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www.poultrynews.com.au National Poultry Newspaper, March 2025 %u2013 Page 13AN invited speaker at the Australian Poultry Science Symposium 2025 recently, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Sonia Liu presented the research %u2018Promoting resilience: sustainable protein alternatives and low-protein diets for chicken-meat production%u2019, co-authored with, among others, Peter Chrystal and Peter Selle.Following is the edited study into local protein-rich ingredients and non-bound amino acid to conceivably replace soybean meal completely in broiler diets.SummaryThe use of soybean meal in livestock production, particularly poultry, has sparked global debate due to its links to deforestation and biodiversity. The debate is complicated when balancing sustainability, welfare, economics and equality. In Australia, chicken meat is the most consumed animal protein, and it plays an important role in national food security. Soybean meal is the primary protein source for poultry and efforts to replace imported soybean meal are driven by concerns about supply chain resilience, which was particularly highlighted during the pandemic. Reduced crude protein diets, where soybean meal is partially replaced by non-bound amino acid, have shown potential to reduce nitrogen excretion, ammonia emissions and improve litter quality. The authors have investigated the use of NBAA in broiler diets, showing that while poultry are less sensitive to digestive dynamics than pigs, there are limits to how much NBAA can replace intact proteins without compromising growth performance. Recent studies comparing soybean meal, whey protein and NBAA in broiler diets found that an optimal blend of these ingredients led to superior weight gain and feed conversion. The inclusion of locally available proteinrich ingredients, such as canola meal and field peas, can be used as alternatives to soybean meal. Using a combination of NBAA and proteinrich local feed ingredients has shown promising outcomes to completely replace SBM in our recent studies. This approach should be further tested with ingredients beyond canola and field peas.IntroductionThe unfortunate reality is that the Australian chicken-meat industry is hugely reliant on imported feed ingredients and feedstuffs. Many of the feed ingredients including vitamins, methionine, lysine and other feedgrade amino acids, coccidiostats, antibiotic growth promoters, electrolytes and phosphates are totally indispensable. Among the feedstuffs, soybean meal is the prime example, with importations in the order of 750,000 tonnes annually.Thus, locally sourced dietary components are essentially confined to wheat, sorghum, canola meal/seed and limestone.The inclusion of soybean meal in livestock production has been a debatable topic in recent years globally. The key argument focuses on land clearing and deforestation in South America and their impact on biodiversity and climate change. While biodiversity and climate change are both important challenges to address, such debates often overlook the balance between equality, sustainability, welfare and economics (Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, 8, 10, 13, 15), the fact that soybean meal is a by-product of the human food and biodiesel industries and the impact of urbanisation on farmland and the subsequent effect of farm relocation on land clearing.For example, Western Sydney, where the authors are based, lost 9 percent of its primary production land from 2016 to 2021 and the worst-affected council areas during this period %u2013 The Hills Shire, Blacktown, Camden and Campbelltown %u2013 lost 43, 39, 26 and 19 percent respectively.Localising food production is crucial for food security %u2013 as demonstrated during the global pandemic %u2013 and for sustainability, as global food miles account for nearly 20 percent of total food system emissions.According to Grain Central, Australia harvested a record canola crop of 8.3 million tonnes in 2022-23 but has a canola crush capacity of only 1.2 million tonnes. This indicates that 86 percent of Australia%u2019s crop is exported as whole canola seed, particularly from Western Australia. Therefore, the prospect exists for the Australian chicken-meat industry to utilise far more locally grown canola and other protein-rich feedstuffs as substitutes for soybean meal in broiler diets. Such substitutions, coupled with the development of reducedcrude protein diets, are certainly not without their challenges as will be discussed. Nevertheless, they potentially have the capacity to reduce at least our reliance on expensive imported soybean meal to marked extents.The development of reduced crude protein diets is gaining more and more attention globally where soybean meal is partially replaced by non-bound synthetic or crystalline amino acids. 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