Beckman, Nelsa Marie2023-05-082023-05-082023-08-01https://hdl.handle.net/2097/43310A sequence of experiments were conducted in order to understand the nutrient profile and variability, evaluate the metabolizable energy and amino acid digestibility, and test the efficacy of utilizing food waste in broiler diets. It is estimated that about 30-40% of all food produced in the United States is discarded to a landfill. This contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and other environmental impacts. In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency released a hierarchy of alternative methods for the use of food waste. One of these proposed alternative methods was to use it as livestock feed. In the first experiment, food waste was separated into three streams: vegetable preparation (VP), main stream (MS), and mixed (MX). Vegetable preparation stream consisted of kitchen scraps such as pepper stems, onion peels, and melon rinds. Main stream consisted of any food that had been prepared that could not be reheated, repurposed, or donated to a local food pantry such as pasta, salad bar fixings, and desserts. The mixed stream was calculated based on the total weight of VP and MS. Waste was collected and sampled for 30 consecutive days from Kramer Dining Center at Kansas State University. Each daily sample was analyzed for nutrient contents. Vegetable preparation had a greater moisture and neutral detergent fiber content than MS and MX while ether extract and crude protein was less in VP (P < 0.05). Energy and total digestible nutrients were greater in MS than MX while VP was less than MX (P < 0.05). To determine nutrient variability, the standard deviation was measured. Dry matter and ether extract were significantly different among all three streams while MS and MX had an increased variability in gross energy, total digestible nutrients, and neutral detergent insoluble crude protein (P < 0.05). When food waste streams were mixed the variability and nutrient content were either similar, greater, or less than when the streams were separated depending on the nutrient. Additionally, despite having a high moisture content food waste has nutritive value and therefore the potential to be used in livestock diets. In experiments 2 and 3, food waste was collected for another 30 consecutive days and split into weekly intervals resulting in four food waste products to determine nutrient variability, nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy (AMEn), and apparent ileal digestibility (AID). The weekly intervals consisted of product 1 (FW1; days 1-7), product 2 (FW2; days 8-14), product 3 (FW3; days 15-22), and product 4 (FW4; days 23-30). Each product was mixed with soybean meal (SBM) and extruded (InstaPro 2000-10 RTT, Des Moines, IA) to an in-barrel target temperature of 140℃. Treatments consisted of the four food waste products, conventional SBM, extruded SBM (ESBM), and a common basal corn/SBM treatment was added to the AMEn experiment as a control. 420 and 360 one-day old male broilers (Ross 308, Sallisaw, OK, initial BW 38.5 g) were used in an 18-day study to determine AMEn and AID, respectively. Treatments were randomly assigned to cages and balanced by pen weight resulting in 10 cages per treatment with 6 birds per cage and given ad libitum access to feed and water. Fecal samples were collected on days 16-18 and birds were euthanized on day 18 via CO₂ for ileal collection. Metabolizable energy content of FW3 was greater (P < 0.05) than SBM, ESBM, FW1 and FW2 while FW4 was an intermediate product. Broilers fed FW1 and FW3 had an increase (P < 0.05) in AID of indispensable amino acids (AA), except Leu, when compared to FW2 while FW4 was intermediate. In conclusion, extruded food waste successfully served as a nutrient source for broilers. Food waste products AMEn content were either similar or greater than SBM and the AID of AA’s differed depending on the product and the AA to be either similar or less than SBM. In experiments 4 and 5, the same food waste from experiments 2 and 3 were composited across the 30 days and extruded. Additionally, to create a value-added food waste product the food waste was fermented for 14 days. Treatments consisted of SBM, ESBM, composite food waste (CFW), and SBM + fermented food waste (SFFW). A common basal corn/SBM treatment was added to the AMEn trial as a control. 300 and 240 one-day old male broilers (Ross 308, Sallisaw, OK, initial BW 39.4 g) were used in a 21-day study to determine AMEn and AID, respectively. Treatments were randomly assigned to cages and balanced by pen weight resulting in 10 cages per treatment with 6 birds per cage and given ad libitum access to feed and water. Fecal samples were collected on days 18-20 and birds were euthanized on day 21 via CO₂ for ileal collection. Composite food waste and SFFW AMEn content was similar to SBM (P > 0.05). Broilers fed CFW and SBM had a greater (P < 0.05) AID of indispensable AA’s compared to SFFW, except Met. In conclusion, food waste, either extruded or fermented, successfully served as a nutrient source for broilers. Both forms of food waste AMEn were similar to SBM and AID of AA’s were either similar or less than that of SBM depending on the form of food waste. Experiment 6 measured body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of CFW (10 and 30%), fermented food waste (FFW; 1.5 and 5.5%), a common basal corn/SBM diet, and a basal diet with a commercial additive (astaxanthin or antibiotic). 420 one-day-old male broilers (Ross 308, Sallisaw, OK, initial BW 37.7 g) were fed treatments for 21 days and given ad libitum access to feed and water. Treatments were randomly assigned to cages balanced by pen weight resulting in 10 cages per treatment with 6 birds per cage. Pen and feeder weights were recorded on days 0, 7, 18, and 21. All inclusion levels of CFW and FFW had similar (P > 0.05) BWG to the basal diet while birds fed 5.5% FFW increased FI compared to basal, CFW inclusions, and 1.5% FFW (P < 0.05). Birds fed either 10% CFW or 5.5% FFW improved (P < 0.05) the FCR compared to birds fed 30% CFW with 1.5% being an intermediate additive. Overall, growth performance varied depending on the form of food waste fed (extruded or fermented) and the inclusion level in the diet.en-US© the author. This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/Food wasteBroilerAmino acid digestibilityNutrient variabilityApparent metabolizable energyThesis