Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
410 MRAK HALL
DAVIS,CA 95616-8671
Performing Department
Animal Science
Non Technical Summary
The need for the proposed project is due to a void existing at the intersection of organic poultry nutrition, research on environmental damage and agricultural sustainability. Several associated factors are (1) the critical need to find an organic source of methionine, an essential amino acid (protein building block) for poultry production, (2) the extraordinary consumer acceptance and call for more organic poultry products, (3) the extreme loss of nutritious by-products from harvesting, processing and distribution of horticultural byproducts, (4) the enormous need to reduce deposition of waste in landfills and contribute less to environmental damage, (5) continuing increased production of organic corn and soybean and (6) the ever present void of a comprehensive database coupled with an efficient technological process to formulate diets quickly and inexpensively. These factors are discussed below. Organic source of methionine. The national list for organic poultry feeds ingredients permits use of DL-Methionine, DL-Methionine-hydroxy analog, and DL-Methionine-hydroxy analog calcium (CAS #'s 59-51-8, 583-91-5, 4857-44-7, and 922-50-9) at two pounds per ton for layers and broilers and three pounds per ton for turkeys. These synthetic products are allowed due to lack of a suitable organic methionine source. Beans also contain methionine. A combination of mostly organic cowpeas known as black-eyed peas (but actually a bean) and other beans (black, kidney, Great Northern) can be mixed with organic by-products (remaining after processing of fruits, grains, nuts, seeds and vegetables) and organic corn and soy to produce diets for broilers (meat-type birds), laying hens and turkeys. Many beans are high in anti-nutritive factors that may be difficult to digest by poultry. Therefore, we will use various procedures to remove anti-nutritional factors while maintaining most of the protein/methionine content. There is a continuing upward trend for consumption of organic poultry meat, eggs and their products in the U.S. Approximately 2.0% of the food supply and 1.0% of U.S. cropland is devoted to organic production of food. Some experts suggest that the organic food markets grew by 15 - 20% in previous years and upwards of 40% of U.S. consumers favor some organic food products. With 19% of national organic farms and 36% of all sales, CA, the leading agricultural state, also leads the nation in organic production of food. The state produces 14%, 47%, 58% and 14% of the organic berries, fruits, tree nuts and vegetables, respectively, for the US. CA is the second largest producers of organic chicken and laying hens and the first in production of organic turkeys.Poultry, found in many retail and conventional groceries, leads in the sale of organic meats. As the most popular organic meat, it is purchased by 73% of shoppers. Its domination of the meat market is due to a short production cycle, low price and mostly integrated production in comparison to beef or pork. Price, due to production costs, continues to outstrip demand; thus, organic poultry products remains out of reach for many in the US population. Use of organic horticultural by-products to replace part of the organic corn and soy could reduce the overall production cost. Moreover, in conjunction with beans, organic by-products can be used to improve the quality and efficiency of meat and eggs production. Many discarded by-products contain antioxidants that retard the deterioration of lipids (fats) and cholesterol in feed, post-mortem tissue and possibly in humans. For instance, α-tocopherol can be fed to broilers in diets containing tomato pomace, be stored in cell membranes of poultry muscle tissue during growth and remain in meat after processing to prevent lipid oxidation during storage, heating and freezing. Lycopene from tomato pomace can be stored in egg yolk Chlorogenic acid is an antioxidant in sweet potatoes while apples skins, another novel feed ingredient, contains more antioxidants than in the flesh of the fruit. Many "second rate" berries, larger fruits, broccoli stems/ leaves meal and nuts also contain valuable nutrients and antioxidants that could be stored in poultry meat and eggs and ultimately consumed by humans. Indeed, feeding nutrients such as antioxidants to broilers and layers, followed by tracking their deposition in meat and eggs, then monitoring their uptake in humans has received some attention by the medical profession; however, this area of research has not been sufficiently explored. Loss of nutritious by-products. Ranking third in production of fruits after China and India, the US is fourth in production of vegetables following China, India and Brazil. For US raw and processed fruits, vegetables and grains, about 23.4%, 25.4% and 32.0%, respectively, were wasted from production to consumption in 2010. While there is no separate data for loss of organic material, it is easy to realize that the loss of organic by-products will increase with demand for organic food.Reduction of depositions in landfills is a significant benefit from our research. When managing waste of any type, disposal in landfills is the seventh and last method listed after all others. Even with technical advances, post-harvest food loss remains a great concern in CA. Because CA leads the nation in the production of many fruits and vegetables, the lost in by-products is not manageable except for deposition in landfills. Increase in production of organic corn and soy. Corn and soy are major sources of protein for poultry. Feed costs for mostly corn and/or soy is 65 - 70% of the total financial input for production. With the demand for more organic poultry, use of these important crops can be extended if feed for organic poultry include organic beans and by-products. Need for extensive databases. Presently, researchers substitute one novel feedstuff for corn or soy for each investigation - a very slow process while the proof of concept for feeding by-products has been proven many times. Thus, an up-to-date database for by-products is under development in the PI's laboratory. This information is being coupled with the Nutrient Requirements of Poultry (1994) and updated information from poultry nutritionists across the
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
50%
Developmental
20%
Goals / Objectives
The ultimate overall goal is to use organic beans and horticultural by-products as sources of methionine in diets of organically-fed poultry. Three objectives are (1) to identify useful organic by-products (and beans in California (CA), (2) to create a Microsoft Access Relational Database containing nutrient content of by-products to produce feed formulations with or without corn/soy and (3) to formulate organic diets for poultry to assess production and product quality.
Project Methods
The accompanying approaches for this projects are 1. Develop a comprehensive database of nonorganic/organic cowpeas and useful by-products (with methionine content) that can be novel feedstuffs for poultry in CA. a. Exhaustively search databases and scientific publications for nutrient content of all nonorganic and organic cowpeas and useful by-products. b. Analyze foods for which nutritive information cannot be found. c. Compile data for nutrients in the comprehensive data base. 2. Create innovative approaches to feed formulation. a. Determine constraints and provide solutions for feeding nonorganic beans and useful by-products. b. Formulate combinations of feedstuffs of novel nonorganic diets for poultry (broiler or meat type poultry, laying hens and turkeys). c. Compare novel nonorganic and commercial diets by feeding them to poultry. d. Assess growth and development.3. Formulate organic diets with novel organic cowpeas and organic by-products. a. Compare novel organic and commercial diets by feeding them to poultry. b. Assess growth and development.4. Assess physiochemical and sensory properties of meat and eggs.