The Practical Application of Sunflower Meal in Poultry Nutrition

Sunflower Meal (SFM) is commonly produced with 60-65% protein core (kernel) and 35-40% hull (shell).SFM contains about 30-34% of crude protein, 20-25% cellulose and 8-10% lignin (Sredanovic et al., 2012).As the result of such a high share of hulls in SFM, with about 50% cellulose and 25% lignin, the nutritive value of SFM is drastically reduced in animal and poultry nutrition (Delic, 1992; Attia et al., 1998; Slavica et al., 2006;Ali et al., 2011).Since, the key challenge of incorporation of SFM in broiler diets is the high fiber content in SFM (NRC 1994), which may negatively effects on growth performance and Review ArticleAbstract | The benificial application of untraditional feedstuffs such as sunflower meal (SFM) in animal and poultry nutrition in developing countries has received considerable attention. SFM is a by-product of sunflower oil industry, and has been increasingly added to animal and birds diets. Moreover, SFM is potentially one of the most important protein source in the world. Nowadays, it is well known that feed represents the main cost of animal and poultry pro- duction and accounts about 75% of the total cost. The increasing feed ingredients price of poultry nutrition caused to look closely at agricultural by-products which are less cost than traditional ingredients. Thus, the waste residues of crops, vegetables and fruits after harvesting and processing could be used as sources of protein, energy and other nutrients in feeding animals and poultry. Reports from variuos laboratories on the using SFM as feed ingredient for poultry are discussed in this review. Based on the findings presented, SFM is an acceptable feed componentof poultry rations and can be fed at 25% in broiler and 20% in layer diets. However, replacement of soybean meal (SBM) with SFM may affect dietary inclusions of essential amino acids, and use of synthetic lysine may need to be increased. The high levels of SFM in poultry diets can be used successfully with appropriate diet formulation adjustments for energy and amino acids particularly lysine and methionine. This compilation with its valubale information would be beneficial for researchers, chemists, feed and food industry, and certainly could help to promote the usage of SFM in poultry production.