THE FEEDING VALUE FOR BROILER-CHICKENS OF PEA CHIPS DERIVED FROM MILLED PEAS (PISUM-SATIVUM L) DURING AIR CLASSIFICATION INTO STARCH FRACTIONS

Two pea products, yellow pea chips (YPC) and green pea chips (GPC) tha t were derived from milled peas during air classification into pea sta rch fractions were evaluated for their nutritional value in three expe riments. The products were found to contain 298.3 and 281.3 g kg(-1) c rude protein, 7.28 and 7.10 g lysine per 16 g N and 1.05 and 0.94 g me thionine per 16 g N for YPC and GPC, respectively. The apparent metabo lisable energy value of YPC was higher(P less than or equal to 0.05) t han that of GPC, 11.50 vs. 11.28 MJ kg(-1), respectively. A similar re sult was also obtained with starch digestibility, 81.6 vs. 77.4% (P le ss than or equal to 0.05); however, apparent protein digestibility was similar (P greater than or equal to 0.05) (experiment 1). In experime nt 2, YPC or GPC replaced corn and soybean meal at 0, 150, 300 and 450 g kg(-1) in broiler chick diets. Weight gain and feed conversion rati o (FCR) were similar(P > 0.01) for birds fed the 150 g kg(-1) of YPC ( 397.2 g, 1.41) or GPC (390.4 g, 1.42) diet and the control (403.1 g, 1 .38) diet. At 300 and 450 g kg(-1) inclusion levels, weight gain (YPC, 377.9 and 345.5 g; GPC, 362.9 and 306.6 g) and FCR (YPC, 1.48 and 1.5 1; GPC, 1.47 and 1.61) decreased significantly (P < 0.01) for both pro ducts relative to the control (403.1 g, 1.38). Feed consumption decrea sed with increasing levels of pea chips in the diets but the effect wa s significant(P < 0.01) only in those diets containing 450 g kg(-1). I n experiment 3, diets containing 300 g kg-l of YPC or GPC were supplem ented with two levels of DL-methionine to 100% and 120% of the NRC req uirements. The performance of these birds was still lower(P < 0.01) th an that of birds fed the control diet. The fact that these pea by-prod ucts at 300 g kg(-1) inclusion level with methionine supplementation w ere unable to sustain broiler performance equal to birds fed a convent ional corn-soy diet, suggests that they should not be fed to broiler c hicks in excess of 150 g kg(-1).