Oligosaccharides in Monogastric Diets

The main aim of this article is to explore a category of carbohydrates referred to as oligosaccharides, particularly emphasizing their presence in soybean meal when considering dietary considerations for broiler chickens.

The main oligosaccharides present in soybean meal are raffinose and stachyose. Both are formed by short chains of galactose, glucose, and fructose that bond together. Overall, these compounds beneficially influence the intestinal microbiota, although they can cause negative effects as they are considered anti-quality factors.

While corn typically serves as the predominant raw material in diets by volume, soybean meal accounts for approximately 35% (Rostagno et al., 2017) of feed formulations designed for broiler chickens.

Worldwide, during the 2022/23 harvest, slightly over 369 million tons of soybeans were produced, with Brazil taking the lead in production, followed by the United States (USDA, 2023).

As per the National Supply Company (Conab, 2023), in the 2022/23 harvest, the production reached around 155 million tons, with notable soybean-producing states being Mato Grosso, Paraná, Goiás, and Rio Grande do Sul (Table 1).

Table 1. Production indices of soybean grains in the main states of Brazil.

Adapted from Conab (2023).

In a study by Ibánez et al. (2020), the authors assessed research investigating the chemical composition and protein quality of soybean meal from 2002 to 2018 across several countries, including major producers like Brazil, the United States, Argentina, and India. Their findings demonstrated variations in the chemical composition of soybean meal, including oligosaccharides, depending on the geographic origin and processing methods, as outlined in Table 2.

Table 2. Nutritional composition and protein quality of soybean meal from different geographical origins.

1 FDN – Neutral detergent fiber 2 KOH – Protein solubility in KOH 3 TIA – Trypsin inhibitor activity 4 AU – Urease activity