Strategies to identify and develop bioactive peptides in meat and bone meal

Summary

Meat and bone meal (MBM) consists of up to 50% protein, which may contain bioactive agents capable of increasing animal growth performance. Bioactive agents identified in MBM could be refined for optimal feeding strategies. In this exploratory study to search for
bioactive molecules in MBM, proteins of set molecular weight sizes were extracted from MBM sourced from low and high temperature rendering processors. These were then administered to broiler chicks to evaluate their effect on chick growth. When delivered to the
chicks in-ovo, no growth or weight benefit was observed. However, when fed to chicks in the first week post-hatch, proteins/peptides of <100kDa from MBM rendered at the lower temperature promoted increased chick-body and breast-weights. Pretreatment of the protein group with a protease did not generate any additional benefits.

In conclusion, the findings support proof of the principle that MBM contains growth-positive protein-derived bioactive agents. Additional investigations are now required to further fractionate this bioactivity to identify the bioactive proteins/peptides present and to determine whether they can be enriched and prepared as a feed supplement to benefit chick-growth.