Slide 1 Hi, I'm Chelsie Parr, and I will be discussing the effects of high protein canola meals fed to weanling pigs on growth performance, organ weights, bone ash, and blood parameters. Slide 2 I will begin with a brief introduction about the use of canola meal in swine diets in the past. I will then move into the materials and methods for the experiment we conducted, move into the result of that experiment, summarize those briefly, and then draw a general conclusion. Slide 3 Canola meal is the second most commonly used protein source in animal diets in the world, to soybean meal. However, there are several antinutritional factors present in canola meal that have limited its use in swine diets in the past. The major ones focused on in this research are glucosinolates, erucic acid, and fiber. Glucosinolates and erucic acid have already been reduced to more manageable levels in canola meal compared with rapeseed meal. However, fiber is something that hasn't been addressed until more recently, but has most definitely been a limiting factor in the inclusion of canola meal in swine diets. Slide 4 There are several yellow-seeded varieties of canola meal that have been introduced more recently that contain greater crude protein and less fiber than the conventional varieties. Research has been published showing that these high protein canola meals can be fed up to 25% in growing pig diets. However, there is limited research feeding these high protein canola meals to weanling pigs. Slide 5 The objective of this experiment was to compare growth performance, organ weights, bone ash, and blood characteristics between weaned pigs fed diets containing either of two high protein canola meals or conventional canola meal at increasing inclusion levels. Slide 6 A total of 12 diets were formulated. The first one was a corn-soybean meal control diet. The two high protein canola meals were labeled canola meal A and canola meal B. Canola meal A was included at 10, 20, 30, or 40% of the diet, canola meal B at 10, 20, or 30%, and conventional canola meal at 10, 20, 30, or 40%. The reason we did not include a 40% canola meal B diet was simply due to limited supply of that canola meal. Slide 7 We used 420 pigs. They were two weeks post-weaning and were separated into three blocks based on weaning date. There were eight replicate pens per treatment, and pigs were supplied experimental diets for 21 days. Slide 8 At the conclusion of the experiment, one pig of average body weight per pen was sacrificed. Blood was collected for analysis of complete blood count, T3 and T4 thyroid hormones, and blood urea nitrogen. Liver, heart, kidneys, and thyroid gland were removed and weighed, and the third and fourth metacarpals were removed for bone ash. Slide 9 Average daily feed intake, average daily gain, and gain:feed were calculated. Percent bone ash was calculated as the ashed bone weight divided by the defatted bone weight. Phytate bound phosphorus was calculated as 28.2% of phytate; and non phytate bound phosphorus was calculated as the difference between total phosphorus and phytate bound phosphorus. The glucosinolate content of the diets was calculated by multiplying the total analyzed glucosinolates concentration of each canola meal by the level of that canola meal in the diet. Slide 10 These next few graphs are to compare the nutrient composition of the canola meals and the soybean meal. So here, I have the ingredients along the x axis and the composition along the y axis. I have soybean meal in red and each canola meal in a different shade of orange. And these will remain the same throughout the presentation. So canola meal A is in burnt orange, canola meal B in Illini orange, and the conventional canola meal in pale orange. The orange family of graphs here represents crude protein content. And you can see that the high protein canola meals contain more protein than the conventional canola meal, and similar protein to the soybean meal at about 47%. The blue bars represent neutral detergent fiber, and you can see that the high protein canola meals contain less fiber than the conventional canola meal; however, they still contain more than the soybean meal, but this is expected, as canola meal is not dehulled like soybean meal is. Slide 11 Looking at lysine, you can see that the high protein canola meals contain about 2.6% lysine, compared to only 2% in the conventional canola meal. The soybean meal contained about 3% lysine. Slide 12 The orange portion of these bars represents phytate bound phosphorus, and the blue portion represents non phytate bound phosphorus. Looking first at total phosphorus, we see that canola meal A contained the greatest phosphor content, while canola meal B and conventional soybean meal contained similar amounts. All three canola meals contained more than twice the phosphorus of the soybean meal. However, the high protein canola meals also contained more of the phosphorus bound to phytate as a proportion of the phosphorus when compared to the conventional canola meal. Slide 13 Looking at glucosinolate content of the canola meals here, although the high protein canola meals seem nutritionally superior from the previous slides, we see here that they also contain almost twice the glucosinolate content compared to the conventional canola meal. Slide 14 This is the composition of the experimental diets. I have the diets along the x axis and the composition along the y axis. On the left is the control diet, made up of mostly corn and soybean meal. I have each canola meal in its respective shade of orange, so canola meal A was included at 10 to 40%, canola meal B, 10 to 30%, and conventional canola meal, 10 to 40%. The blue portion of the bars represents corn, and you can see that as canola meal inclusion increased, it replaced corn in the diet, so corn inclusion decreased. Similarly, for soybean meal, which is in red, we also see that as canola meal inclusion increased, it replaced soybean meal in the diet. In the case of the 40% canola meal diet, you can see that canola meal completely replaced soybean meal; however, for the 40% conventional canola meal diet, even 40% canola meal required some soybean meal inclusion in order to maintain protein concentration. And this is because the conventional canola meal contained less protein and lysine than the high protein canola meals. The white portions at the top of the bar represent choice white grease, and you can see that as canola meal inclusion increased, so did choice white grease inclusion, but this was greatest for the conventional canola meal diets. And this is because this conventional canola meal contained less energy than the high protein canola meals. Slide 15 These are the calculated values for glucosinolate content of each diet. As you can see, the corn-soybean meal control diet contained no glucosinolates, which is expected. However, as canola meal inclusion was increased, glucosinolate concentration also increased. However, you can see that the high protein canola meals contained greater glucosinolate concentrations than the conventional canola meal. Recommendations for feeding pigs are to keep glucosinolate levels below 2-3 μmol/g in the diet, so you can see that the 30 and 40% canola meal A diets are definitely above this recommendation. Slide 16 All diets were formulated to have identical levels of net energy and all nutrients. They were formulated using values for amino acid, phosphorus, and energy digestibility previously determined in these specific canola meals and in soybean meal. Microbial phytase was included in all diets. Slide 17 Data were analyzed using the Mixed procedure of SAS, with pen as the experimental unit. Treatment was set as the fixed effect, with block as the random effect. Orthogonal contrasts were used to determine linear and quad effects of inclusion level, and a P value of 0.05 was used to assess differences among means. Slide 18 I will now move into the results, beginning with growth performance. Slide 19 To briefly set up my graphs here, I will keep the diets along the x axis, with the response variable along the y. So beginning with average daily feed intake, you can see that 10% inclusion of any of the canola meals resulted in an increased average daily feed intake compared to the control diet. However, increasing inclusion of canola meal resulted in a linear decrease in average daily feed intake regardless of the canola meal variety. Slide 20 For average daily gain, there was a tendency for the 10 or 20% canola meal A inclusions to result in improved average daily gain; however, the 30 and 40% inclusions resulted in a decrease. But there were no differences among the other treatments for average daily gain. If you'll recall, the 30 and 40% inclusions of canola meal A resulted in dietary glucosinolate levels above feeding recommendations. And this could be the cause for the reduced gain at those inclusion levels. Slide 21 Moving to gain: feed, you can see that there was a linear improvement with increasing inclusion of canola meal A or conventional canola meal, but inclusion of canola meal B in the diet had no effect on gain:feed. Slide 22 Moving now to the results for organ weights, I want to mention that these will be expressed as a percent of body weight. Slide 23 Beginning with liver weights, there was a tendency for liver weights to be increased with increasing inclusion of canola meal A. Also, liver weights were significantly increased with increasing inclusion of canola meal B. However, liver weights were not affected by inclusion of conventional canola meal in the diet. Slide 24 There were no significant effects on the heart weights of pigs fed diets containing canola meal, regardless of the variety. Slide 25 Weight of the kidneys was not influenced by inclusion of high protein canola meals in the diets. However, kidney weights were significantly decreased with increasing inclusion of conventional canola meal. Slide 26 Thyroid gland weights were significantly increased with increasing inclusion of canola meal A. However, there was no effect of canola meal B or conventional canola meal inclusion on the thyroid gland weights. Slide 27 Moving now to the results for bone ash. Slide 28 There were no differences among treatments for defatted bone weight. However, there was a tendency for ashed bone weight to be increased with increasing inclusion of canola meal A. There were no effects on ashed bone weight for pigs fed diets containing canola meal B or conventional canola meal. Slide 29 For bone ash percent, we saw a significant increase with increasing inclusion of canola meal, regardless of the variety. Slide 30 Moving now to the results for blood characteristics. Slide 31 For triiodothyronine, which is a thyroid hormone, we saw a tendency for T3 concentrations to be reduced for pigs fed diets containing canola meal A, and we saw significant reductions in T3 concentrations for pigs fed diets containing conventional canola meal. However, there was no effect on the pigs fed diets containing canola meal B. Slide 32 For thyroxin, another thyroid hormone, we saw a significant decrease in T4 concentrations for pigs fed diets containing increasing levels of canola meal A. We also saw a tendency for T4 concentrations to be reduced for pigs fed diets containing canola meal B. However, there was no effect on the pigs fed diets containing conventional canola meal. Slide 33 We saw no effects among treatments on blood urea nitrogen. There were also no effects on the complete blood counts. Slide 34 [no narration] Slide 35 As for ingredient composition, comparison of the high protein canola meal to conventional canola meal indicates that the high protein canola meals contain greater crude protein and amino acid concentrations and reduced fiber. However, they also contain more phytate phosphorus, and almost twice the level of glucosinolates when compared to the conventional canola meal. Slide 36 For growth performance, we saw that up to 20% inclusion of any of the canola meals did not negatively affect average daily feed intake, average gaily gain, or gain:feed. Liver weights were increased with inclusion of canola meal B, and thyroid gland weights were increased with inclusion of canola meal A. However, there were no effects on the heart or kidney weights with inclusion of either high protein canola meal. Slide 37 There was no difference in the defatted bone weight. However, bone ash percent increased with increasing inclusion of any of the three canola meals. Blood, T3, and T4 concentrations were reduced with inclusion of high protein canola meals, but blood urea nitrogen and complete blood counts were not affected. The decreased concentration of T3 and T4 thyroid hormones and the increased weight of the thyroid gland, although significant, may not be of practical importance because they did not impair pig performance. Slide 38 Results of this study suggest that high protein or conventional canola meals can be included in diets for weanling pigs from two weeks post-weaning by at least 20% without reducing growth performance or negatively affecting organ, bone, or blood characteristics. However, greater inclusion levels may result in reduced performance due to reduced feed intake. Slide 39 This study is being repeated to further validate the performance of weanling pigs on diets using different lots of high protein or conventional canola meals and to confirm maximum inclusion levels. Slide 40 Thank you.