Practical applications of agricultural wastes in poultry feeding in Mediterranean an Middle East regions. Part 2: Tomato, olive, date, sunflower wastes

Agroindustry wastes from tomato, olive, date and sunflower processing have valuable nutritional characteristics, and could be included in poultry rations to facilitate reducing feeding costs. By-products of tomato and olive processing can be supplemented in the diet of broilers and laying hens by up to 10% without detrimental effects on production, whilst improving the biochemical blood profile and enhancing the oxidative status of birds. Published research has shown that feeding sunflower and date wastes could be successfully added to diet at high inclusion levels (up to 30 and 40%, respectively) resulting in heavier broiler carcasses and increased number of eggs produced by laying hens. In this paper, applications of agricultural wastes and by-products in poultry feeding is reviewed, and the documented and novel findings related to their influence on poultry production, health and gut microbiota are discussed.