Practical Application of Guar (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba L. Taub) Meal in Poultry Nutrition

Guar is a very important legume crop in arid areas of Indian sub-continent. Over the world, India is known as the biggest producer of guar bean by contributing around 90% of the total production. Guar meal is defined as a guar gum by-product which has about 450 gram protein per kilogram. In spite having high protein content, guar meal is not known on a commercial scale but it has received substantial attention for animal feedstuffs. Trypsin inhibitors are the main anti-nutritive factor present in guar; however, these can be ameliorated with the uses of enzymes and heat treatment. Fluctuations in market prices of essential feed ingredients motivated poultry nutritionist to look for alternative valuable replacements for certain feeds. Based on the promising findings of guar meal inclusion in diets, it might be an acceptable feed ingredient in poultry feed. Guar meal can be fed up to 100 g/kg diet without adverse effects on poultry performance. Higher level of guar meal at150 g/kg can be detrimental for broiler and layer birds. Because of increasing the availability of guar beans, opportunities have been expanded for using guar meal as a partial alternative for soybean meal (SBM).The inclusion of guar meal in poultry diets canbe maximized by the addition of some feed additives such as β-mannanases. The present review article presents thatnutritional values of protein and amino acids of guar meal is similar to the SBM and seems to be an attractive feed ingredient in the poultry industry.