Effects of grinding and pelleting condition on efficiency of full-fat canola seed for replacing supplemental oil in broiler chicken diets

• The effect of feed processing on utilization of canola seed was studied in broilers.
• Canola seed either intact or ground was compared with canola meal and oil.
• Pelleting condition effect was examined by comparison of cold and steam pelleting.
• Grinding of canola seed did not produce additional improvement for bird performance.
• Steam pelleting reduced fat digestibility in finisher diets containing canola seed.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of canola seed (CS) and processing including grinding and pelleting condition on bird performance and nutrient utilization. The first experiment examined the apparent metabolizable energy (AME) of CS. A reference and test diet containing 150 g/kg CS was used. AME and AMEn values of CS were 21.08 and 19.63 MJ/kg DM, respectively. The second experiment examined performance and digestibility and used a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement of treatments. Factors were: pelleting condition (cold-pelleted at 65 °C or steam-pelleted at 85 °C) and diet: canola meal plus oil, whole canola seed (WCS) or hammer-milled canola seed (HCS). A total of 672 male d-old Ross 308 broiler chicks were randomly assigned to treatments, each replicated eight times, with 14 birds per replicate. Birds received a common diet until d 10 when they were given test grower diets to d 24 followed by finisher diets from d 24 to d 35. Wheat-SBM based test diets were isoenergetic and isonitrogenous. Grower and finisher contained CS at 114 g/kg and 130 g/kg respectively, entirely replacing canola meal and canola oil in control diets. Inclusion of CS decreased feed intake (FI) relative to control diets from d 10 to 35 (P < 0.01). Regardless of pelleting, there was no difference in FI between birds fed either WCS or HCS. Weight gain (WG) was highest in control fed birds relative to WCS or HCS between d 10 and d 35 (P < 0.01). In the same period, HCS improved FCR of the birds compared to control (P < 0.05). From d 10 to d 24, an interaction between pelleting and diet was detected for FCR indicating that steam-pelleting increased FCR in the birds fed WCS (P < 0.05). On d 24, ileal fat digestibility was reduced in birds fed WCS in steam-pelleted diets resulting in an interaction between pellet condition and diet (P < 0.01). By same interaction on d 35, steam-pelleting reduced fat digestibility in birds fed WCS or HCS (P < 0.001). It can be concluded that although inclusion of CS resulted in a depression for FI and WG, FCR was improved in birds fed HCS in cold-pelleted diets. Prior grinding of CS did not benefit bird performance or nutrient utilization when compared with WCS.