Bacterial protein meal produced on natural gas replacing soybean meal or fish meal in broiler chicken diets

Abstract

The effects of replacing soybean meal or fish meal with 2, 4 or 6% bacterial protein meal (BPM) on growth performance, ileal digestibility of amino acids and sensory quality of meat, were examined using 630 broiler chickens. Weight gain from 7 – 32 days of age did not differ significantly among the treatments. Efficiency of feed conversion was increased when BPM replaced soybean meal, and abdominal fat deposition tended to decline. Feed conversion was not affected when BPM replaced fish meal. Amino acid digestibility was unaffected or improved when BPM replaced soybean meal, whereas replacement of fishmeal with BPM resulted in similar digestibility. Sensory quality of fresh thigh meat was similar among treatments, but for freeze-stored chest meat replacement of fish meal with BPM reduced off-odour and off-flavour and increased juiciness. It was concluded that 6% BPM can replace soybean meal or fish meal protein in broiler chicken diets.

Keywords:

• Bacterial protein meal
• broiler chicken
• growth performance
• feed conversion
• ileal amino acid digestibility
• sensory quality

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by grant # 143196/140 ‘Protein produced from natural gas – a new feed resource for fish and other domestic animals’ from the Research Council of Norway. The bacterial protein meal was provided by Norferm AS, Stavanger, Norway. The authors wish to thank Liv Torunn Mydland for the amino acids analyses and Frank Sundby for excellent technical assistance.