Groundnut meal

Raw groundnuts contain 400-550 g/kg oil. Groundnut meal is the ground product of shelled groundnuts, composed principally of the kernels, with such portion of the hull, or fibre and oil remaining after oil extraction by a mechanical extraction process. Mechanically extracted meal may contain 50-70g/kg oil, and thus tends to become rancid during storage, especially... 

Both groundnuts and groundnut meal have been used successfully in poultry diets. However, productivity of growing and laying birds has generally been reduced when more than 50% of the protein from soybean meal has been replaced by groundnut meal, unless supplemented with protein sources rich in lysine and methionine (El-Boushy and Raterink, 1989 Ravindran and Blair, 1992 Amaefule and Osuagwu, 2005). 

Nzekwe, N.M. and Olomu, J.M. (1984) Cottonseed meal as a substitute for groundnut meal in the rations of laying chickens and growing turkeys. Journal of Animal Production Research 4, 57-71. 

Ingredients used to make duck diets are similar to those used in chicken diets, except that groundnut meal should be avoided because it is often contaminated with aflatoxin (a mycotoxin). Ducks are highly sensitive to this aflatoxin, particularly when diets are low in protein. In addition, canola meal may have to be used at low levels only because ducks are more sensitive to erucic acid and goitiogens than are chickens. 

Modified to avoid the inclusion of groundnut meal, meat-and-bone meal and pure methionine in the original formulas. 

Mycotoxins generally affect the liver (hepatotoxins) or the kidney (nephro-toxins). The problem of mycotoxins in poultry was highlighted in 1960 when more than 100,000 turkey poults in the UK died from what was called Turkey X disease (Blount, 1961). At post-mortem the turkeys were found to be suffering from enteritis with engorged kidneys and /or hepatitis. Bacteriological examinations were negative. The problem was eventually found to be due to aflatoxin contamination in groundnut meal imported from Brazil. 

Roch, O. G., Blunden, G., Coker, R. D., and Nawaz, S. 1992. The development and validation of a solid phase extraction/HPLC method for the determination of aflatoxins in groundnut meal, Chromatographia, 33 208-212. 

Allcroft, R., and Carnaghan, R. B. A. (1963). Groundnut toxicity An examination for toxin in human products from animals fed toxic groundnut meal. Vet. Rec. 75, 259-263. 

Legume and oil seeds, groundnut meal and soybean meal... 

In the case of aflatoxins, detailed methods will vary from one commodity to another. Thus, defatted hazel nuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts, groundnuts, or groundnut meal, can be extracted directly with chloroform after the addition of a small volume of water, whereas cottonseed and cottonseed products are best extracted initially with aqueous acetone and the aflatoxins subsequently partitioned into chloroform. Established procedures for aflatoxins that illustrate these principles include ... 

The specificity of monoclonal antibodies make it possible to develop an analytical method for a single mycotoxin, such as aflatoxin Bi in maize and groundnut meal, or aflatoxin Mj in milk and milk products. Even within chemically closely related structures such as the Fusarium trichothecenes there is very little cross-reactivity between a monoclonal raised to a single toxin such as T-2 toxin and other members of the family. Thus, a monoclonal raised against 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol showed negligible cross-reactivity with deoxynivalenol, nivalenol, or T-2 toxin. 

Clegg, E. G. and Bryson, H. 1962. An outbreak of poisoning in stored cattle attributed to Brazilian groundnut meal. Vet. Rec. 74 992-994. 

The seeds of the groundnut are borne in pods, usually in pairs or threes. The seeds contain 250-300 g/kg of crude protein and 350-600 g/kg of lipid material. The pod or husk is largely fibrous. Groundnut meal is now usually made from the kernels, and only occasionally is the whole pod used as the source of an undecorticated meal. The most common method of extraction is screw pressing, giving a meal with 50-100 g/kg of oil. Lower oil levels can be achieved only by solvent extraction, but this has to be preceded by screw pressing to reduce the initially high oil content. The composition of the meal will depend on the raw material and the method of extraction used. 

Discuss the antinutritive factors present in groundnut meal and sheanut meal and explain how these limit their inclusion in farm animal diets. 

In 1960, some 100,000 turkeys in Great Britain were affected by aflatoxin from groundnut meal. Kenji Uraguchi and MikioYamazaki, Toxicology, Biochemistry and Pathology ofMycotoxins (New York John Wiley Sons 1978) p. 7. 

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