⠀ Animal Protien

[Fentress]

Chickens are omnivores, but chicken feed does not contain animal protien. In fact, the label clearly states that animal products are not included, so an all vegetarian feed is actually part of the marketing. Why is this? Thanks.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

i have heard lots of people liking/thinking that vegetarian chickens are healthier or something...i totally disagree

 

[Chris09]

Chickens are omnivores, but chicken feed does not contain animal protien. In fact, the label clearly states that animal products are not included, so an all vegetarian feed is actually part of the marketing. Why is this? Thanks.

Most "chicken" feed doesn't contain animal proteins, but the better feeds do.
I my self feed a good game bird feed and it contains animal proteins.

My way of thinking is if it doesn't contain animal proteins it just not worth buying.

As for why some don't have animal proteins, expense is one reason and I believe the main reason.
Feed mfg.'s want to make a "less expensive" feed, so they cheep out on the animal proteins.

 

[Fred's Hens]

For 9 months of the year up here, there are no bugs. Animal protein feed is a must for us. It is my understanding that if the animal proteins are absent, the replacements are artificial additives to compensate. This is merely oft repeated info, not my own personal knowledge.

Since I have seen my birds eat all the gross things that chickens eat, I'm not concerned about the "bits and parts" that make up the animal protein. Not in the least.

I've seen cannibalism among birds in flocks I've inspected and that is hardly a pleasant thing to witness. Chickens are indeed descended from the dinosaurs and aren't too worried about the "bits and parts". Just my own experiences.

My local feed mill sells several feeds, grower, layer, gamebird, etc with animal protein content.

 

[Ridgerunner]

One of the requirements for “organic certified” chickens is that they cannot be fed animal slaughter byproducts. Some people read that as they have to be vegetarian, but that is not the case. It just can’t be animal slaughter byproducts. It can be other animal products and if they are pastured, they certainly will eat other animal products. My best link is slow to load this morning so I’ll use this so you can see what the organic requirements are. I really prefer going directly to the USDA site for this so it is more authentic but this reads the same.

http://www.extension.org/pages/69041/requirements-for-organic-poultry-production#.VP7vlRE5CUk

Some feeds, like the Dumors that I use, list animal proteins or animal products as the fourth item on ingredients. I’m sure that is animal slaughter byproducts. It’s a way to recycle those wastes and keep feed costs down. Many feeds offered do contain animal byproducts. You may need to extend your purchasing network to find one. That means shop in other places to get what you want if where you are shopping does not carry it.

I grew up on a farm where chickens free ranged. I saw what they eat when given a choice. Animal slaughter byproducts does not concern me a bit, though I know some people will give you all kinds of reasons why they are horrible. I understand they are coming from commercial slaughter operations but it still does not concern me.

If you look through that link above, you will see that the second thing on the list that is allowed is supplements necessary for their health. I can’t remember which it is off the top of my head but one thing they are talking about for chickens is a specific protein that comes from animal products. If you don’t feed animal products, then you have to supplement the feed with that protein, even if it is man-made. “Organic certified” chickens allows a man-made product because it is necessary for their health.

Why is an all-vegetarian feed marketed? Because many people want the very best for their chickens, money no object, and marketing has made some people think that vegetarian is the healthiest way to go, whether it is organic or not. If there is a marketing niche for vegetarian feeds someone will fill that niche. It’s called free enterprise. Hopefully it has the supplements to keep them healthy.

 

[Fentress]

Quote: thanks for the response. Although, I can not be convinced that any omnivore should not eat both animal and plant foods.

 

[Ifish]

This is interesting. I have been under the impression that corn gluten is a cheap source of protein. Hence why it is being used so much in animal feeds. I had not known that Synthetic Amino Acids are being put into the feeds to complete the proteins. So we hear all the time that the body of the human or animal can't tell the difference between synthetic and natural because they metabolize the same.

So other than Marketing Purposes, I see no upside to the vegetarian chicken feeds, and would love to see a By-Product meal in place of Synthetic Amino Acids. I would think that a balanced diet of long and short chain acids from natural sources would be cheaper and better for the chicken. This is just my opinion of course.

 

[Chris09]

2436 Broilers
Vegetable protein diets are cheaper and safer than animal protein diets but do broiler chickens like them equally? And is their performance the same or better? Australian researchers came up with an answer at the World Poultry Congress in Brazil. Their 
conclusion, as they call it, is a setback for the industry.

By M.M. Bhuiyan, and P.A. Iji, School of Environmental & Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia and G. Clatworthy, Inghams Enterprise, Leppington NSW, Sydney, Australia
Cereal grains like wheat, barley, sorghum and maize are the main energy sources used by the Australian poultry industry. Protein and its constituent amino acids are mainly provided by vegetable sources such as soybean, canola, peas, sunflower, and also animal by-products, particularly meat meal. Vegetable protein (VP) sources are typically unbalanced in amino acids although there are significant differences in quality between these sources, soybean being generally regarded as the best of the lot.
The inclusion rate of VP sources may also be limited by the presence of anti-nutritive factors such as phytic acid, enzyme-inhibitors and other compounds that directly affect digestion or nutrient metabolism. Animal by-products like meat meal, meat-and-bone meal, blood meal, fish meal and 
feather meal are higher in protein content and their amino acids are more balanced than those of plant sources. These by-products are therefore 
included at up to a level of 10% in 
traditional poultry diets.
In recent years, the use of animal by-products has come under review and such materials have been banned in the European Union. Poultry tend to benefit the most from the use of animal by-products in the diet, and tend to suffer less directly from some of the zoonotic diseases, unlike cattle and other ruminant species, unless the 
animal by-product is poorly processed. There has been little research to 
compare VP diets to traditional diets and results of these are conflicting. There has been more research on the possibilities of replacing more 
expensive vegetable sources like 
soybean with alternatives like canola, peanut, sunflower and lupins.

Feeding different protein diets

The experiment was a 2×2×2 factorial design, with diets based on VP or AP; with or without microbial enzymes, and fed to male (initial weight, 44.9±0.9 g) or female (initial weight, 45±0.9 g) chicks. A total of 720 day-old 
Ross-308 broiler chicks were randomly allocated to eight treatments, each 
replicated six times with 15 birds in each replicate, on floor pens. Sixty other chicks (mixed-sex) were reared to 14 days, at which point, they were randomly allocated to VP or AP diets, both supplemented with microbial enzymes, each replicated six times. This sub-experiment was conducted to assess feed selection by the chicks. The latter were reared on grower diet and then on finisher diet at 14-21 and 21-28 days of age, respectively. The basal AP diets contained mainly wheat (≤36.0%), sorghum (≤36.5%), millrun (5.0%), meat meal (≤10.0%), soybean meal (≤27.0%), canola meal (4.0%) and cottonseed meal (4.0%) plus fixed minor ingredients. The VP diets 
contained no millrun and meat meal while mono-dicalcium phosphate was excluded from the AP diets. Both sets of diets were iso-caloric (12.45, 12.55, 12.70 and 12.70 MJ/kg at the starter, grower, finisher and withdrawal phases, respectively). During the same phases, the protein contents were 229.0, 210.0, 194.0 and 181.0 g/kg diet, respectively. The gross responses of the birds in terms of feed intake, growth and feed conversion efficiency were assessed every seven days.

A clear preference

Feed intake to 21 days was reduced by 6% on the VP diets (Table 1). This was increased by enzyme supplementation of the VP diets (1-3%) but reduced on the AP diets. Live weight at 21 days was reduced by 3-4% on the VP diets and increased by the enzyme supplements (4%). The VP diet resulted in a 1% improvement in feed conversion ratio and this was further improved (4%) by enzyme supplements. Flock uniformity at 14 days was better on the AP diets (around 2%) and was increased by enzyme supplementation of the VP diets (3%).
Over the entire feeding period (42 days), feed intake on the VP diets was about 10% lower than on the AP diet but was improved, by 5-6%, through enzyme supplementation (Table 2). Live weight was reduced by up to 6% on the VP diet, but improved (5%) by enzyme supplementation. Feed conversion ratio was better (by 1%) on the VP diets and further improved (2.5%) by enzyme supplements. Flock uniformity at 28 days was better (1%) on VP diets and increased (1%) by enzyme supplements.
Birds generally preferred the AP diet when given a choice (Figure 1). On 
the grower diet, birds ate 62% of AP and 38% of VP, while on the finisher diets; the selection was 82 and 18%, respectively. Preference was significant in the grower (P<0.01) and finisher (P<0.001) periods.

No sweeping conclusions

The feed intake and body weight gain of birds were lower while on VP based diets than on the AP diet. However, there is an inconsistency in results obtained by different researchers working with different feed formulations, which is a setback for the industry, as it makes it difficult to make sweeping conclusions on the nutritive value of VP diets. The quality of such diets would depend on the basal ingredients that are used in the formulation and also how close the nutrient profiles of the diets are to one another. Often, it is 
difficult to have such similarities in 
profiles due to the differences in concentrations of nutrients in the plant protein sources compared to AP sources. The former sources are known to be unbalanced in nutrients, particularly, amino acids. In the present study, the diets were similar in energy, protein, minerals and key amino acids. This is responsible for the similarity in response of the birds on the two sets of diets.
When offered a choice, the birds preferred AP diets to VP diets and no clear reason was established for this preference. The key minerals that would affect feed intake are Na, Cl and Zn. In the present study, there were no marked differences in concentrations of Na and Cl, but slight differences in Zn content. It is not certain if this difference in Zn is large enough to cause the amount of aversion for VP diets that were recorded. Based on the level of performance observed on the VP diets, it is possible that this performance can be further increased, to completely close the gap between VP and AP diets. Such a scenario would be dependent on biotechnical intervention, including some further processing of the plant protein sources, prior to inclusion in the diet or use of appropriate nutrient supplements in the diet.
The microbial enzymes, which were tested in the current study marginally improved performance, particularly on the VP diets but were not effective enough, as to completely close the gap between these diets and the AP diets. It may have been possible, for example to recommend a more appropriate microbial enzyme if the patterns of nutrient digestibility were determined. Litter quality was not different between the two diet groups.
The results of this study have strong implications for the Australian meat chicken industry to utilise broiler diets solely based on vegetable ingredients. The major hindrance to the use of such diets by the industry is feed cost. However, there is an opportunity to develop VP diet formulation and a niche market for broiler products that are labelled as completely raised on VP diet. This product is almost on the same pedestal as free range or organic farming. This could be a new direction to explore the chicken industry.

• Chickens prefer animal protein diets

by Fabian Brockotter Sep 24, 2013

 

[Vian]

I've heard some farmer's say that they use an all vegetarian feed because feeds with animal proteins in them are usually in the form of "Animal by products" and "by product meal" so it's all the gross leftover bits and pieces. There's no way to know the quality of it. The farmer I get my eggs from (until my new chicks start laying their own in a few months) feeds a vegetarian diet, but the chickens are pastured, so they are out in the grass with access to bugs and whatever else they can dig up. When I used to have chickens, they would even eat mice, especially pinkie mice.

 

[justplainbatty]

My understanding was that animal protein and molasses based feeds have a shorter shelf life IE rancid. Any truth to that?