The study was conducted to determine the effect of heat treatment and lysIne supplementation on the nutritive value of sunflower meal (SFM) , through biological trial, on the broiler chicks. It also included the estimation of lysIne contents of sunflower meal processed at different temperatures.

Two research experiments were conducted on day-old broiler chicks to evaluate the nutritive value of sunflower meal processed at different temperatures and subsequently supplemented with lysine. In the first experiment SFM was subjected to various heat treatments at 90°, 10.0°,110°, and 120° for 30 minutes. The results indicated an improvement in growth rate of the chicks fed ration H containing SFM processed at 90°C, while the chicks fed ration III to V containing SFM processed at 1000,1100 and 120°C showed a proportionate depression in weight gain, which might be due to the damage or unavailability of heat labile essential amino acid lysine. There was a non-significant difference in the feed consumption of chicks fed different experimental rations. The chicks fed ration II containing heat treated SFM at 90°C showed the best cumulative feed efficiency as the processing temperature of SFM was increased. The carcase weight of trie chicks fed different experimental rations showed almost the same trend as observed in "weight gain. However, a non-significant difference was observed in the dressing percentage and weight of internal organs of the chicks.

In the second experiment, chicks fed ration I containing SFM processed at 90°C showed the maximum weight gain while chicks fed rations II, IV and VI containing SFM processed at 100°, 1100 and 120°C showed a proportionate depression in the weight gain as well as feed efficiency. It might be attributed to the damage or unavailability of heat labile essential amino acid lysine. The depression in weight gain and feed efficiency of the chicks due to feeding of heat processed SFM was alleviated when fed rations II, V and VII, containing SFM processed at 1000,1100 and 120°C and supplemented accordingly with the synthetic lysine. The carcase weight of the chicks showed almost the same trend as observed in the weight gain. However, dressing percentage and weight of Internal organs of the chicks showed a non-significant difference. The lysine estimation of sunflower meal processed at 90°, 100°, 110° and 120°C revealed that the lysine content was proportionately decreased by 10,10.9,12.15 and 14.55 percent respectively. The results were substantiated through the biological trail of feeding heat processed sunflower meal to the broiler chicks, which showed that the weight gain and fee efficiency of the chicks were significantly improved when the heat processed SFM was supplemented with the corresponding amounts of synthetic lysine.

CONCLUSION

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of heat treatment at 900, 100°, 110° and 1200 and lysine supplementation of heat processed sunflower meal (SFN) on the growth rate, feed consumption, feed efficiency, dressing percentage and weight of internal organs of the chicks.

The weight gain and feed efficiency were proportionately reduced when processing temperature was increased from 100°C onwards. The lysine supplementation improved the depressions significantly as was reflected in better weight gain and feed efficiency of the chicks. It indicated that heat processing made the lysine unavailable, which was confirmed through the analysis of lysine content of SFM.