Fiber in Animal Nutrition

49 Conclusion the 16 week trial period the farmer made 0.21 US Dollar extra profit per hen. These results were confirmed in an on farm trial at the TynoongNorth Farm in Australia. An insoluble CFCwas used during the whole laying stage on 25,000 birds.The performance of these birds in terms of egg production improved by 2.1% compared to the 25,000 control birds. Having a closer look at the feeding guidelines of the breeding companies like ISA and Lohmann it is quite clear that the laying hen has a certain fiber requirement, especially a requirement for insoluble fiber. Pottgüter (2008) recommends to adjust the fiber level in laying hens on a level between 3.5% and 4.5% crude fiber. Especially in corn soy formulations it is difficult to achieve this fiber level with traditional fiber sources, as those fibers consume a lot of space in the formulations due to their relative low fiber concentration. Here the insoluble CFC is a good tool to adjust the fiber level. 3.6 Conclusion The use of dietary f iber in poultry feed formulations is often a controversial subject amongst poultry nutritionists. On the one hand international organizations like ISA or Lohmann see crude fiber as an essential component in poultry feed and on the other hand nutritionists often avoid the use of fiber as fiber is consuming space in the formulations and the traditional fiber sources are of ten highly contaminated with mycotoxins. Trial results are often not conclusive. Research has shown that insoluble fibers have positive effects on poultry welfare, health and performance while soluble fibers have a negative impact on those parameters. This might explain the inconclusive results. Having realized that insoluble f iber is the required and benef icial type of f iber for our poultry with impact on health and performance we now need to identify the right sources for insoluble fiber. The most fiber sources we use today are by-products of the food manufacturing in- dustry. Those fiber sources unfortunately deliver soluble and well as insoluble fibers. Additionally they are often highly contami- nated with mycotoxins. A good solution for this problem might be the insoluble crude fiber concentrates (CFC). These CFCs are characterized by a very high f iber level (> 60 % crude fiber). Additionally they do not bear any mycotoxin risk. They are based on cellulosic fiber or lignocellulose. Therefore the most of them are 100 % insoluble. It has been demonstrated in many farm and university trials that insoluble fibers and especially the insoluble CFCs have a positive impact on health and performance of poultry. Beside the classical performance parameters the insoluble CFCs cause an improvement in litter quality, feather pecking/cannibalisms scenario and intestinal heath in birds. The use of insoluble fibers, especially the insoluble CFCs is therefore indispensable in modern poultry feed formulations. © ERLING Verlag