protein was reduced by 2% units and the diet was supplemented with synthetic lysine.…”

Environmental impact of replacing soybean meal with rapeseed meal in diets of finishing pigs

“…Losses in NE can be compensated by adding fat, whereas losses in amino acids can be compensated by adding industrial amino acids as is usually done in practice. Mosnier et al (2011) andMeul et al (2012), S1 15% soybean meal 9.50 MJ net energy/kg feed 7.59 g lysine/kg feed Ad libitum feed intake Optimal growth performance S2 23% rapeseed meal 8.98 MJ net energy/kg feed 7.18 g lysine/kg feed Ad libitum feed intake Same net energy intake as S1 Optimal growth performance S4 23% rapeseed meal 9.50 MJ net energy/kg feed 7.59 g lysine/kg feed Ad libitum feed intake Same net energy intake as S1 Optimal growth performance S3 23% rapeseed meal 8.98 MJ net energy/kg feed 7.18 g lysine/kg feed Reduced feed intake Lower net energy intake than S1 Reduced growth performance Figure 1 The four scenarios of replacing soybean meal (SBM) by rapeseed meal (RSM) in diets of finishing pigs. Scenario 1 (S1) contains SBM, which is replaced by RSM in scenarios S2, S3 and S4.…”

Life cycle assessment as a tool to evaluate the impact of reducing crude protein in pig diets

“…Concerning the effect of pig feeding, most of these LCA studies indicated that reducing dietary CP is one of the most effective nutritional strategies that contribute to improve the environmental performance in the pig production chain, especially concerning GWP, AP and EP ( VAN DER WERF et al, 2005;MOSNIER et al, 2011;GARCIA-LAUNAY et al, 2014). It appears that reducing dietary CP modifies the environmental impacts at several stages of pig production, since the N content of manure and gaseous N-emissions during storage, treatment and field application, are related to N intake.…”

“…They reported that the biodigestor for energy purposes had the best environmental performance for almost all the environmental impacts, mainly due to biogas capture and the potential of energy savings. The LCA indicated that the production of one MOSNIER et al (2011). They compared diets based on cereals and soybean meal without amino acid (noAA) supplementation, with the incorporation of L-lysine, L-threonine and DLmethionine sources (withAA), and supplemented with AA and lowered CP contents (lowCP).…”