Nutritional characterization of peas (Pisum sativum) for poultry feeding and effect of microwave deactivation.
Feed impacts 55% of total poultry production costs (Nahara, 2018).
Currently, this sector faces a new and challenging scenario: the increase in the price of traditional ingredients.
Internationally, corn and soybeans showed a price increase of 88% and 57% in the last 24 months, respectively (IndexMundi, 2022).
This price increase has created the need to look for alternative ingredients in order to reduce production costs.
Peas, (Pisum sativum)represent a viable alternative to be used as a replacement for conventional ingredients in animal feed. Argentina’s INASE (National Seed Institute, 2022) has more than 87 registered varieties that can be green or yellow.
The most common cultivars in Argentina, are: Viper (green peas) and Yams (yellow peas) (Prieto, 2009).
Pea grains have the potential to be considered as ingredients for animal feed. These are characterized by:
High crude protein content (20-26%)
Good palatability
Low content of antinutritional factors (Galméus, 2012; de Blas et al. , 2019).
Their protein content is mainly composed of albumins and globulins. They are deficient in sulfur amino acids and tryptophan, but rich in lysine.
The digestibility of protein and amino acids is similar to that of soybean meal. They have a low fat content and a high starch content (42-51%) (de Blas et al., 2019).
Generally speaking, legumes are characterized by the presence of anti-nutritional factors, such as:
Trypsin inhibitors
Phyto-hemaglutinins
Cyanogenic glycosides
Saponins
Alkaloids
Non Protein Amino Acids (Cubero & Moreno, 1983; Monari, 1996),which negatively affect the productive performance of birds (Iglesias & Azcona, 2012).
Researchers from INTA carried out a study to evaluate the nutritional composition of certain pea varieties.
Objectives
Characterize the nutritional composition of two different pea cultivars(green and yellow).
Assess the effects of microwave deactivation.
Materials and methods
Pea samples were taken from the Viper and Yams cultivars, green and yellow respectively, from the 2019 and 2020 campaigns grown in Argentina. The following parameters were determined:
Dry Matter
Crude Protein (CP) through the Kjeldahl method
Ether Extract (EE) extracted through the use of hexane
Crude Fiber (CF)
Ashes
Starch
Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) was also determined...