SOLID STATE FERMENTATION OF ORANGE PEEL: NUTRITIONAL AND PROTEOMIC APPROACH IN BROILERS

• Grant number: 24/21295-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: February 29, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Nutrition and Feeding
• Principal Investigator: José Roberto Sartori
• Grantee: Laís Garcia Cordeiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The use of processed agro-industrial waste in broiler diets aims to reduce costs and improve performance, health and meat quality. Orange peel, the residue from processing to obtain concentrate juice, has a high moisture and fiber content, which makes it difficult to include in poultry diets. With advances in bioprocessing techniques, it is possible to carry out solid-state fermentation, which results in a fermented product rich in bioactive compounds and biomolecules with antioxidant, immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties. These compounds, when used in poultry diets, reduce the harmful effects of heat stress. Thus, the use of this fermented waste can help in conditions of cyclical heat stress, by modulating the immune system, antioxidants and lipid and protein metabolism. Therefore, the aim of this research is to evaluate the effect of including fermented orange peel (FOP) in solid state in the diet of broiler chickens subjected to cyclical heat stress during their 42 days of life. For this purpose, 320 broilers will be housed and distributed in a completely randomized design in a 2 × 4 factorial scheme, with two climate chambers (TN: thermoneutral and HS: cyclic heat stress) and four levels of FOP inclusion (0.00; 0.30; 0.60; 0.90%), totaling eight treatments with ten replicates of four broilers each. Performance, blood biochemistry, blood count, plasma malonaldehyde concentration, relative weight and length of organs, antioxidant enzymes activity and proteome of liver tissue, in addition to the fermented orange peel characterization.