Feedstuffs

Feedstuff Feed supplements Feely-Beavers procedure Feen-a-Mint Fe4[Fe(CN)6]3xH20 FEFO... 

Since feeds contain other substances than those required by the animals of interest, studies have also been conducted on antinutritional factors in feedstuffs and on the use of additives. Certain feed ingredients contain chemicals that retard growth or may actually be toxic. Examples are gossypol in cottonseed meal and trypsin inhibitor in soybean meal. Restriction on the amount of the feedstuffs used is one way to avoid problems. In some cases, as is tme of trypsin inhibitor, proper processing can destroy the antinutritional factor. In this case, heating of soybean meal is effective. 

Feedstuff s Reference Issue, Miller Publishing Co., Minnetonka, Minn., 1991. 

Various sources of lipid have been incorporated into ruminant diets to increase the energy density and provide the large amount of energy needed for slaughter animals to achieve market weight or for dairy cows to produce milk (see Milk and milkproducts). Fats also reduce the dustiness of feeds, increase the feedstuffs abiUty to pellet, and improve feed acceptabiUty. 

Legume forages, such as alfalfa or clover, are considered high quaHty, readily available protein sources. Animal sources of supplemental protein include meat and bone meal blood meal, 80% CP fish meal other marine products and hydroly2ed feathermeal, 85—90% CP. Additionally, synthetic amino acids are available commercially. Several sources (3,9,19) provide information about the protein or amino acid composition of feedstuffs. 

Vitamins A, D, and E are required by mminants and, therefore, their supplementation is sometimes necessary. Vitamin A [68-26-8] is important in maintaining proper vision, maintenance and growth of squamous epitheHal ceUs, and bone growth (23). Vitamin D [1406-16-2] is most important for maintaining proper calcium absorption from the small intestine. It also aids in mobilizing calcium from bones and in optimizing absorption of phosphoms from the small intestine (23). Supplementation of vitamins A and D at their minimum daily requirement is recommended because feedstuffs are highly variable in their content of these vitamins. 

By approximately 8 weeks after birth, the mminant has developed a fully functional mmen capable of extensive fermentation of feed nutrients (4). The rate of development of the mminal environment depends on the amount of milk consumed by the neonate in relation to its growth requirements, the avadabihty and consumption of readily digestible feedstuffs, and the physical form of the feedstuffs (4). The mmen develops much faster with hay than with milk (36). Concentrates, ie, high cereal grain diets, increase the absorptive surface of the mmen but mminal size and musculature develops much more slowly with a concentrate diet than with a forage diet (4). 

The nutritional value of a proteia can be improved by the addition of amino acids of low abundance ia that proteia. Thus the fortification of plant proteias such as wheat, com, and soybean with L-lysiae, DL-methionine, or other essential amino acids (L-tryptophan and L-threonine) is expected to alleviate some food problems (11). Such fortification has been widespread ia the feedstuff of domestic animals. 

Table 12. Umiting Amino Acids of Some Common Feedstuffs for Pig and Chicken. ...

Sorbic acid is not only suitable for preservation of feedstuffs but also improves the feed utilisation and weight gain of chickens. This has proven to be of economic value under practical conditions when sorbic acid is added to the feed at 0.02—0.04 wt % (143—145). Similar effects have been observed for the use of sorbic acid in swine feeds (146). 

Talc is sold for use in a wide variety of appHcations, including paper (qv), ceramics (qv), roofing, paint (qv), plastics, mbber (qv), cosmetics (qv), pharmaceuticals (qv), adhesives (qv), sealants (qv), and animal feedstuffs (see Feeds and feed additives). In all of these appHcations it is a functional ingredient with specific beneficial properties. Talc is rarely used as a filler because it is much more expensive than alternative minerals such as limestone and clay. 

Carotenoids are also used as pigments and dietary supplements in animals and poultry feedstuffs. They are added to pharmaceutical products to provide a form of control during manufacturing and to distinguish one product from another. They also enhance the aesthetic aspects of the products (210). 

Copper compounds are used as feed additives in Europe and the United States primarily for chickens and swine (see Feeds and feed additives) (90,91). Copper increases the rate of gain and feed efficiencies of the animals. It is unclear whether this results from overcoming animal deficiencies or by enhancing preservation of feedstuffs. 

The effects of drugs in animals are usually concentration dependent and are also often animal species and site-of-action dependent " " " thus the compounds may be present naturally in diets at low levels and produce no obvious adverse effects, either on the animal, gut microflora, meat, milk or eggs. The main purpose of the use of drugs in animal feeds is to improve the animal health and welfare and often to improve growth at minimum cost to the producer.In the case of naturally produced compounds that may occur in the feedstuff s of animals, these compounds may impair animal health and performance as well as cause im-... 

In another case, a manufacturer of animal feedstuffs bought a starch additive from a Dutch company for incorporation in a milk substitute for calves. The Dutch company was out of stock, so it asked its UK affiliate company to supply the additive the Dutch company quoted the product number. Unfortunately, the UK affiliate used this number to describe a different additive, which was highly toxic. As a result, 68,000 calves were affected, and 4,600 died. Chemicals (and equipment) should be ordered by name and not just by a catalog number [6]. 

Production in the USA is 350000 tonnes annually of which 30% is used in baking-powder formulations, 20% in animal feedstuffs, 15% in chemicals manufacture, 11% in pharmaceuticals, 9% in fire extinguishers and the remaiiung 15% in the textile, leather and paper industries and in soaps, detergents and neutralizing agents. 

This, then, was the scene in which SCP projects were planned in Europe. The need for alternative foods and feedstuffs was clear and, in the UK and elsewhere, oil and gas seemed a plentiful and cheap resource from which to produce them. North Sea gas fields were being exploited and research had shown that natural gas or its derivatives could be used to produce SCP feed of superior protein content to conventional feedstuffs. The economics of such processes seemed very promising. In 1971 the European prices for fish meal and soya meal were 200 and 100 per ton respectively. In 1973 oil price rises and a failure in the Peruvian fish meal supply pushed these prices up to 550 and 300 respectively. With such prices for the major feedstuffs it was considered that SCP feeds could be produced competitively. 

The selling price of the SCP must be the same as or less than competing food and feedstuffs The price of conventional competing protein feeds is 0.80 per kg protein. The price of conventional competing high-protein food additives is 155 per kg proton. For a meat substitute, the SCP can be priced at 1.05 per kg biomass. 

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