Animal Feed Science and Technology, 26 (1989) 45-54 45 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - - Printed in The Netherlands

Sunf lower Seed Meal, Sunf lower Oil and Full-fat Sunf lower Seeds, Hulls and Kernels for Laying Hens

H. KARUNAJEEWA, S.H. THAM and S. ABU-SEREWA

Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Animal Research Institute, Werribee, Vic. 3030 (Australia)

{Received 30 May 1988; accepted for publication 21 November 1988)

ABSTRACT

Karunajeewa, H., Tham, S.H. and Abu-Serewa, S,, 1989. Sunflower seed meal, sunflower oil and full-fat sunflower seeds, hulls and kernels for laying hens. Anita. Feed Sci. Technol., 26: 45-54.

White Leghorn × Australorp hens were given 4 layer diets containing 0, 5.79, 12.19 and 18.97% of undecorticated, oil-extracted sunflower seed meal (SSM) either with or without added sun- flower oil (SO) and 4 other diets containing either 2.35% full-fat sunflower seeds (FSS) or 1% sunflower hulls (SH) or 1% SH + SO or 2.0% sunflower kernels (SK). The laying performance of these hens was measured from 24 to 64 weeks of age.

The dietary level of SSM either with or without SO had no significant effect on either the rate of egg production or egg mass. There was a tendency for egg weight and food intake to be increased and Haugh units to be decreased by the diets containing 12.19% and 18.97% SSM. The SH re- duced egg weight and FFS reduced Haugh unit score. None of the dietary treatments had a sig- nificant effect on the rate of lay, egg mass, food conversion efficiency, body-weight gain, mortality, egg specific gravity or faecal moisture content.

INTRODUCTION

There is considerable variation in the physical and chemical characteristics of sunflower seed meal (SSM) produced in different geographical locations, particularly in its crude protein and fibre contents. This is largely due to dif- ferences between cultivars, climatic and soil conditions in the growing loca- tions and also partly to differences in oil extraction and processing methods. Consequently, there are some conflicting reports in the literature regarding the replacement value of SSM for soya-bean meal in laying diets. Rose et al. (1972) have reported that egg production was reduced when SSM replaced 100% of soya-bean protein in the laying diet. However, Deaton et al. (1979) found that the complete replacement of soya-bean meal with SSM had no sig-

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nificant effect on rate of egg production. On the other hand, several studies (Walter et al., 1959; Singh et al., 1981 ) have shown that the complete replace- ment of either soya-bean meal, meat meal or groundnut cake in diets contain- ing 2-6% fish meal had no adverse effects on the performance of laying hens. These results suggest that when diets containing SSM are adequately supple- mented with essential amino acids, particularly methionine and lysine, they can support an opt imum level of egg production.

The efficiency of current oil-extraction procedures using polar solvents is so high that SSM produced nowadays contains less than 2% oil. Srichai and Bal- nave (1981) found that egg weight was increased when 1% sunflower oil (SO) was added to a laying diet. The supplementation of diets containing SSM with SO may improve the performance of laying hens.

Unprocessed whole (full-fat) sunflower seed (FSS) at either low (Karuna- jeewa et al., 1987 ) or high (Uwayjan et al., 1983 ) dietary levels has been found to support normal egg production. However, the inclusion of low levels of FSS of the 'Peredovik' cultivar was found to reduce albumen quality of eggs (Ka- runajeewa et al., 1987). The cause of this effect is not known. It is also not known whether the factor causing this reduction in albumen quality is present in either the hull or kernel of sunflower seeds. There is little information in the literature regarding feeding laying hens on either sunflower hulls (SH) or unprocessed sunflower kernels (SK).

This paper presents the results of an experiment of 280 days duration in which the effects of 4 dietary levels of SSM either with or without added SO and low dietary levels of FSS, SH, SH + SO and SK on the laying performance of crossbred hens were measured.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Birds, housing and management

A total of 864 White Leghorn X Australorp pullets (Hazlett strain), aged 24 weeks were housed in an open-sided shed containing 288 colony cages. Three pullets were housed in each cage (44X44 cm). The cages in the shed were divided into 6 blocks and the 48 cages within each block were further sub- divided into 12 units with 4 cages of 12 pullets comprising each experimental unit. The pullets had access to food and water from nipple drinkers at all times and a day length of 16 h was provided.

Dietary treatments

The dietary t reatments consisted of the 12 experimental diets shown in Ta- ble 1, which were assigned at random to the 12 experimental units within each

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TABLE 2

Determined composition of sunflower seed meal (SSM), full-fat sunflower seeds ( FSS ), sunflower hulls (SH) and kernels (SK) used in the formulation of experimental diets (%)

Nutrient SSM FSS SH SK

Dry matter 92.0 93.0 90.9 93.9 Crude protein 32.3 20.6 4.4 31.5 Ether extract 1.1 43.4 3.3 48.2 Acid detergent fibre 27.8 23.0 60.4 15.6 Linoleic acid 0.43 24.1 1.1 25.2 Calcium 0.36 0.12 0.21 0.11 Phosphorus 0.88 0.33 0.07 0.95 Arginine 2.58 1.40 0.22 3.03 Cystine 0.53 0.33 0.07 0.54 Histidine 0.75 0.43 0.12 0.36 Isoleucine 1.46 0.72 0.17 1.38 Leucine 2.05 1.08 0.22 1.95 Lysine 1.07 0.66 0.19 1.01 Methionine 0.69 0.33 0.07 0.66 Phenylalanine 1.52 0.84 0.17 1.50 Threonine 1.28 0.68 0.17 1.17 Tryptophan 0.38 0.30 0.05 0.44 Valine 1.84 0.86 0.20 1.76

TABLE 3

The determined composition of essential and some non-essential amino acids in the experimental diets ( % of fresh weight)

Amino acid Experimental diets

1/2 3/4 5/6 7/8 9 10 11 12

Arginine 0.90 0.94 0.90 1.03 0.99 0.93 0.87 0.90 Cystine 0.27 0.30 0.29 0.30 0.29 0.30 0.28 0.28 Glycine 1.31 1.15 1.05 0.90 1.28 1.30 1.31 1.21 Histidine 0.34 0.34 0.34 0.35 0.35 0.34 0.35 0.33 Isoleucine 0.49 0.51 0.53 0.58 0.51 0.49 0.50 0.48 Leucine 1.00 0.99 0.97 1.00 1.04 0.99 1.03 0.99 Lysine 0.70 0.67 0.67 0.65 0.75 0.74 0.74 0.64 Methionine 0.30 0.33 0.32 0.36 0.34 0.32 0.32 0.29 Phenylalanine 0.65 0.65 0.66 0.70 0.66 0.63 0.67 0.64 Threonine 0.51 0.51 0.49 0.51 0.51 0.49 0.50 0.48 Tryptophan 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.20 0.18 0.17 0.17 0.18 Valine 0.73 0.74 0.73 0.77 0.76 0.75 0.76 0.70

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of the 6 blocks of cages. In Diets 1-8, undecorticated SSM progressively replaced 0, 25, 50 and 75% of the meat and bone-meal protein. At each level of SSM, the diets were formulated either with or without added SO. In Diets 9-12, 2.35% FSS, 1.0% SH, 1.0% S H + S O and 2.0% SK, respectively, were included. The kernel and hull contents of FSS were 80.1% and 19.9%, respectively. An inclu- sion level of 1.0% SH was used instead of a level (0.47%) equivalent to that in 2.35% FSS to ensure that the unground SH was distributed uniformly in the diet. It would have been necessary to grind the SH finely if a lower inclusion level (0.47%) had been used. All diets were made nearly isonitrogenous (Table 1 ) and isocaloric by adjusting the inclusion levels of wheat, barley, tallow, rice hulls and meat and bone meal. The calculated apparent metabolizable energy content of the diets was 11.75 MJ kg -1. The composition of the sunflower products, which were obtained from one commercial source at the same time, is shown in Table 2 and the amino-acid composition of the diets is given in Table 3.

Measurements and analyses

The birds were weighed individually at the start and end of the experiment. Egg production in each group of birds was recorded daily and the food con- sumption for each experimental unit was measured at 28-day intervals. All deaths were recorded daily and the cause of death was determined. In each 28- day period, all eggs collected on 3 consecutive days were weighed and 4 eggs selected at random from each experimental unit (i.e. a total of 240 eggs per treatment in 10 periods) were used for measurement of specific gravity, Haugh units and yolk colour. Specific gravity of eggs was measured by the flotation method described by Wells (1968). Yolk colour was measured visually by one person using the Roche Colour Fan issued in 1979.

The faeces from each experimental unit were collected over a 24-h period by placing trays, lined with aluminium foil of known weight, underneath the cages. The faeces collected on the aluminium foil were weighed and dried in a forced draught oven at 100°C for 48 h. The dried faeces were then cooled down to room temperature and weighed.

The proximate, fatty acids, mineral element and amino-acid analyses of the diets and feed ingredients were carried out as described previously (Karuna- jeewa and Tham, 1987). Samples from 5 batches of each diet were pooled for analysis. The data were subjected to an analysis of variance and the significant differences between means were determined using Duncan's multiple range test. Regression analyses of the data for the treatments with graded levels of SSM were carried out using the Genstat V computer program (Copyright 1984 Lawes Agricultural Trust, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Gt. Britain ).

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RESULTS

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T h e l a y i n g p e r f o r m a n c e d a t a a r e p r e s e n t e d i n T a b l e 4. V a r y i n g t h e d i e t a r y

l e v e l s o f S S M , e i t h e r w i t h o r w i t h o u t S O , h a d n o s i g n i f i c a n t e f f e c t o n r a t e o f

l ay , e g g m a s s , b o d y w e i g h t g a i n , f o o d c o n v e r s i o n e f f i c i e n c y o r m o r t a l i t y . A n a l -

y s e s o f t h e d a t a f o r T r e a t m e n t s 1 - 8 i n t h e f o r m o f a 4 ( S S M l e v e l s ) × 2 ( S O

l e v e l s ) f a c t o r i a l s h o w e d t h a t e g g w e i g h t s ( P < 0 .05 ) a n d f o o d i n t a k e s ( P < 0.01 )

TABLE 5

The effect of sunflower seed meal (SSM), sunflower oil (SO), full-fat sunflower seeds (FSS), hulls (SH) and kernels (SK) on egg yolk colour, Haugh units and faecal moisture content

Diet~'-Treatment Yolk colour b Haugh Specific Faecal moisture (score) units L~ gravity ( % )

1-0% SSM 10.3 aL'' 79.0 a 1.087 78.0 2-0% SSM + SO 10.2 I'` 77.8 a 1.085 74.1 3 5.79% SSM 10.5 ab 77.6 a 1.087 74.8 4-5.79% SSM + SO 10.5 ab 77.3 a 1.086 74.9 5-12.19% SSM 10.6 a 76.5 a 1.086 77.1 6-12.19 % SSM + SO 10.4 a'" 77.5 a 1.086 76.1 7 18.97% SSM 10.5 ab 77.2 a 1.087 74.9 8-18.97% SSM + SO 10.2 ~ 76.7 ~ 1.086 74.2 9 2.35% FSS 10.3 h~ 71.8 b 1.085 76.5

10 1.0% SH 10.0 ~ 79.0 ~ 1.085 75.2 11 - 1.0% SH + SO 10.2 bC 77.2 a 1.086 75.3 12-2.0% SK 10.V 76.5 ~ 1.086 75.0 SEM (55) ' 0.09 0.77 0.0006 1.31

Means for SSM levels 0% 10.3 78.4 1.086 76.0 5.79% 10.5 77.5 1.086 74.8

12.19% 10.5 77.0 1.086 76.7 18.97% 10.3 77.0 1.087 74.6

L.S.D. (P=0.05) 0.2 1.5 0.001 2.6

Means for SO None 10.5 77.6 1.087 76.2 Added 10.3 77.3 1.086 74.8

L.S.D. (P=0.05) 0.1 1.1 0.001 1,9

Significance of interaction NS NS NS NS ( S S M × S O ) d

'tSee Table 1 for composition of diets. bWithin columns, mean values for Diets 1-12 not having similar superscripts are significantly different (P<0.05) . "SEM = standard error of means with the degrees of freedom in parentheses. '~NS = P > 0.05.

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on the two higher levels of SSM were different from those on the two lower levels. Regression analyses also showed that egg weight ( r = 0.40, P < 0.01 ) and food intake (r = 0.33, P < 0.05 ) were correlated with dietary level of SSM. But rate of lay, body weight gain, food conversion efficiency and mortality were not significantly correlated with dietary levels of SSM. The regression equations for egg weight (Yew) and food intake (Yfi) were Yew (g) =57.21+0.08 X and Yfl (g day- 1 ) = 117.6 + 0.22 X (where X = % SSM ), respectively.

The inclusion of either FSS or SK had no significant effect on any of the production characteristics except food intake. The lowest egg weights were on the diets containing 1% SH either without or with SO (Diets 10 and 11, re- spectively). The egg weights on these 2 diets, however, were not significantly different from those for the control Diets 1 and 2, but were different (P < 0.05 ) from those for Diets 5, 6, 8 and 9.

The effects of the dietary treatments on egg yolk colour, Haugh units, spe- cific gravity and faecal moisture content are shown in Table 5. In general, egg yolk colour was lower on diets with SO, SH and SK than on the other diets. The lowest yolk colour was on the diet with SH (Diet 10) followed by the diet with SK (Diet 12 ). However, these values did not differ significantly from the control treatment (Diet 1 ). The Haugh unit score of eggs in dietary Treatment 9, containing FSS, was lower (P < 0.01 ) than that on all the other treatments. Regression analysis showed that the Haugh unit scores were negatively cor- related (r=-0.30, P<0.05) with the dietary level of SSM. The regression equation was Y=78.15-0.075 X (where X=% SSM). The regression anal- yses of the data on other egg quality variables were not significant.

Neither the specific gravity of eggs nor the moisture content of the faeces were significantly affected by any of the dietary treatments. There were also no significant interactions between the dietary levels of SSM and SO on any of the variables measured.

DISCUSSION

The results presented show that SSM can replace up to 75% of the meat and bone-meal protein in a laying diet without causing any adverse effect on egg production. This is in general agreement with the findings of other workers (Walter et al., 1959; Deaton et al., 1979; Singh et al., 1981) who found that SSM could replace soya-bean meal, meat meal and groundnut meal in laying diets, provided the nutrient requirements for egg production were met by ad- equate supplementation of these diets with essential nutrients, particularly amino acids and energy. Although the SSM used in our experiment contained only 32% crude protein (Table 2) compared with the 36% and 41% in the SSM used in the studies of Deaton et al. (1979) and Walter et al. (1959), respec- tively, it was possible to include up to 19% of this low-protein, high-fibre SSM

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in the laying diet and still maintain a satisfactory level of egg production. This level of production on these diets might not have been achieved without sup- plementing them with methionine, lysine and tallow (Table 1).

The lack of an egg weight response (Table 4) to the addition of SO to the SSM diets is surprising as the increase in linoleic acid concentration was of similar magnitude to that in the experiment of Srichai and Balnave (1981). Shannon and Whitehead (1974) and Whitehead (1981) also failed to dem- onstrate an egg weight response to increasing levels of dietary linoleic acid but recently Scragg et ah (1987) found that brown-egg layers responded with an increase in egg weight with increasing intake of linoleic acid. These inconsis- tent responses to dietary linoleic acid may be related to genetic differences, as Balnave and Brown (1968) found that different strains of hens responded dif- ferently to dietary linoleic acid. The increase in egg weight on the diets with the two higher levels of SSM may be associated with the increase in food intake and the concomitant increase in nutrient intake, particularly methionine, on these diets.

The low egg weights on the diets with 1% SH (Table 4) were not caused by a deficiency of any amino acids as these diets contained adequate levels of' all essential amino acids (Table 3). However, this reduction of egg weight may have been owing to the tannins or other polyphenols in the hulls (SH) lower- ing the digestibility of dietary protein. Although SSM contains a fair amount of hulls, it does not have the same effect on egg weight as the unprocessed hulls. It appears that the oil-extraction procedure either inactivates or removes from the hulls the factor which causes the reduction in egg weight.

The significant reduction in the Haugh units of eggs laid by hens given the diet containing 2.35% FSS was expected, as a similar effect was observed in a previous experiment when unprocessed, raw FSS of the 'Peredovik' cultivar (Karunajeewa et al., 1987) was given to hens for more than 8 weeks. The lack of a similar response when either SH or SK was included in the diet indicates that the heat generated during the dehulling of sunflower seeds may have in- activated the antinutritional factor (s) responsible for reducing albumen qual- ity in eggs. There was, however, a tendency for Haugh units to decrease with increasing dietary levels of SSM. This suggests that SSM may also contain a low concentration of the factor causing a reduction in albumen quality of eggs. Further studies with raw FSS are necessary to isolate and identify the factor or factors causing a reduction in albumen quality of eggs. It is of practical significance to note that despite their high fibre content (Table 2) neither SSM nor the other sunflower products had any adverse effects on body weight gain, mortality, egg shell quality or on the moisture content of the droppings.

It is concluded that SSM containing 32% crude protein and 28% acid deter- gent fibre could satisfactorily replace up to 75% of meat and bone-meal protein in laying diets adequately supplemented with essential amino acids and energy. There were no beneficial effects from adding sunflower oil to increase the lin- oleic acid concentration from 0.58% to 1.0% in diets given to crossbred hens

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of the Haz le t t strain. The inclusion of S H as a filler mater ia l or as a low-energy feed ingredient in laying diets m ay cause a reduc t ion in egg size, and raw FFS and high d ie tary levels of S S M are likely to cause a reduc t ion in a lbumen qual- i ty when given to hens over a long per iod of t ime.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The au thor s t h a n k C.J. R a y n e r and P. Wu for the amino acid and minera l analyses, and A. H o f m a n n and P.A. Har r i s for their technica l assistance. Th i s work was suppor ted in pa r t by funds f rom the Pou l t r y Research Council .

REFERENCES

Balnave, D. and Brown, W.O., 1968. A study of the separate effects of energy intake and dietary corn oil on egg production and egg size in essential fatty acid-deficient hens fed a semi-purified diet. Poult. Sci., 47: 1212-1218.

Deaton, J.W., McNaughton, J.L. and Burdick, D., 1979. High-fibre sunflower meal as a replace- ment for soybean meal in layer diets. Br. Poult. Sci., 20: 159-162.

Karunajeewa, H. and Tham, S.H., 1987. The influence of oat groats and dietary level of lysine on the laying performance of crossbred hens. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol., 17: 271-283.

Karunajeewa, H., Serewa, S.A., Tham, S.H. and Eason, P., 1987. The effects of dietary level of sunflower seeds and lysine on egg quality and laying performance of White Leghorn hens. J. Sci. Food Agric., 14: 325-333.

Rose, R.J., Coit, R.N. and Sell, J.L., 1972. Sunflower seed meal as a replacement for soybean meal protein in laying hen rations. Poult. Sci., 51: 960-967.

Scragg, R.H., Logan, N.B. and Geddes, N., 1987. Response of egg weight to the inclusion of various fats in layer diets. Br. Poult. Sci., 28: 15-21.

Shannon, D.W.F. and Whitehead, C.C., 1974. Lack of a response in egg weight or output to in- creasing levels of linoleic acid in practical layer's diets. J. Sci. Food Agric., 25: 553-561.

Singh, K.S., Prasad, C.M. and Brahmakshatriva, R.D., 1981. Feeding value of sunflower and groundnut, cakes for laying hens. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol., 6: 63-71.

Srichai, Y. and Balnave, D., 1981. Egg weight responses in dietary supplementation with sunflower oil and rice pollard. Aust. J. Agric. Res., 32: 183-188.

Uwayjan, M,G., Azar, E.J. and Daghir, N.J., 1983. Sunflower seed in laying hen rations. Poult. Sci., 62: 1247-1253.

Walter, E.D., Lindblad, G.S. and Aitken, J.R., 1959. The value of sunflower seed oil meal as a protein supplement for laying hens. Can. J. Anim. Sci., 39: 45-49.

Wells, R.G., 1968. The measurements of certain egg quality characteristics: A review. In: T.C. Carter (Editor), Egg Quality: A Study of the Hen's Egg. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, pp. 207- 250.

Whitehead, C.C., 1981. The response of egg weight to the inclusion of different amounts of vege- table oil and linoleic acid in the diet of laying hens. Br. Poult. Sci., 22: 525-532.