The nutritional values of a reduced-oligosaccharide soybean meal (RO-SBM) and conventional SBM (SBM) were evaluated and compared in four experiments. The first experiment was a TMEn assay with conventional roosters. The second experiment was a precision-fed cecectomized rooster assay that was conducted to determine TMEn and amino acid (AA) digestibility. The third experiment was a standardized ileal AA digestibility assay, in which broiler chicks were fed semi-purified diets containing 20% protein (from only the test ingredient) for 17 to 21 days of age and ileal digesta were collected on day 21. The fourth experiment was a growth performance trial (7 to 20 days of age) where broiler chicks were fed corn-SBM diets (adequate in all AA) containing 38.84% RO-SBM or SBM. In these experiments, the conventional SBM contained 51.9% crude protein and the RO-SBM contained 54.8% crude protein on a dry weight basis. The gross energy values for the two SBM lots were similar.

Results for the TMEn values in both conventional roosters and cecectomized roosters were significantly higher (P < 0.05) for RO-SBM compared to the conventional SBM (difference was approximately 200 kcal/kg of DM). Amino acid digestibility in cecectomized roosters was not different between the soybean meals, with the exception of tryptophan, alanine, aspartic acid, and cysteine (RO-SBM > SBM, P < 0.05). No significant differences between the soybean meals were found for AA digestibility in the standardized ileal AA digestibility assay. In the growth performance trial, the corn-RO-SBM diet had a significantly higher feed efficiency than the diet containing the conventional SBM (P < 0.001). These results indicated that the SBM with reduced oligosaccharide content contained higher ME compared to a conventional SBM, whereas, the amino acid digestibilities were similar.