Nutritional Evaluation of a High-Oil Sunflower Meal in Broiler Starter Diets

Two experiments were conducted with broiler chicks to determine the nutritive value of highoil sunflower meal (HO-SFM), a sunflower oil extraction by-product obtained through screw-press extraction and expanding processes with a proximate composition of 32% CP, 12% crude fiber, and 19% ether extract. In Experiment 1, the effects of a high level (46.4%) of HO-SFM on chick performance and gastrointestinal organs were tested. The objective of Experiment 2 was to determine if pelleting the feed could overcome the bulkiness resulting from inclusion of HO-SFM at a high level. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that addition of 46.4% HO-SFM to broiler starter diets significantly (P < 0.05) depressed body weight, feed intake, and gain but not feed conversion. Fat pad and liver lipid were again significantly (P < 0.05) decreased in the HO-SFM treatment. Impaired performance might have been due to the difference of the density of HOSFM diet (608 g/L) compared with the soybean meal control (723 g/L). When bulkiness was overcome by pelleting in Experiment 2, it was found that pelleting the feed significantly enhanced growth of broiler chicks compared with SFM or soybean meal mash diets. Liver weights and lipid content were again decreased in HO-SFM diets. The results of this study suggest that HO-SFM can be used up to 28% without adverse effects on broiler chicks. Further improvement was observed with pelleting. Liver weight and lipid content were consistently reduced by feeding HO-SFM.