Solving Problems That May Increase Use

Research in Scotland has identified a lectin in soybeans, soybean agglutinin, in electrophoretic profiles and immunoblots of dehulled solvent-extracted soybean meal, full-fat soybean meal and a aqueous extraction of feeds containing these soy products. A diet was developed containing an amount of pure soybean agglutinin similar to the level contained in feeds with high levels of the soy products. Fish fed this diet exhibited similar pathological disruptions of the intestinal tract that have been observed in fish fed diets containing sixty percent dehulled solvent-extracted soybean meal. Immuno-histochemistry assays revealed the binding of soy agglutinin to the enterocytes lining the intestinal villi in both fish fed a diet containing the pure soy agglutinin and those with a diet containing high levels of soybean meal. These results help to explain some of the production problems experienced with selected fish species when high levels of soy protein are included in the diet.

Buttle, L.G., and co-workers. 2001. The binding of soybean agglutinin (SBA) to the intestinal epithelium of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), fed high levels of soybean meal. Vet. Immunology and Immunopathology 80:237-244