The Health Benefits of Sorghum Grain for Poultry and Pigs

Abstract

Sorghum is the fifth most important grain crop after wheat, rice, maize and barley. Sorghum is cultivated for food and beverages for humans, and for feed and fodder for animals in America, Asia, Australia and Africa. Its crude protein content is higher than that of maize whereas its energy value is rated as high as that of maize. Sorghum tolerates poorer growing conditions than maize, so is more abundant in marginal regions, where it is used to feed humans and animals. Sorghum may confer some health benefits on consumers due to the nature of its carbohydrates but also the presence of other chemicals, which ordinarily are regarded as antinutrients in animal nutrition, e.g. polyphenols or tannins and polycosanols. When fed to humans, these factors may be beneficial. Tannins would reduce feed intake and digestive enzyme activities, to minimise weight gain while polycosanols, present in the waxy layer, are known to reduce the concentrations of low-density lipoproteins and improve cardiac function. Sorghum is also free from gluten and therefore useful for people suffering from coeliac disease. Some of these benefits are also noticeable in animals although could be negative to productivity. Sorghum is therefore not seen to be an ingredient for controlling animal health and its use as such has not received significant attention in animal nutrition. This chapter discusses the direct health benefits associated with feeding sorghum grains to poultry and pigs. It will also link changes in animal product quality to health benefits of the human consumer.