Evaluation of Bio-V-Pro® as an Alternative Protein Source in Broiler Diets

1 Address reprint requests to In K. Han. 2 National Livestock Co-operatives Federation, Korea. Received November 27, 1996; Accepted July 12, J 997 ABSTRACT : The experiment was conducted to evaluate Bio-V-Pro as an alternative protein source in broiler diets. Treatments were control, Bio-V-Pro 1% (BP 1), Bio-V-Pro 3% (BP 3), and Bio-V-Pro 5% (BP 5). During the starter period, all treated groups showed better performance than control group in weight gain and feed intake (p < 0.05). The best FCR was observed in BP 1 group and the worst was found in BP 5 group.. For the overall period, chicks fed BP 1 and BP 3 diets gained more than the chicks fed the control and BP 5 diets. All Bio-V-Pro fed groups consumed more feed than the control group (p < 0.05). FCR were similar between the control and BP 1 group, but BP 3 and BP 5 groups showed higher FCR than the control group. During the starter period, all BP groups showed better utilizability of crude protein, crude ash and phosphorus than the control group (p v 0.05). For the finisher period, except for the BP 5 group, the nutrient utilizability was not significantly different in most nutrients. Nutrients utilizability had a tendency (not significant) to decrease as the level of Bio-V-Pro in the diet was increased. Lysine utilizability was not affected by the dietary treatment, however, methionine utilizability was higher in BP 1 and BP 3 group than in the control group. From the result^ of this experiment, it seems that Bio-VPro is a good alternative protein source which can replace fish meal in starter diet up to 3% of the diet effectively. (


INTRODUCTION
Feed cost was the primary fector to increase the production expenses in animal production, especially for the monogastric animals. An important challenge is to reduce the production cost in animal industry. Recently, protein sources became the limiting factor in terms of availability and cost in feed formulation whether it is originated from animal sources or vegetable sources. As a consequence, several researches have been actively conducted to find out new alternative protein sources in animal diets, such as yeast (Ringrose, 1949;Samuel and Zimmerman, 1977), single cell protein D5 Mello et al., 1976) and eprin and paprin (Han et al., 1995).
One can easily cope with the fluctuation of feed cost in the international trade market, when one has various route to provide an alternative protein sources for the animal feed production. Also it is very important to evaluate relatively unknown feed ingredients which have fairly good balanced amino acids composition.
Fish meal has been widely used as a good animal protein source in the diets for the monogastric animals, specially for young chicks. However, it is extremely expensive, and production has been decreased theseday. Thus there is a great need to replace fish meal with alternative protein sources in the animal diets. Recently, Seoul National University found that Bio-V-Pro®, an extruded mixture of animal and plant proteins of nonconventional raw materials, which was originated from India, has a relatively high crude protein content and quite a good amino acids composition. Its lysine and methionine contents were comparable with those of soybean meal and fish meal. Thus this experiment was designed to evaluate Bio-V-Pro as an alternative protein source in broiler diets. In this experiment, the availability of proximate nutrients, amino acids and gross energy were measured and the perfor mance of broiler fed containing graded levels of Bio-V-Pro was also examined.

Experimental design
This experiment consisted of 4 treatments. Com-AJAS 1998 Vol. 11 (No. 1) 71-77 soybean meal-fish meal based diet was used as a control, and fish meal was replaced with Bio-V-Pro at the level of 1% (BP 1), 3% (BP 3), 5% (BP 5), respectively. Each treatment had 9 replicates consisted of 6 male arbor acre broiler chicks in each replicate and represented averaging 54 birds per treatment.

Experimental animals, period and location
Male broiler chicks of arbor acre produced by Han H breeding Farm (Osan, Korea) were used as experimental subjects. At one day of age, experimental animals were chosen to have uniform initial body weight and fed the experimental diets for six weeks. A randomized complete design was used in assigning chicks to treatments, in which a total of 216 chicks were used. All feeding trial, metabolic trial, chemical analysis and statistical analysis were conducted in the Animal Nutrition Laboratory, Department of Animal Science and Technology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National Univer sity located in Suweon, Korea. Feeding trial initiated on April 10, 1996 and terminated on May 23, 1996.

Experimental diets
Experimental diets were formulated on a com soybean meal basis to meet the NRC (1994) requirements for the starter period (table 1) and the finisher period (table 2). For starter period, the diet was formulated to 23% crude protein, 1.21% lysine, and 0.9% Met + Cys, while for   finisher period, the diet was formulated to 20% crude protin, 1.0% lysine and 0.74% Met + Cys. The proximate nutrients composition of Bio-V-Pro is presented in table 3.

Methods of experiments 1) Feeding trial
All the chicks were raised in battery cages made of steel wire and housed in room with a constant light and air ventilation. Before the feeding trial began, the chicks were fed a commercial diet fbr one day. Experimental diets and drinking water were provided ad libitum during the entire experimental period of six weeks. Body weight and feed intake were recorded weekly on replication basis to calculate the weight gain and feed conversion ratio. Feed conversion ratio was calculated by dividing the amount of feed consumed with the corresponding body weight gain.

2) Metabolic trial
To measure the nutrient utilizability of the experimen tal diets, the metabolizability coefficient was calculated by total fecal collection method during seven days at the end of the starter period and finisher period, respectively. Six and four chicks per treatment for the starter period and finisher period, respectively, were chosen and caged in the metabolic cage in pair for the starter and individually fbr the finisher period, respectively and experimental diets and water were fed to satiation. After four days of adaptation, total excreta were collected four times a day for the three consecutive days to avoid the contamination of foreign materials such as feed, feathers and scales. Collected excreta were pooled and dried in an air-forced drying oven at 60 C for 72 hours to gain constant dry weight and were ground with 1 mm Wiley mill for chemical analysis.

3) Chemical analysis
Analysis of proximate nutrients composition of experi mental diets and excreta was conducted according to the methods of AOAC (1990), and amino acids composition was measured using an automatic amino acid analyzer Pharmacia Biotech, Biochrom 20, England. Crude ash and phosphorus content were measured using the Atomic Absorption spectrophotometer (Shimadzu, AA 640 IF, Japan) and gross energy content of feeds and excreta were measured using the Bomb Calorimeter (Parr Instrument Co., Model 1241, USA).

4) Statistical anatysis
Statistical analysis for the present data was carried out by comparing means according to Duncan's multiple range test (Duncan, 1955), using General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS (1985) package program.

Nutrients composition
Analyzed nutrients composition of Bio-V-Pro are presented and compared with SBM and FM in table 3. Bio-V-Pro has an excellent crude protein content and amino acids composition compared to SBM. Bio-V-Pro has similar crude protein content with FM. Bio-V-Pro also has a pretty good fatty acids composition, it was found that Bio-V-Pro has substantial amounts of high unsaturated fatty acids which are called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). In terms of mineral contents, Bio-V-Pro seems has potential to be a good mineral sources for monogastric animals. Bio-V-Pro was relatively high in calcium, phosphorus, iron and magnesium content.

Growth performance
The effect of graded levels of Bio-V-Pro on the growth performance in growing broiler chicks are presen ted in table 4.  Overall Control Bio-V-Pro(l%) Bio-V-Pro(3%) Bio-V-Pro(5%) PSE1

o
During the starter period, all treated groups showed better performance than control group in weight gain and feed intake. Weight gain was improved by 16 to 30% with feeding Bio-V-Pro, regardless of the level of Bio-V-Pro in the diet (p < 0.05). Feed intake was also improved. Chicks fed diets containing Bio-V-Pro consumed more feed than the chicks fed the control diet by 18 to 22% (p v 0.05). Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was also impro ved in BP 1 and BP 3 group but in BP 5 group FCR was higher than the control group-The best FCR was observed in BP 1 group and the worst was found in BP 5 group. FCR showed the tendency that it increased linearly as Bio-V-Pro level was increased. This might be due to the low availability of the energy of Bio-V-Pro product.
However, during the finisher period, Bio-V-Pro did not improve the growth rate of the chicks. No significant difference in weight gain was found among the treatment, while feed consumption were still higher in Bio-V-Pro fed groups (p v 0.05). This resulted in significantly higher FCR in Bio-V-Pro fed groups (p < 0.05).
For the overall period, chicks fed BP 1 and BP 3 diets gained more than the chicks fed the control and BP 5 diets. All Bio-V-Pro fed groups consumed more feed than the control group (p < 0.05). FCR was similar between the control and BP 1 group, but BP 3 and BP 5 groups showed higher feed conversion ratio than the control group.
From the results of this experiment, it can be concluded that Bio-V-Pro can replace fish meal effectively up to 3% of the diet, namely 60% of the fish meal in the diet.

Nutrient utilization 1) Starter period
Nutrient utilizability during the starter period is summarized in table 5. Dry matter utilizability was higher in BP 1 and BP 3 group by 4.8 to 6.9 percentage units (p < 0.05), and energy utilizability was also higher in BP 1 and BP 3 (p < 0.05). All BP groups showed better utilizability of crude protein, crude ash and phosphorus than the control group (p v 0.05), while crude fat utilizability was not significan tly different among treatments.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the better growth performance obtained in BP 1 and BP 3 during the starter period was due to the high nutrient utilizability, particulary energy, of the BP 1 and BP 3 diets. However, the mechanism through which Bio-V-Pro improved the growth performance of the chicks was not identified in this study.

2) Finisher period
For the finisher period, except for the BP 5 group, the nutrient utilizability was not significantly different in most nutrients. With the exception for crude fet and crude ash, the utilizability of the nutrient was similar among the control, BP 1 and BP 3 group. Nutrients utilizability had a tendency to decrease when the level of Bio-V-Pro in the diet increased, but no significant difference was found.
This also matches well with the results of growth perfbrmace during the finisher period. Thus, it seems that Bio-V-Pro is more effective when added in starter diets.
As shown in table 5, nutrient utilizability of finishing period showed higher value than the those of starter period and regardless of age, BP 1 and BP 3 gioup showed higher dry matter, crude fat and gross energy digestibility compared to control and BP 5 group.

Amino acids utilizability
For the starter period, except for the BP 5 group, the amino acids utilizability was similar in most of the amino acids measured. Lysine utilizability was not significantly different among the control, BP 1 and BP 3 groups, however, methionine and cystine utilizability in BP 1 and BP 3 group was significantly higher than in the control and BP 5 group (p < 0.05). BP 1 group 아】owed the highest utilizability in most amino acids measured and BP 5 group showed the lowest.
During the finisher period, unlike the starter period, the utilizability of most amino acids measured was not significantly different among the treatments. Table 6 and 7 summarized the utilizability of the amino acids of the experimental diets during the starter period and finisher period, respectively. c 1 Bio-V-Bio-V-Bio-V-°n tr° Pro(l%) Pro (3%) Pro (5%)  Bio-V-Pro is a relatively unknown protein source which has fairly good amino acids and nutrient composi tion. Through this experiment, Bio-V-Pro appeared a good alternative protein source which can replace fish meal up to 3% in starter diets of chickens.
However, the reason of the improvement in growth performance and amino acids utilizability was not clearly shown in this study. Thus more study is required to show the mechanism in which how Bio-V-Pro improves the performance of monogastric animals including pigs.