Short communication. Effect of soybean meal heat procedures on growth performance of broiler chickens

The aim of this research was to study the effect of soybean meal (SBM) heat procedures on growth performance of broiler chickens. A trial was carried out using 200 male Ross 308 strain chickens during 3 feeding periods (starter, grower and finisher, 42 days). The experiment was based on a completely randomized design with 5 treatments giving 4 replications of 10 broilers per treatment. Treatments consisted on: T1 (control, un-processed SBM), T2 (autoclaved SBM: 121ºC, 20 min), T3 (autoclaved SBM: 121ºC, 30 min), T4 (roasted SBM: 120ºC, 20 min) and T5 (microwaved SBM: 46ºC, 540 watt, 7 min). Growth performance of animals was examined by determining body weight (BW), body weight grain (BWG), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion rate (FCR). Higher BW (p<0.05) and BWG (p<0.05) and lower FCR (p<0.05) were found in broiler chickens fed heat processed SBM diets compared to those fed a raw SBM diet, probably due to higher nutrient availability. However, no differences were found among heat SBM procedures (autoclaving, roasting and microwaving) on growth performance of animals for the starter, grower and finisher periods. From the results of this experiment, it is concluded that further research needs to be developed to establish the effect of temperature-time heat procedures on nutritive value of SBM in terms of levels of anti-nutritional factors (trypsin inhibitor activity and phytic acid) and amino acids profile and its influence on growth performance of broilers