Effects of extrusion processing on digestibility of peas, lupins, canola meal and soybean meal in silver perch Bidyanus bidyanus (Mitchell) diets

Two experiments were conducted to investigate effects of processing on apparent digestibility coefficients (ADCs) of legumes and oilseeds for juvenile silver perch, Bidyanus bidyanus (approximately 49 g). The first experiment evaluated interactive effects of ingredients (lupins or field peas), processing (whole seed; hulls on or hulls off) and extrusion cooking (raw or extruded) on ADCs for juvenile silver perch (approximately 4 g fish-1). The second experiment was a three-fixed-factor anova designed to evaluate interactive effects of ingredients (soybean meal or canola meal), extrusion cooking (raw or extruded) and inclusion content (30% or 50% of the diet) on ADCs for juvenile silver perch (approximately 4 g fish-1). Lupin protein was more digestible than that of peas (ADC for crude protein 91% vs. 85% for peas) but the organic matter was less digestible (ADC for organic matter 50% vs. 67% for peas). Dehulling lupins significantly improved ADCs for all indices (dry matter, organic matter, energy and crude protein), but extrusion had no effect because lupins do not contain starch or heat-labile anti-nutrients. Conversely, for starch-rich peas that contain heat-labile trypsin inhibitors, both dehulling and extrusion significantly improved ADCs. Digestibility of soybean meal was much higher than that of canola meal. For soybean meal, neither processing, content nor their interaction affected digestibility but extrusion improved ADCs for dry matter, organic matter and energy but there was an interaction with content. Although higher overall, digestibility for these indices declined with increasing content for extruded product while there were only minor effects of inclusion for raw product. Benefits of extrusion were attributed to reductions in anti-nutrients, including phytic acid. For canola, there were no interactions between extrusion and content for any ADC. Increasing content reduced ADCs for crude protein, dry matter and organic matter but did not effect energy. Surprisingly, extrusion of canola also reduced digestibility for all ADCs. Dehulling improved both lupins and peas. Crude protein for all ingredients was well digested with ingredients ranked: lupins>soybean meal>peas>canola meal. Energy digestibility was best for soybean meal and worst for lupins. Extrusion greatly improved digestibility of peas and to a lesser extent soybean meal, gave no benefits to lupins and was detrimental for canola.