Effect of saponins from Yucca and Quillaja, added alone or incombination on production performance and ammonia emissions in broilers

    

Yucca schidgera (steroidal) and Quillaja saponaria (triterpenoid) are two saponins available for commercial feed use in the poultry industry. Though their targeted effects tend to overlap, notable differences in their chemical make-up, structural complexity and mechanistic action exist. While saponins are known to reduce ammonia emissions in livestock, direct saponin source comparisons are scarcely found in literature. The objective of this trial was to evaluate the impact of feeding Yucca (Y) and Quillaja (Q) alone or in combination (YQ) on Ross 308 male broilers reared through 42 d. Four dietary treatments were tested: 1) a 3-phase corn/soy basal diet (1-14d, 15-28d, 29-42d) Control (C), 2) C+250 g/MT Y, 3) C+125 g/MT Y and 125 g/MT Q (YQ), and 4) C+250 g/MT Q with 6 replicates/treatment. Birds were housed in 8 climate chambers comprised of 3 replicate floor pens with 12 broilers/pen with the same treatment to allow measurement of ammonia emissions. Therefore, ammonia measurements were based on two replicates/treatment. Feed intake, body weight gain, and feed conversion ratio were measured for each feeding phase. Ammonia emissions were determined by measuring the volume of air exchange in each chamber and analyzing online air samples per chamber taken every 13 minutes via an INNOVA photoacoustic gas detector (0-35d). Data were analyzed using ANOVA and means separated using Fisher’s LSD at p ≤ 0.05. All saponin supplemented diets numerically increased final body weight compared to C. Both YQ and Q signficanlty reduced FCR at 42d. Q resulted in a more pronounced effect on FCR reduction of 4.5 points improvement compared with the control (P< 0.01), followed by YQ. Birds fed Y were not statistically significantly different (P> 0.05) to C on FCR. Quillaja (Q & YQ) significantly reduced ammonia emission compared with C (P< 0.05), whereas the effect of Y was intermediate and not significantly different (P> 0.05) from C. The data in this trial demonstrate Q can significantly reduce ammonia emissions and improve FCR, whereas effects of Y were less pronounced and only numerically different from C, further validating differences between these two commercially available saponin sources.

Key Words: phytogenics, saponin, broilers, performance, ammonia.