Composition, Digestibility, and Microbiological Quality of the Animal-Origin Meal

There is currently a growing interest of animal nutritionists and farmers in the use of by-products and/or agro-industrial residues in feeds. The purpose is to reduce production costs, since feed represents nearly 70% of the cost of production, as well as to allocate waste properly, minimizing potential environmental impacts. The characteristics of the residues used and their physical and/ or chemical limitations should be known, providing nutritionist with the correct information for the best choice and use of these ingredients for animal nutrition. This study aims to characterize the centesimal and energetic composition, digestibility, and microbiological quality of animal-origin meals in non-ruminant feeds. Samples of animal-origin meals – AOM (n=210), hydrolyzed feather meals (n=70), chicken offal meal (n=70), and pig offal meal (n=70) were evaluated. The following variables were determined: moisture, crude protein, amino acids, ethereal extract, ash content, FAO grain size analysis, and protein digestibility. Peroxide and acidity levels were determined to evaluate the oxidative process. The microbiological quality of AOM evaluated by the presence/absence of Salmonella spp.; the apparent metabolizable energy was verified by the indirect method using prediction equations. The amounts of proteins, minerals, amino acids, and energy differed from those reported in the literature. These results were possibly due to the different operational processes performed in each one of the experiments, as well as the proportions of constituents in the compared raw materials compared. Moreover, we observed that the AOM is within the Brazilian hygienic-sanitary standards.