Metabolizable energy and standardized ileal amino acid digestibility of full-fat soybeans for broilers are influenced by wet-heating, expansion temperature, and autoclaving time.

The influence of wet-heating (WH) and expansion temperature (ET), and autoclaving time (AT) on the nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy (AME) and standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of AA in full-fat soybeans (FFSB) for broilers was examined in 2 experiments. The AME and SID AA of FFSB were determined by the difference and direct methods, respectively. In Experiment 1, raw FFSB (K0) were either treated by WH at 80°C for 1 min and expanded at 115°C (K1-115) or 125°C (K1-125), WH at 100°C for 6 min and expanded at 115°C (K2-115) or 125°C (K2-125), or WH at 100°C for 16 min and expanded at 115°C (K3-115) or 125°C (K3-125). Wet-heating and ET significantly (P < 0.001) increased the AME in FFSB. Among heat-treated FFSB, K1-115 and K1-125 resulted in the lowest and highest AME values, respectively, with all samples wet-heated at 100°C being intermediate. The K3-125 had AME values similar (P > 0.05) to K1-125. Among heat-treated FFSB, the highest average SID AA was recorded for K3-125. In Experiment 2, K3-125 from experiment 1 was divided into 9 batches and autoclaved at 110°C for 15 (Z1), 30 (Z2), 45 (Z3), 60 (Z4), 120 (Z5), 180 (Z6), 240 (Z7), 300 (Z8), and 360 (Z9) min. A quadratic (P < 0.01) pattern was observed for the effects of AT on AME. The AME was unaffected until 300 min AT and then declined at 360 min. The AT quadratically (P < 0.001) affected the average SID AA where the SID increased from K3-125 to Z1, plateaued to Z5, and then declined to Z9. In conclusion, the results demonstrated that WH at 100°C for 16 min followed by expansion at 125°C as the most optimal wet-heating and expansion processing, associated with the highest SID AA. Autoclaving at 110°C for 30 min enhanced energy utilization and AA digestibility in FFSB, suggesting that further advantages may be achieved by short-time autoclaving of previously wet-heated and expanded FFSB samples.