Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience for this project were: 1. Organic poultry farmers 2. Organic feedmill and feed manufacturers 3. eOrganic and eExtension 4. Graduate and undergraduate students interested in alternative poultry production Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The projec offered training and development for the following graduate students: James Foutz, Bryan Aguanta, Eduardo Ortega and Gustavo Schneiders who worked with Dr. Aggrey, formulating diets, raising chickens, analyzing ingredients and undertaking molecular assays. Haden Ellis worked under Dr. Ritz and Dunkley in developing educational materials for organic agriculture. Darlene Bloxham is also a professional who worked under Dr. Pesti, and later became a graduate student of Dr. Pesti working on the project. Dr. Carlie Milfort also worked on this project assisting in development of molecular assays. There are several undergraduate students that were trained during the different phases of this project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have submitted a paper to poultry science which is under review then. We have a feed formulation app for organic producers We have made 3 conference presentation on our results We have articles under review from eOrganic We have an article in the Extension Bulletin of the University of Georgia What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Amino acid availability is an important measure of protein quality. The composition of feed ingredients is important, but composition does not equate to availability. Formulation of diets on a digestible amino acid basis decreases feed costs, lower feed safety margins, and decrease nitrogen excretion into the environment. We therefore determined the amino acid availability of organic ingredients to enable us to formulate diets based on digestible amino acids. True amino acid digestibility of ingredients was determined using total fecal collection precision-fed caecetomized rooster assay. Proximate analysis and amino acid content of excreta were determined at the Agricultural Experimental Station Chemical Laboratories, University of Missouri-Columbia, MO. Percentage and (digestible) lysine and methionine in organic corn, organic soybean meal, organic sunflower meal and organic Brazil nut powder were as follows: Lysine [corn 0.250 (0.190); soybean meal 2.965 (2.709); sunflower meal 0.840 (0.713); Brazil nut 1.505 (1.317); Methionine [corn 0.165 (0.146); soybean meal 0.660 (0.594); sunflower meal 0.505 (0.469); Brazil nut 3.450 (3.360). Of these organic ingredients, inclusion of about 9.32 % Brazilian nut powder would be adequate to meet the sulfur amino acid requirement in a broiler starter diet with lysine and threonine supplementations. Based on the analysis of these ingredients, we formulated several feed formulation strategies to meet the sulfur amino acid requirements of poultry, both broilers and layers without exogenous supplementation of methionine. For the first time, we have been able to formulate organic poultry diets based on available or digestible nutrients. We formulated three diets (Diet 1: conventional commercial diet based on conventional ingredients; Diet 2: NOSP diet with 0.1% Methionine; Diet 3: Organic diet with no added methionine). We hatched Ross308 chicks for this experiment. Starter Diet Ingredient Conventional NOSB Organic 100% Organic Corn 54.80 38.00 61.20 Soybean 38.11 28.70 22.93 Soybean Oil 3.00 3.50 0.00 Sunflower 0.00 22.05 0.00 Brazil Nuts 0.00 0.00 12.00 DL-Methionine 0.29 0.10 0.00 Crude Protein, % 23.33 23.35 23.33 ME, Kcal/g 3.06 3.04 3.06 MET, % 0.62 0.43 0.63 CYS, % 0.39 0.27 0.32 Grower Diet Ingredient Conventional NOSB Organic 100% Organic Corn 58.23 47.75 64.73 Soybean 34.20 25.00 20.75 Soybean Oil 3.00 3.50 0.25 Sunflower 0.00 22.05 0.00 Brazil Nuts 0.00 0.00 10.75 DL-Methionine 0.25 0.10 0.00 Crude Protein, % 21.75 21.69 21.64 ME, Kcal/g 3.10 3.10 3.10 MET, % 0.56 0.41 0.58 CYS, % 0.29 0.25 0.30 Finisher Diet Ingredient Conventional NOSB Organic 100% Organic Corn 61.88 42.00 66.00 Soybean 29.90 21.25 18.00 Soybean Oil 3.85 5.25 2.00 Sunflower 0.00 25.00 0.00 Brazil Nuts 0.00 0.00 10.50 DL-Methionine 0.25 0.10 0.00 Crude Protein, % 19.97 20.22 20.07 ME, Kcal/g 3.20 3.20 3.20 MET, % 0.54 0.40 0.56 CYS, % 0.27 0.24 0.28 We assigned 200 birds per treatment; 4 replicates per treatment and 50 birds per replicate. Birds were grown in our organic facility where birds had access to pasture. Additional 200 birds were fed diet 1 and raised in standard commercial environment with no access to pasture. The birds were raised for 8 weeks. At the end of the experiment, the body weights were 2.62 kg, 2.55 kg, 2.52 kg and 2.26 kg for the organic, NOSP, conventional diet in organic environment and conventional diet in conventional environment, respectively. There were no differences in growth among diets for birds that were organically grown. All the organically grown birds had significant higher growth than their counterpart grown under conventional environment. There were no differences in feed conversion ratio and carcass yield among all treatments. Surface color of the left ventral part of Pectoralis major muscle was measured in triplicate for initial and final pH, lightness (L*), green to red (a*) and from blue to yellowness (b*). The initial and final pH and lightness were similar among treatments, however, the NOSP diet had significantly lower a* and b* values compared to the other treatments. We have ascertained the expression levels of genes in the methionine pathway when fed the NOSB and 100% organic diet. We used the conventional diet as a control. The genes we studied were S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine (AHCY), betaine-homocysteine S methyltransferase (BHMT), glycine N-methyltransferase (GNMT), methionine adenosyltransferase 1, alpha (MAT1A), MAT2B, 5-methyltetrahydrofololate-homocysteine methyltransferase (MTR), 5-methyltetrafolate-homocysteine methyltransferase reductase (MTRR), and cystathione beta synthase (CBS). Gene expression was conducted at days 10 and 35. All the genes in the methionine pathway was expressed downwards compared to the conventional control in the ileum both for the NOSB and 100% organic diets. This indicate that dietary methionine may not be adequate. However, expression levels in the breast muscle was normal. At day 35, gene expression levels appear to be at par with the conventional diet in the ileum and breast muscle. It is possible to formulate organic poultry diet based on digestible amino acids using Brazil nuts without the inclusion of synthetic methionine. In the starter and grower phases, the group on 100% organic diet fell behind in growth, however, they compensated for the growth in the finisher phase. In the finisher phase the 100% organic feed had slightly better FCR though not significant over the NOSP diet. The 100% organic diet also had comparable carcass yield and meat quality. Birds grown in organic environment with access to pasture perform better than their counterparts grown under conventional environments. First, during the starter phase of broiler production, a diet adhering to NOSB guidelines of only 0.1% DL-Methionine does not provide an adequate amount of methionine to a broiler, resulting in increased feed intake and decreased growth. Additionally, broilers fed organic Brazil nut meal as a methionine source do not meet the growth of broilers fed conventional feed. These observations on growth and performance are backed by gene expression data, where genetic expression of important enzymes show a methionine deficiency. However, the conclusion that can be made over an 8-week time period, broilers fed a diet adhering to NOSB guidelines or a diet containing Brazil nut meal both meet the growth of broilers fed a conventional diet when raised organically. Broilers fed a diet containing Brazil nut meal additionally met performance of conventionally fed broilers and outperformed broilers fed a NOSB diet. Genetic expression corroborates these observations, where little differences were seen in gene expression of major enzymes in methionine metabolism. Further, growth and performance data suggest organic production of broilers yields heavier broilers than broilers raised conventionally. Genetic data supporting this result show relative corroboration. However, investigation into enzyme activity and metabolite concentration is needed to further strengthen these claims
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Milfort, M. C., Foutz, J., Dunkley, C., Davis, A. J., Rekaya, R., and Aggrey, SE, 2017. Amino acid composition and digestibility of organic feed ingredients. Poult. Sci. 95:156
Foutz J. C., M. C. Milfort, A. L. Fuller, W. K. Kim, R. Rekaya and S. E. Aggrey, 2018. Performance of broiler chickens fed diet with or without exogenous methionine and raised in conventional or organic production environment. International Poultry Scientific Forum
Dunkley, C.S., J. Fowler and S. E. Aggrey, 2018. Amino Acid Content in Organic Soybean Meal for the Formulation of Organic Poultry Feed. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Bulletin.
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Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience reached are organic feed manufacturers, organic ingredient growers, organic educators and extension personnel, and organic poultry producers Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has offered training and development for the following students so far. James Foutz and Bryan Aguanta are working with Dr. Aggrey, formulating diets, raising chickens and will be undertaking the molecular assays. Haden Ellis is working under the direction of Dr. Ritz and Dunkley developing educational materials for organic agriculture involving poultry. Dr. Carlie Milfort is also working with Dr. Aggrey developing molecular assays. Darlene Bloxham is a laboratory professional working under Dr. Pesti responsible for ingredient assays. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We are preparing material for eOrganic, and also manuscipt for publication. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1. Complete all your trials 2. Disseminate our data through eOrganic, conferences and publication 3. Conduct laboratory experiments do determined whether the diets formulated generated the needed tissue methionine and SAM 4. Develop education materials
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
For the first time, we have been able to formulate organic poultry diets based on available or digestible nutrients. We formulated three diets (Diet 1: conventional commercial diet based on conventional ingredients; Diet 2: Current organic diet with 0.1% Methionine; Diet 3: Organic diet with no added methionine). We hatched Ross308 chicks for this experiment. We assigned 200 birds per treatment; 4 replicates per treatment and 50 birds per replicate. Birds were grown in our organic facility where birds had access to pasture. Additional 200 birds were fed diet 1 and raised in standard commercial environment with no access to pasture. STARTER DIET Main Ingredients CONV Current ORG 100% Organic Corn 54.80 38.00 61.20 Soybean 38.11 28.70 22.93 Soybean oil 3.00 3.50 0.00 Sunflower 0.00 22.05 0.00 Brazil Nuts 0.00 0.00 12.00 DL-Methionine 0.29 0.10 0.00 Crude Protein (%) 23.33 23.35 23.33 ME (kcal/g) 3.06 3.05 3.06 MET (%) 0.62 0.43 0.63 CYS (%) 0.30 0.27 0.32 GROWER DIET Main Ingredients CONV Current ORG 100% Organic Corn 58.23 42.75 64.73 Soybean 34.20 25.00 20.75 Soybean oil 3.00 3.50 0.25 Sunflower 0.00 22.05 0.00 Brazil Nuts 0.00 0.00 10.75 DL-Methionine 0.25 0.10 0.00 Crude Protein (%) 21.75 21.69 21.64 ME (kcal/g) 3.10 3.10 3.10 MET (%) 0.56 0.41 0.58 CYS (%) 0.29 0.25 0.30 FINISHER DIET Main Ingredients CONV Current ORG 100% Organic Corn 61.88 42.00 66.00 Soybean 29.90 21.25 18.00 Soybean oil 3.85 5.25 2.00 Sunflower 0.00 25.00 0.00 Brazil Nuts 0.00 00.00 10.50 DL Methionine 0.25 0.10 0.00 Crude Protein (%) 19.97 20.22 20.07 ME (kcal/g) 3.20 3.20 3.20 MET (%) 0.54 0.40 0.56 CYS (%) 0.27 0.24 0.28 We feed the starter diet from day 0 till 14. We then fed the grower diet from day 14 till day 28. The finisher diet was fed from day 28 till 56. The experiment is stil ongoing. However, we have data up to day 42. Table 1. Growth Analysis of broiler chickens fed organic or conventional diet and raised in organic or standard diet1 Treatment Environment Hatch wt (g) BW at 14 d BW at 28 d BW at 42 d CONV ORG 42.31 429.12b 1,445.30b 2,758.63b Current Org ORG 42.12 422.48b 1,450.93b 2,747.36b 100% Org ORG 42.25 387.07a 1,368.30a 2,672.61ab CONV CONV 42.28 437.63c 1,432.35b 2,632.54a SEM 0.21 3.70 12.80 28.58 1Means within columns with the same supercript are significantly different (P<0.05) We are still collecting data on these birds. However, up to day 42, we can draw the following conclusions [1] The body weight of birds fed 100% organic diet (Diet with brazil nuts) without supplementation with any exogenic methionine did not statistically differ from birds grown on either conventional feed or currently recommended 0.1% methionine [2] Birds fed conventional diet and raised in an organic environment with access to pasture grew significantly better at day 42 than their counterparts raised in conventional environment
Publications
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Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience reached include organic poultry producers, feed millers, organic poultry ingredient growers. We have also made effort to reach organic educators Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has offered training and development to three graduat students so far. Haden Ellis under the direction of Dr. Ritz and Dunkley, developming educational materials for organic agriculture involving poultry. James Foutz and Bryan Aguanta are working under Dr. Aggrey and developing the digestible nutrient analysis and feed formulation with the assistance of Dr. Pesti. Darlene Bloxham is a laboratory professional that has trained to developed various assays pertaining to feed ingredients. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1. We will disseminate ingredient analysis and outcome of digestibility of organic ingredient to organic outlets, regular academic publication and organize extension programs 2. Formulate several cost effective diets based on our feed ingredient analysis and understand digestibility based on formulated diets 3. Conduct a broiler trial and collect tissues for Nutrigenomics 4. Develop educational materials
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The quality of protein use in formulating poultry diets varies. Amino acid availability is an important measure of protein quality. The composition of feed ingredients is important, but composition does not equate availability. Therefore, poultry diets based on available or digestible amino acids would be closer to the needs of the bird than the composition of the feed ingredient. Feed formulation based on availability values should allow higher dietary inclusion levels of feed ingredients of lower quality. Formulation of diets on a digestible amino acid basis may decrease feed costs, lower feed safety margins, and decrease nitrogen excretion into the environment. We therefore determine the amino acid availability of organic ingredients to enable us formulate diets based on digestible amino acids. Organic ingredient % methionine+cysteine % available methioin+cysteine Soybean meal (45.80% CP) 0.660+0.685 0.594+0.560 Corn (6.29% CP) 0.165+0.145 0.146+0.108 Wheat (13.60% CP) 0.220+0.280 0.187+0.233 Wheat middlings ((16.05% CP) 0.245+0.290 0.182+0.200 Alfafa meal (14.85% CP) 0.195+0.135 0.123+0.031 Sunflower meal (21.30 % CP) 0.505+0.467 0.360+0.291 Sugar beet root powder (12.75 % CP) 0.075+0.090 0.028+0.000 Spinach powder extract (31.25 % CP) 0.425+0.385 0.348+0.223 Brazil nut powder (51.75 % CP) 3.450+1.180 3.360+1.054 Folate (mg/kg) Betaine (nmols/g) Choline (nmols/g) Alfafa 2.30 130,000 4600 Spinach 22.0 Sugar beet root powder 115,000 3000 From these organic ingredients, inclusion of about 10% Brazilian nut powder would be adequate to supply the sulfur amino acids requirement in a broiler starter diet with lysine and threonine supplementation. Based on the analysis of these ingredients, we will evaluate several feed formulation strategies to meet the sulfur amino acids requirements of poultry, both broilers and layers without exogenous supplementation of methionine.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiece reached include organic poultry producers; organic poultry ingredient growers, organic feed plant managers. We have also make concerted effort to reach organic educators. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has offered training and professional development to two graduate students so far. Haden Ellis under the direction of Drs. Ritz, Dunkley and Beckstead is developing educational materials for organic agriculture involving poultry. Darlene Bloxham is a laboratory professional that has been trained in choline and other nutrient assay development by Dr. Pesti Bibek Regmi is a graduate student in Nutrition and NutriGenomics being trained in laboratory techniques need to assess optimum methylation How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1. We plan to disserminate the information on nutrient ingredient analysis to e.Organic and other outlets including publications and extension related activities 2. We plan to continue with the nutrient availability experiment and subesquently feed formulation 3. We plan to run broiler experiment using feed our feed formulation 4. We plan to collect tissue for Nutrigenomics 5. We plan to develop educational materials in organic farming pertaining to organic agriculture
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1 Table 1 Essential amino acids (+cysteine) profile of some organic ingredient for poultry Essential Amino Acids and Cysteine Ingredient CP MET CYS LYS THR TRY ISO ARG VAL Alfafa meal 16.25 0.31 0.23 1.07 0.83 0.28 0.71 0.86 0.95 Soybean meal 47.00 0.58 0.59 2.90 1.74 0.70 1.78 3.33 1.93 Wheat middles 16.00 0.23 0.29 0.63 0.45 0.18 0.39 0.90 0.59 Hommy 9.00 0.19 0.19 0.46 0.34 0.07 0.25 0.57 0.39 Corn 8.20 0.14 0.14 0.24 0.20 0.06 0.17 0.28 0.25 Barley 10.50 0.19 0.21 0.43 0.34 0.11 0.33 0.52 0.47 Canola meal 40.70 0.53 0.57 1.45 1.09 0.38 0.87 1.48 1.16 Field peas 22.00 0.21 0.27 1.41 0.70 0.18 0.70 1.53 0.82 Milo 11.00 0.17 0.15 0.24 0.29 0.08 0.31 0.33 0.40 Sunflower meal 27.40 0.50 0.40 1.02 0.87 0.32 0.79 1.60 1.00 Oats 10.00 0.15 0.23 0.41 0.28 0.09 0.27 0.54 0.39 Flaxseed 32.00 0.38 0.34 0.88 0.75 0.36 0.75 1.97 0.96 Millet 11.50 0.28 0.20 0.42 0.40 0.16 0.45 0.61 0.58 We compared the composition of corn and soybean meal with corn used in conventional poultry feeds. The CP for the conventional corn was 8.15%, whereas methionine and cysteine were 0.17 and 0.19% respectively. The total sulfur amino acid (methionine + cysteine) for the conventional corn was 0.35% whereas that of organic corn was 0.28%. Whereas, lysine content was similar, threonine, tryptophan, isoleucine, arginine and valine content of the organic corn was lower than that of the conventional corn. The conventional soybean meal had a crude protein content of 47.67% compared to 47% of the organic soybean meal. The methionine and cysteine contents were 0.65 and 0.74% respectively, which were higher than the organic soybean. Similarly, lysine content of the conventional corn was 3.0% which was also higher than that of the organic ingredient. The threonine, arginine, isoleucine and valine content of the conventional soybean were 1.86, 3.52, 2.16 and 2.26 % which were all higher than the 1.74, 3.33, 1.78 and 1.93% from the organic soybean. The organic soybean had 0.70% tryptophan compared to 0.65% from the conventional soybean. The industrially produced flaxseed has 0.35 and 0.42 methionine and cysteine, respectively compared to the 0.38 and 0.34, respectively in the organic samples. Similar variability was found in other analyzed feed ingredients. This part of the research is still ongoing.
Publications
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